Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a failed mutiny against the Kremlin in June, has died in a “plane crash,” Russian authorities claim. Prigozhin, an ex-convict turned billionaire, was to leave for Belarus as part of an amnesty deal offered by President Vladimir Putin to him and his mercenary force.
While thousands of his armed fighters arrived in Belarus, Prigozhin did not leave Russia — raising questions about President Putin’s real intentions regarding his former confidant.
Prigozhin’s private jet, en route to St. Petersburg, reportedly crashed some hundred miles north of Moscow. “The Embraer business jet crashed in the Tver Region near the settlement of Kuzhenkino. According to preliminary data, all 10 people on board the plane have died,” Russian state news agency TASS reported Wednesday. Wagner chief’s “plane showed erratic flight altitude shifts before the crash,” the news agency added, citing flight data.
President Vladimir Putin attended a concert in the Russian city of Kursk when the news broke out and made no public comment.
The Associated Press reported Thursday:
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and top officers of his private Wagner military company were presumed dead in a plane crash that was widely seen as an assassination, two months after they staged a mutiny that dented President Vladimir Putin’s authority.Russia’s civil aviation agency said that Prigozhin and six top lieutenants were on a business jet that crashed Wednesday, soon after taking off from Moscow, with a crew of three. Rescuers found all 10 bodies, and Russian media cited sources in Prigozhin’s Wagner company who confirmed his death.Police cordoned off the field where the plane crashed a few hundred kilometers (miles) north of Moscow, as investigators studied the site. Vehicles were seen driving in to take the bodies for forensic examinations.At Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, lights were turned on in the shape of a large cross. Prigozhin’s supporters brought flowers to the building in an improvised memorial.
Meanwhile, fighters and supporters of Prigozhin were seen mourning his death by laying flowers outside the Wagner headquarters in St. Petersberg. In June, the Wagner chief had received a hero’s welcome from the residents when he took the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and began his ‘march to Moscow,’ claiming that he was going to purge the Russian military leadership whom he blamed for the blunders in the Ukraine war.
The Wagner group did most of the heavy lifting in taking the fortified Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Prigozhin made expletive-laden videos slamming Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and military generals for holding back ammunition as his mercenary force was being decimated on the battlefield.
At the height of the Battle for Bakhmut, the Wagner group’s strength rose to 50,000, with half of them fighting in Ukraine. The mercenary outfit operates across the globe, ranging from acting as a proxy fighting force in Syria to securing Russian economic interests in Africa. The Wagner mercenaries are currently training the Belorussian military, reigniting long-standing fears that Russia could open a second front on Ukraine’s northern front.
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