He’s Taking it Well: Wagner Boss Vows to Rip Macron’s Teeth Out with Pliers After Terrorist Labelling

The belligerent boss of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group threatened on Wednesday to pull out the teeth of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Following a move from the French parliament to designate the paramilitary Wagner group as a terrorist organization and call on the EU to follow suit, Yevgeny Prigozhin issued a direct threat to French President Macron.

“We can pull out rotten teeth from those bad mouths with pliers,” Prigozhin said in comments reported by POLITICO. “We can pull out Macron’s teeth and, generally, everyone’s teeth who spill pathogenic filth (about Wagner).”

The Wagner chief went on to claim that his group of mercenaries was saving people in Central Africa from French soldiers, whom he claimed: “simply mocked them.”

While Wagner is most widely known in Europe for its role in Ukraine, where it is currently waging a bitter battle over the city of Bakhmut, however, it has in recent years expanded its operations in the Middle East and Africa, where the French military has traditionally held sway — though this has recently come in decline.

Explaining the rationale behind the move to label the organisation, which has been accused of war crimes in Ukraine, as a terrorist group, parliamentarian Benjamin Haddad of President Macron’s Renaissance party said: “They aren’t just mercenaries, there’s a will to massacre civilians for political gain… to destabilize institutions.”

The move from the French parliament comes amid reports that the United Kingdom is preparing to officially proscribe Wagner as a terrorist organisation. Given that British financial institutions have long been accused of colluding with Russian oligarchs, the prescription could have significant ramifications on Wagner’s ability to raise money on the world stage.

Prigozhin has a history of making not-so veiled threats over the possibility of his mercenary group being labelled as terrorists, with the Wagner boss sending a sledgehammer smeared with fake blood to European politicians last year who called for the designation in the EU Parliament.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka