MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s most powerful mercenary, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was on board a plane that crashed Wednesday night north of Moscow without survivors, two months to the day he led a failed mutiny against the army, Russian authorities said. copper top.
There was no official comment from the Kremlin or the Defense Ministry on the fate of Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group of mercenaries who declared himself an enemy of the army leadership over what it said was an incompetent prosecution of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
But a channel on the Telegram application linked to Wagner, Gray Zone, announced his death and praised him, describing him as a hero and a patriot, which it said died at the hands of unknown people, whom it described as “traitors to Russia.”
Amid frantic speculation and a lack of verifiable facts, some of his supporters have pointed the finger at the Russian state. and others in Ukraine, which was due to celebrate its Independence Day on Thursday.
One of the buildings housing Wagner’s offices in St. Petersburg lit up its windows after dark in such a way as to show a giant cross in a sign of respect and mourning.
Prigozhin’s death would leave the Wagner Group, which infuriated President Vladimir Putin in June by staging a failed armed revolt against senior military officers, without leadership, raising questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere.
Whoever or whatever was responsible for the accident, his death would also rid Putin of the person who has posed the most serious challenge to the Russian leader’s authority since he came to power in 1999.
A Wagner co-founder is also on board
Russia’s aviation agency Rosavyatsia released the names of all 10 people on board the downed plane, including Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, his right-hand man who helped found the mercenary group and bore the call sign “Wagner”.
Russian investigators said they had opened a criminal investigation to determine what happened. Some unnamed sources told Russian media that they believe the plane was shot down by one or more surface-to-air missiles. Reuters was unable to confirm this.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry said the plane, which was en route from Moscow to St Petersburg, crashed near the village of Kozkino in the Tver region.
US President Joe Biden said: “I don’t know what really happened. But I’m not surprised… There isn’t much going on in Russia that Putin hasn’t left behind, but I don’t know enough to know.” the answer.”
Abbas Galliamov, a former Putin speechwriter-turned-critic who has been dubbed a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities, suggested the Russian leader, who is expected to run for another term in office next year, was behind the incident and consolidated his power in 2018. the operation.
“The establishment is now convinced that it will not be possible to oppose Putin,” Galliamov wrote on Telegram. “Putin is strong enough and capable of revenge.”
Bill Browder, a businessman with years of experience in Russia and another critic of the Kremlin, agrees.
“Putin never forgives or forgets,” Browder wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “He looked like a weak and offended person as Prigozhin runs around without a care in the world (after the rebellion). This will only consolidate his power.”
The second plane is attached to Prigozhin
Shortly after the plane descended into the sky, a second private plane linked to Prigozhin, apparently also bound for St. Petersburg, Prigozhin’s main base, turned back to Moscow, flight tracking data showed, and later landed.
Prigozhin, 62, led the rebellion against top Russian military commanders on June 23-24 that Putin said could have pushed Russia into civil war. Wagner fighters shot down Russian attack helicopters during the revolt, killing an unconfirmed number of pilots in a move that angered the military.
He has also spent months criticizing the way Russia is conducting its war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a “special military operation”, and has tried to overthrow Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Many Russians wondered how he had managed to get away with such brazen criticism without consequences.
The rebellion was brought to an end by an apparent Kremlin deal that saw Prigozhin agree to move to neighboring Belarus. But in practice he appeared to be moving freely within Russia after the agreement reportedly guaranteed his personal safety.
Prigozhin posted a video address on Monday that he said was taken in Africa and shown at a Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg in July.
According to unconfirmed Russian media reports, Prigozhin and his companions attended a meeting with officials from the Russian Defense Ministry.
Reuters could not confirm this, and there was no confirmation from the Ministry of Defense.
Flightradar24’s tracking website showed that the Embraer Legacy 600 (Aircraft Number RA-02795) carrying Prigozhin disappeared from radar at 6:11 p.m. (1511 GMT). An unverified video clip, spread on social media, showed a plane resembling a private plane falling from the sky towards the ground.
Another unverified video showed the plane’s wreckage still smoldering on the ground. At least one dead body has surfaced. TASS reported that rescuers recovered seven bodies from the scene.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborne, Max Rodionov and Mark Trevelyan; Reporting by Mohamed for The Arabic Bulletin) Writing by Andrew Osborne, Editing by Grant McCall
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