A pro-Putin spin doctor who notoriously waved the skull of a ‘dead Ukrainian’ fighter on stage in a sickening stunt died today after he was shot in the head.
Igor Mangushev, 36, had been gravely wounded in hospital for several days after what his wife alleged was an act of ‘attempted murder’ on Russian-held territory.
He died around 6am from wounds sustained in the so-far unexplained shooting on 4 February.
The sinister ultranationalist campaigner and propagandist turned fighter was seen in sickening footage on stage in August brandishing the reported skull of an Azov fighter declaring: ‘We’re alive and this guy is already dead.
‘Let him burn in hell. He wasn’t lucky. We’ll make a goblet out of his skull.’
Pro-Putin activist Mangushev sain in his sickening rant: ‘We’ll make a goblet out of your skull’
The pro-Putin ultranationalist’s address came at an unconfirmed location at an unknown date
The shooting of Mangushev – aka Bereg – has been seen as a likely warning to his ‘associate’ Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Wagner private army and one of Vladimir Putin’s closest cronies.
This theory of a ‘proxy attack’ was voiced by leading Russian expert Mark Galeotti who said: ‘I think we can safely describe this as a hit.’
He said: ‘This could be a warning, or taking a pawn off the board, or a sign that Mr Prigozhin’s more thuggish rivals feel he is weakened enough that they can move.’
There was no immediate suggestion Mangushev was shot in a revenge act by Ukraine.
Today a Ukrainian source US Insider said: ‘Remember the sadist Mangushev, who performed with the skull of a murdered Ukrainian soldier from Mariupol?
‘So, he died. And they shot him with their own shot in the head.
‘This happened, of course, not at the front ….recently, Mangushev has collaborated with Prigozhin and Wagner PMC.’
Igor Mangushev claimed the skull belonged to an Azov regiment soldier killed in Mariupol
At the weekend, Mangushev’s wife Tatiana Azarevich, posted a video saying he had been struck down at close range away from the frontline.
She claimed he was not given adequate medical care, and that the Russian authorities had failed to investigate the shooting.
Doctors had told her ‘the shot was made at close range, at a 45 degree angle to the back of the head, from top to bottom’.
It was ‘attempted murder’ or an ‘execution’, she said.
Igor Mangushev is thought to have fought in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion
Russian ultranationalist fighter Igor Mangushev is pictured in fatigues
Ultranationalist Igor Mangushev is pictured in a Russian army ‘Z’ hat
She denied claims he was in the Wagner force – run by Prigozhin, but serving with the regular Russian army.
‘He is an active serviceman of the Russian Army, a captain of the 4th Brigade of the 2nd Army Corps of the 8th Army of the Russian Armed Forces,’ she said.
A video shows the pair on holiday in Lebanon in November.
Mangushev, 36, was the leader of a pro-Russian political movement with links to the FSB security service.
In his deranged rant in August, Mangushev declared: ‘Why can’t there be any reconciliation?
‘Ukraine must be de-Ukrainized. The Russian lands of Novorossiya must be returned back.
‘We are not at war with people of blood and flesh. We are at war with an idea — Ukraine as an anti-Russian state.’
In his Telegram channel, Mangushev openly called for the killing of civilians.
‘We will burn your houses, kill your families, take away your children and raise them Russians,’ he posted.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
