Russian authorities have admitted that notorious Wagner regiment boss and potential Vladimir Putin successor Yevgeny Prigozhin could be assassinated.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, nicknamed 'Putin's chef', said he was told that Volodymyr Zelenskyy and CIA director William Burns were cooking up plans to have him taken out.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed these fears, saying the Wagner Group chief could be at risk.
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He said: "This is more of a question for the special services.
"But as for assassination attempts, Ukraine is involved in both assassination attempts and an absolutely monstrous murder.
"Let's remember the assassination attempts that took place. Let's remember the murder of [Daria] Dugina and so forth.
"The involvement of the Kyiv regime in such assassination attempts is obvious, so there is such a danger to our citizens."
'Putin's Brain' Alexander Dugin watched as his daughter Darya Dugina was killed instantly after a car bomb exploded near a village on the outskirts of Moscow in August.
Prigozhin began sizzling sausages soon after his release from a Soviet penal colony in 1990, following nine years behind bars for robbery and assault.
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His private military organisation, the Wagner Group, are estimated to have 50,000 mercenaries fighting for Russia in Ukraine, which has boosted his power inside the Kremlin.
He has also amassed a personal fortune through his various business ventures, though it is his relationship with Putin which has helped his rise to the top.
Prigozhin was sentenced to imprisonment in 1981 but was released amid the fall of communism nine years later and began selling hot dogs on the streets of his home city St. Petersburg. From there he managed to open his own convenience store before branching out with a chain of restaurants, though is thought to still have been involved in various criminal activities.
According to The Sun, it was at one of his restaurants that he first came across Putin in 1996. Russia's future leader enjoyed the food laid on by Prigozhin so much that the former convict was soon nicknamed 'Putin's chef'.
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