2023-08-27 13:42:44
Russia officially confirmed on Sunday, “following genetic expertise”, the death of the boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Evguéni Prigojine, whose plane crashed on Wednesday raising suspicions abroad. an assassination.
The private jet carrying Prigojine and his close guard crashed late Wednesday afternoon in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, killing ten people.
At the end of “molecular genetic expertise” which took several days, it was established that the identities of the ten victims “correspond to the list” of passengers and crew members of the plane, the Committee announced on Sunday. Russian investigation in a press release.
Yevgeny Prigojine and his right arm, Dmitri Utkin, ex-officer of a special military intelligence unit and operational commander of Wagner, appeared on this list.
The boss of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigojine (D) and Russian President Vladimir Putin, September 20, 2010 in Saint Petersburg
SPUTNIK/AFP/Archives
The investigators have not said anything for the time of the tracks examined, evoking neither the thesis of the accident, nor that of a bomb, a surface-to-air missile or a pilot error.
For their part, Westerners have pointed the finger at the Russian head of state, two months after the aborted rebellion of Wagner’s boss, but without providing evidence at this stage.
“Many Enemies”
For its part, the Kremlin has denied having ordered the assassination of Yevgeny Prigojine, describing these insinuations as “speculation”.
Moscow’s closest ally, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, backed the Kremlin by saying it “cannot imagine” the Russian president giving the order to assassinate Wagner’s boss.
Referring to the investigation, Vladimir Putin promised him Thursday that it would be carried out “in its entirety” and that it would lead to a conclusion.
Passers-by pay their respects to the leader of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigojine on an improvised memorial, in Moscow, on August 27, 2023.
AFP
Since the plane crash, residents of various Russian cities where the Wagner group had its training centers, from Novosibirsk (western Siberia) to Saint Petersburg (north-west), have come to lay flowers on improvised memorials in Evguéni Prigojine, a sign of the warlord’s popularity with some.
“The enemies killed him (…), but we hope that revenge will reach those who committed this crime,” one of Prigojine’s supporters, who came to this memorial, told the press on Sunday.
Prigozhin and Utkin “will remain in our history as true heroes, as an example of what kind of person to be”, added this man dressed in a T-Shirt adorned with a large letter “Z”, symbol of the Russian operation in Ukraine.
Errors”
Vladimir Putin had called Yevgeny Prigojine, whom he had known since the 1990s, a “traitor” because of his armed rebellion on June 23 and 24, directed against the Russian general staff and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who saw Wagner’s men briefly capture military sites in southern Russia before moving on to Moscow.
A flag stamped with the logo of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, on August 24, 2023 in Novosibirsk
AFP
He spoke on Thursday evening, after 24 hours of silence, of a “talented” man who had made “mistakes”, and also praised the role played by Wagner on the front in Ukraine.
Yevgeny Prigojine had given up his mutiny after an agreement which provided for his exile with his men in Belarus and the abandonment of the proceedings.
However, he continued to visit Russia and was received at least once in the Kremlin in June.
In Ukraine, Wagner had distinguished himself during the long and bloody battle for Bakhmout, in the East, captured in May at the cost of heavy losses.
Excerpt from a video posted on May 25, 2023 on the Telegram account of the press service of Concord, a body linked to Wagner, showing the leader of this mercenary group Yevgeny Prigojine in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine
TELEGRAM/ @concordgroup_official/AFP/Archives
Wagner, who left Ukraine after his rebellion, remains active in Africa but his future is now up in the air. Wherever it has been deployed, this group is accused of abuses, extrajudicial executions and torture.
1693147158
#Russia #officially #confirms #death #Prigozhin #boss #Wagner #TV5MONDE