Staffers working for Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s network of propaganda outlets were forced to take lie detector tests, according to a new report. The independent media outlet Bumaga interviewed several former employees of publications that have been dismantled following Prigozhin’s chaotic mutiny late last month. Vladimir Yagudayev, who said he and a colleague had joked about the Wagner boss’ resemblance to Donald Trump just before he launched his insurrection, told Bumaga that a “psychiatrist from some former military structures” carried out polygraph testing, usually to determine if staffers had any sympathy for the Russian opposition. Another former staffer recalled employees being taken to a room where “security service specialists worked with them.” Another person who worked for one of Prigozhin’s most well-known outlets, RIA-FAN, said a man who identified himself as a former officer of the Interior Ministry’s criminal investigations department grilled him during his polygraph: “At a certain point I got the distinct feeling I was being interrogated.” Employees also described being closely watched, with one source saying, “They tracked the electronic passes, the cameras, and all recordings from the computer screens were transmitted to the security service.”
