Yevgeny Prigozhin achieved results, but also made serious mistakes, Vladimir Putin said in his first statement about the plane crash in which the Wagner boss probably died.
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In the televised statement on Thursday, Putin called the plane crash a “tragedy”. He offered his condolences to the families of all those on board.
They then told the Russian president that “preliminary data” indicated that Wagner employees were on the plane. He recalled that he got to know Prigozhin already in the early 1990s.
– He was a man with a complicated destiny, and he made serious mistakes in his life. But he achieved the right results, the president claimed.
⚡️ Russian President Vladimir Putin on the plane crash in the Tver region:
💬 First of all, I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims.
This incident will be fully investigated.
🔗 https://t.co/0CZcxbIGxE pic.twitter.com/HQXyBEd5I2
— MFA of Russia 🇬🇧 (@MID_RF) August 24, 2023
Remains found
Putin’s statement is the closest the Russian regime has come so far to an official confirmation that Prigozhin is dead.
A private jet he used to use crashed on Wednesday. On the same day, Russian aviation authorities announced that Prigozhin and several other Wagner members were on the plane.
The remains of ten dead people are said to have been found, and there is no indication that anyone survived the plane crash.
In the televised statement, Putin also said that Wagner members contributed significantly to “our common cause” by fighting the “neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.”
– We remember it, we know it, and we shall not forget it, said the president.
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Failed Rebellion
The mercenary group Wagner previously played an important role in the Russian warfare in Ukraine. But at the end of June, Prigozhin and Wagner were behind an unsuccessful rebellion against the Russian defense leadership.
During the uprising, Prigozhin was referred to as a traitor by Putin. The rebellion nevertheless ended with an agreement in which Prigozhin and the Wagner soldiers were allowed to travel to Belarus.
Prigozhin’s plane crashed exactly two months after the attempted uprising. Just a few hours before the plane went down, Russian media confirmed that General Sergey Surovikin had been deposed as head of the Russian Air Force. He has been accused of having supported or known about the Wagner Rebellion.
Over the past few years, there have been a number of cases where critics of Putin have died under unclear circumstances, or been poisoned.
Suspect Putin
Investigators will investigate the circumstances surrounding Wednesday’s plane crash, Putin assures. He warns, however, that the investigation could take some time.
A large number of analysts believe that it may have been Putin himself who caused the plane to crash. Some claim it is surprisingly that Prigozhin was allowed to live as long as he did, after what almost appeared to be an attempted coup a few months ago.
Wagner himself claimed on Wednesday that Prigozhin’s plane was shot down by Russian government forces.
So far, it has not been confirmed that the Russian regime was involved, and Putin himself has not commented on the claim.
The US Department of Defense does not believe the plane was shot down, and unnamed US officials have instead launched a theory that an explosion may have been triggered on board.
More Wagner members
In addition to Prigozhin, Wagner top Dmitry Utkin was on board the plane that crashed, according to the passenger list.
He has been referred to as the group’s founder and the one who gave it the name Wagner.
Four other passengers are also believed to have been Wagner members, writes BBC. A seventh passenger, Valery Chekalov, is described as a businessman with close connections to Prigozhin. The news agency AP writes that he was Wagner’s logistics manager.
Three crew members also lost their lives in the crash.
After the crash, supporters of Wagner have laid flowers at the group’s headquarters in St. Petersburg. Russian state media have not had any extensive coverage of the fate of the Wagner summits, concentrating instead on the Ukraine war and Putin’s speech at the Brics summit in South Africa.
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