Russian dissident Yevgeny Prigozhin dead after a plane crash outside Moscow: Wagner group
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian dissident Vladimir Putin labeled a “traitor,” is believed to have been killed when a private jet crashed outside Moscow Wednesday evening – less than two months after he led a mutiny against the Kremlin’s military top brass.
Prigozhin, the leader of the controversial Wagner paramilitary group, was on the passenger list of the Embraer aircraft that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, 60 miles north of Moscow, the TASS news agency said Wednesday, citing the Federal Agency for Air Transport.
“An investigation of the Embraer plane crash that happened in the Tver Region this evening was initiated. According to the passenger list, first and last name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was included in this list,” the agency stated.
Although it is unclear if Prigozhin boarded the flight, footage of the wreckage shows the last four digits of the aircraft’s registration number are 2795 — a match for the Wagner leader’s plane, which is RA-02795, CNN reported.
A Telegram channel linked to Wagner pronounced Prigozhin dead.
“But even in hell he will be the best! Glory to Russia!” read the message on Telegram, along with a photo of Prigozhin holding a comic book.
President Biden said he wasn’t surprised by the fatal plane crash that appeared to have a Putin enemy on board.
“I don’t know for a fact what happened. But I’m not surprised,” Biden told reporters. “There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak warned other enemies of Putin that “disloyalty equals death!” in an X, formerly Twitter, post.
“It is obvious that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own bestial terror,” Podolyyak wrote. “The demonstrative elimination of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russia’s elites ahead of the 2024 elections.”
Flight data indicates that a jet registered to Wagner that Prigozhin used previously took off from Moscow on Wednesday evening and stopped transmitting signals around 6:11 p.m. local time.
A second jet possibly linked to the Wagner Group chief landed safely in St. Petersburg at 6:19 p.m. local time, flight data indicates
There were 10 people on board the plane when it went down less than 30 minutes into its journey from Sheremetyevo Airport outside the Russian capital to St. Petersburg, officials told TASS.
The aircraft burst into flames on impact, according to the state-run agency, which has been accused of spreading Russian propaganda during the Ukraine war
Thus far, eight bodies are believed to have been recovered from the crash site.
Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin was also possibly on the doomed flight, the Wagner Group-affiliated Telegram channel Gray Zone said.
“Various sources” alleged that the jet was downed by Russian “air defense systems,” the channel added.
An unverified video of a jet matching the description of an Embraer Legacy 600 tumbling out of the sky was circulated online by the Russian outlet RIA Novosti.
The investigation into the crash is under the “personal control” of the governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudenya, according to TASS.
There is also a criminal investigation underway headed by the Russian Investigative Committee, CNN said.
The case is grounded in Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which includes violations of the operations of air transport, the outlet explained.
“All the necessary forensic examinations will be appointed, a set of investigative actions will be carried out to establish the causes of the crash,” the committee said.
Prigozhin had led his military group in a mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 24, marching toward Moscow before the effort was called off around 100 miles before he reached the capital and the troops agreed to turn around and head back to the front lines.
The crash comes just two days after Prigozhin, 62, shared his first video address since the aborted coup.
Who was Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as a talented businessman following the plane crash that apparently killed him.
Prigozhin was the owner of the private military contractor Wagner Group.
Prigozhin planned to capture the Russian military’s top officials during his attempted coup.
Prigozhin and his mercenary fighting force did not face charges and were instead exiled despite leading an armed insurrection against the Kremlin.
Prigozhin began his career as a petty criminal — he was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981 and served 12 years in prison.
He criticized the Russian Ministry of Defense as incompetent and accused it of withholding arms and ammunition from his troops, who were fighting on behalf of Russia in Ukraine.
Prigozhin was indicted in the United States for interfering in the 2016 presidential election through his infamous internet “troll factory.”
The unverified footage of the mercenary in camouflage toting an assault weapon appeared on Wagner Group-affiliated Telegram channels Tuesday.
“The Wagner PMC (private military company) makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa – even more free,” the oligarch said in the video, which included a phone number for recruits.
The video is believed to have been shot somewhere in Africa, as a plane linked to Prigozhin is thought to have landed in Bamako, Mali, on Sunday.
The Wagner Group was hired by a local military junta in Mali in 2021, after UN peacekeepers and French troops were expelled from the country.
Prior to the footage leak, Prigozhin had kept a low profile since the June 24 mutiny that threatened to usurp Russia’s military heads over their handling of the Ukraine war.
Wagner fighters have suffered heavy losses in the conflict, where they are leading the assault on Bakhmut.
While Prigozhin’s forces marched on Moscow, Putin denounced him as a “traitor.”
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a fragile peace deal between Putin and Prigozhin, who agreed to call off the march in exchange for pardons for himself and his troops.
Prigozhin also accepted going into exile in Belarus, though he was still in Russia as of July 6, the BBC reported.
With Post wires
