Investigators combed through the wreckage of a plane said to have carried Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military group Wagner, when it crashed yesterday, leaving no survivors. This comes two months after he led a rebellion against the military leadership. Authorities have opened a criminal investigation, but there have been no official reports about the cause of the crash that occurred on Wednesday evening, nor is there confirmation of Prigozhin's death, aside from a statement from the aviation authority stating he was on board.
Neither the Kremlin nor the Ministry of Defense has commented on the fate of Prigozhin, 62, who had been critical of senior military leaders due to their alleged incompetence in managing the war in Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin made a statement online during a BRICS summit in South Africa attended by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Neither of them mentioned the plane crash that reportedly killed ten people.
However, Putin later praised Prigozhin, describing him as a talented businessman, and expressed his condolences to the families of those who died in the incident. He added in television remarks that it is essential to wait for the official investigation results regarding the crash that claimed the lives of all ten individuals on board, noting that the examination would take some time.
The private plane (Embraer Legacy 600), which took off from Moscow en route to St. Petersburg, crashed near the village of Kozhinki in the Tver region north of Moscow. A Reuters correspondent at the crash site on Thursday morning saw men carrying black body bags on stretchers. Part of the plane's tail and other fragments were scattered on the ground near a forest area where forensic investigators had set up a tent.
The news outlet Baza, which has good sources within law enforcement agencies, reported that investigators are focusing on a theory suggesting the possibility of a bomb or two being planted on the aircraft. Anonymous sources told Russian media that they believe the plane was shot down by one or more surface-to-air missiles. Reuters could not confirm either account.
Residents of Kozhinki reported hearing a loud noise before seeing the plane fall to the ground. The plane showed no signs of trouble before it descended sharply in the last 30 seconds, according to flight tracking data. A village resident named Anatoly mentioned, "It wasn't thunder; it was a deafening explosion, let's put it that way."
Flowers were laid and candles lit near the Wagner headquarters in St. Petersburg. A woman named Elena told Reuters in Moscow, "The first thing I believe is that this man committed the gravest crimes that a military person can commit. I think what guaranteed his safety was stopping what he had started. But he didn’t stop."
A man named Boris stated, "That man, in fact, was the master of illusions. Perhaps he is not dead. No one knows yet. They will not organize a funeral or show the body." The Gray Zone channel, linked to Wagner, announced Prigozhin's death on Wednesday evening, calling him a hero and a patriot who died at the hands of "traitors to Russia."
In the absence of confirmed facts, some of his supporters accused the state, while others pointed to Ukraine, which celebrated its Independence Day on Thursday. Regardless of who is responsible for the incident, Prigozhin's death would eliminate a figure who posed the most serious challenge to Putin's authority since he came to power in 1999.
Prigozhin's death would also leave Wagner without leadership, raising questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere. The group had previously riled Putin in June by organizing a failed rebellion against senior military officers. The Russian aviation agency (Rosaviatsiya) published the names of all ten individuals on board the crashed plane, including Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, his right-hand man.
Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Putin who became a critic of his policies, suggested without evidence that the Russian president was behind the incident. He wrote on Telegram, "The establishment is now convinced that it will no longer be possible to oppose Putin. Putin is strong enough and capable of revenge."
U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters he did not know what happened but added, "I’m not surprised. There’s not much that happens in Russia without Putin being behind it."
Prigozhin led a rebellion against the Russian military leadership on June 23-24, an uprising that Putin claimed would have plunged Russia into civil war. The rebellion ended with what appeared to be a negotiated settlement with the Kremlin, where Prigozhin agreed to relocate to neighboring Belarus. However, in practice, he seemed to move freely within Russia after the agreement. A videotaped message released on Monday was purportedly filmed in Africa but was later revealed to have been made at a Russian-African summit in St. Petersburg in July.
