Actually he was bluffing - it worked.
Nothing worse then willy pete. Thought that was against the Geneva convention on major population centers.
Actually, I think he cracked. He is just a civilian acting like a bigshot with no military background at all. Last I heard, but nothing official yet, Wagner is going into R&R and being replaced by regular Russian troops, but that Chechen guy, Kadyov wants a piece of the action there, too.