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Russian authorities officially confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, four days after the accident, saying that genetic testing of the body recovered from the crashed plane confirmed his identity.
The Russian Federal Investigative Committee (SK) said that all 10 people who died had been identified and matched the list of passengers on board.
Prigozhin’s private plane en route to St. Petersburg crashed in an area northwest of Moscow on the 23rd, killing all on board.
A Kremlin spokesman denied that the Kremlin was involved in the incident.
The investigative committee, which is continuing the criminal investigation, said in a statement that “genetic analysis (of the body) has been completed.”
“As a result, the identities of all 10 of the dead have been confirmed, and they match the list of passengers.”
The ‘Wagner Group’ is a Russian private mercenary company established by Prigozhin in the past and conducting military operations in Ukraine, Syria, and Africa. Greetings were included.
Also on board the ‘Embraer-135’ were Wagner figures such as Valery Chekalov, Sergei Propustin, Yevgeny Makarian, Alexander Totmin, and Nikolai Matuseev.
Others killed were pilot Alexei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.
The plane crash, meanwhile, comes two months after Prigozhin led Wagner’s mercenaries against Russian forces, occupied the southern city of Rostov and threatened to advance on Moscow.
Afterwards, negotiations were concluded between Prigozhin and the Kremlin, which ended the rebellion, and as a result, Prigozhin is said to have led his men and crossed to Belarus.
However, speculation continues that Russian security forces were somehow involved in the clashes, as Russian President Vladimir Putin was furious at the time of the uprising, describing it as “a stabbing in the back”.
U.S. CBS reported, citing U.S. officials, that an in-flight explosion was the most likely cause of the crash, and the U.S. Department of Defense also explained that Prigogine was most likely dead.
On the 25th, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed rumors of Kremlin involvement as “absolutely false.”
Previously, President Putin expressed his condolences to the bereaved family and referred to Prigozhin as “a competent person, but also made serious mistakes in his life.”
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2023-08-28 01:49:17
