Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin alluded to threats to his safety in a video which appears to have been filmed days before he died in a plane crash.
"For those who are discussing whether I am alive or not... everything's OK," he says in the short clip on Telegram.
The Russian mercenary leader was buried at a funeral in St Petersburg on Tuesday, according to his press team.
Prigozhin and nine others were killed in the crash near Moscow on 23 August, which led to frenzied speculation.
The Wagner boss was described by many as a "dead man walking" after he led a failed mutiny in June, during which his fighters took control of a Russian city and marched towards Moscow.
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