Vladimir Putin has "signed his own death warrant" if he's behind the suspected dying of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Colonel within the British Army has mentioned.

A preliminary US intelligence evaluation has discovered that the airplane crash presumed to have killed Prigozhin was deliberately prompted - and it's was “very likely” he was focused and that the explosion is in keeping with the Russian President’s “long history of trying to silence his critics”.

The founding father of the Wagner navy firm and 6 different passengers have been on a personal jet that crashed on Wednesday quickly after taking off from Moscow with a crew of three, in accordance with Russia’s civil aviation authority.

A former US Ambassador to Russia has mentioned that he believes it's "likely" Prigozhin was assassinated on the orders of Putin, and that the dying may have "complex implications" for the Russian president.

And now a former British Army officer has mentioned that he believes mercenaries loyal to Prigozhin now pose a "real danger" to Putin.

Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon mentioned: "Putin has signed his dying warrant right here. He has upset the 2 strongest teams in Russia - the oligarchs who hold him in energy and the best combating drive Putin has ever put within the discipline, the Wagner Group."

Speaking to the Sun, Col de Bretton-Gordon mentioned the Wagner Group's mercenaries "are used to being paid a lot of money to carry out the will of Prigozhin". He added: "Now, there will be a vacuum."

"There at the moment are 5,000 weapons to rent. And in a humorous form of irony, any person else may rent them to go create mayhem in Russia.

"Prigozhin was a figurehead, however the true leaders inside Wagner will probably be on the lookout for a brand new money cow and if meaning killing Russians, then I'm certain they might don't have any qualms about doing that in any respect."

Col de Bretton-Gordon said the alleged assassination shows that "Putin is deluded and residing in his personal little world".

Meanwhile, Michael McFaul, US Ambassador to Russia between 2012-2014, says that the alleged assassination of Prigozhin is likely to have "advanced implications" - but analysts like himself cannot "state with readability the implications" his death will have.

Putin eliminated a threat - a charismatic leader who commanded thousands of trained soldiers. He also sent a strong signal of deterrence, as I wrote back in June, to future would-be coup plotters.

"At the identical time, we should always not overstate the upside of this assassination for Putin and his energy over the long term, particularly his skill to mission energy overseas. Most clearly, Putin has now weakened if not destroyed a key instrument for his energy projection abroad.

"In killing Prigozhin, Putin achieved a short-term victory of consolidating his power at home," mentioned McFauyl. "In the long term, however, the negative consequences for Putin’s ability to achieve his foreign policy objectives abroad, especially in Ukraine, could outweigh the short-term beneficial properties.