Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash last week was confirmed by Russian investigators, as speculation over a possible Kremlin-ordered execution continues to swirl.
(Bloomberg) — Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash last week was confirmed by Russian investigators, as speculation over a possible Kremlin-ordered execution continues to swirl.
DNA tests showed that all 10 passengers and crew listed as having boarded the private jet on Aug. 23 were killed, according to a statement on the Russian Investigative Committee’s website Sunday.
Prigozhin led a failed mutiny in June against Vladimir Putin’s military leaders that threatened the Russian president’s nearly quarter-century grip on power. The US has said the plane crash may have been an assassination approved by Putin himself, suggestions that the president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed as “an absolute lie.”
Russia Rejects US Claims Putin Likely Approved Prigozhin Killing
The jet, an Embraer SA Legacy 600, was cruising straight and level on course from Moscow to St. Petersburg until it suddenly began behaving erratically for a few seconds and then plunged, according to enhanced flight-track data from Flightradar24 earlier last week. Video from the scene showed the plane dropping from the sky.
Also on the jet were some of Prigozhin’s top lieutenants, including Dmitry Utkin, a former military intelligence officer and key figure in Wagner since its founding in 2014 to support a Russian-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, which laid the groundwork for the current war. Valeriy Chekalov, who was responsible for Wagner’s operational finances, was also on board, authorities said earlier.
Early US assessments indicated the jet may have been destroyed by a bomb on board in a hit that was likely approved by Putin, American officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The UK is also working on the assumption that the plane was brought down deliberately, although the exact cause of the crash is still not clear, an official there said.
Putin had denounced the June rebellion as “treason,” but Prigozhin had appeared to escape immediate retaliation by the Kremlin as his fighters came within 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow, killing at least 13 Russian pilots on their march, before dramatically turning back after a deal brokered by the president of neighboring Belarus.
Belarus Relocation
Some of the fighters, including Prigozhin himself, then relocated to Belarus. An unspecified number took up an offer to sign up with the Russian Defense Ministry’s forces.
Prigozhin popped up in Moscow within days of the failed mutiny, attending talks in the Kremlin with Putin in a shock to observers who’d expected the Wagner founder to face exile. In another apparent affront to Putin’s authority, Prigozhin was pictured mingling with African leaders at a Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg last month.
The mercenary group was also allowed to keep most of its extensive and profitable operations in Africa, where it played a key role in extending the Kremlin’s influence on a shoestring, sometimes offering military services in return for access to mineral resources.
In his first comments on the crash, Putin said on state TV Thursday that Prigozhin was a “talented businessman,” but one who “made serious mistakes in life.”
(Updates with details throughout.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.