In this image taken from video, smoke and flames rise from a crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Russia, Aug. 23, 2023.(AP Photo)
A private plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, the prominent figure behind the Wagner mercenary group in Russia, and nine other passengers crashed on Aug. 24 north of Moscow. There were no survivors. The plane crash comes just two months after Prigozhin led an unsuccessful mutiny against the army’s top brass. At the time, some wondered if President Vladimir Putin would find a way to eliminate Prigozhin.
Prigozhin is a former close confidant of Putin but is now a mercenary leader and outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine. In June 2023, he reportedly launched a failed rebellion to overtake Russia.
Prigozhin had been so close to Putin that his nickname is “Putin’s chef,” as he owns restaurants and catering companies that provide services for the Kremlin.
Prigozhin, known as Russia’s most powerful mercenary, was not only the head of the Wagner mercenary group but also a vocal critic of the Russian army’s leadership, particularly regarding their handling of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine.
Prigozhin, known as Russia’s most powerful mercenary, was not only the head of the Wagner mercenary group but also a vocal critic of the Russian army’s leadership, particularly regarding their handling of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has released no official statements regarding the crash.
Russia’s aviation authorities are investigating the crash of the Embraer Legacy 600, which dropped from the sky and burst into flames in the Tver Region near the settlement of Kuzhenkino shortly after 6 p.m. local time, CNBC reported.
Prigozhin’s body has been positively identified in a Russian morgue by a missing part of his finger on his left hand, an injury suffered. At the same time, he served time in a penal colony decades ago, the Daily Beast reported. The names of the other passengers on the plane have yet to be identified.
Experts say Prigozhin’s apparent death follows a pattern seen in Russia where dissidents and opposition figures often meet untimely and mysterious ends.
Prigozhin’s death rids “Putin of someone who had mounted the most serious challenge to the Russian leader’s authority since he came to power in 1999,” Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that his country’s government had “nothing to do” with a plane crash presumed to have killed Prigozhin.
“We had nothing to do with it. Everybody realizes who has something to do with it,” the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Zelenskyy as saying, according to Reuters.
In this image taken from video, smoke and flames rise from a crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Group, reportedly died when a private jet he was said to be on crashed on Aug. 23, 2023, killing all 10 people on board. (AP Photo)
