2023-08-24 16:40:21
Putin carefully formulated that, according to initial findings, a plane carrying members of Wagner’s private army had crashed the previous evening. Wagner made an important contribution to the fighting in Ukraine that will not be forgotten. He called Prigozhin a “talented person” with a difficult fate who made “serious mistakes”.
At the same time, the businessman and mercenary leader has achieved results – for himself and for the common cause, he said at a meeting with the Russian head of administration in Donetsk, Denis Puschilin. Putin announced a comprehensive investigation into the crash. An official identification of the ten crash victims by the Russian authorities is still pending.
Investigations in the direction of bombs and shooting down?
According to its own statements, the Russian investigative committee responsible for serious crimes launched an investigation into “violation of air traffic safety regulations” on Thursday. The committee therefore sent a team of investigators to the crash site.
According to the news portal Basa, which is usually well informed from Russian security circles, the theory is being tested that one or two bombs could have been planted on board. Russian media reported, citing unnamed insiders, that the plane had been shot down. The United States is also apparently assuming an anti-aircraft missile was shot down, Archyde.com reported.
Putin has remained silent until now
Putin was in south-west Russia on the border with Ukraine at the time of the crash to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk during World War II. From there and also in his statements at the BRICS meeting in South Africa, to which Putin was connected again on Thursday, Putin did not comment on the incident.
Archyde.com/Alexander Ermochenko The head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin
Both Prigozhin and his deputy Dmitry Utkin were “on board the plane,” the Russian aviation authority Rozaviatsiya said after the incident on Wednesday evening, citing the airline MNT-Aero. The Russian state news agencies had previously reported, citing Rozaviatsiya, that Prigozhin’s name was on the passenger list. The Ministry of Disaster Management said there were no survivors.
First, a Telegram channel close to the Wagner group, which Prigozhin usually used to distribute videos, reported his death on Wednesday evening and quickly presented the murder theory as secure: “Prigozhin died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia,” the post said . “But even in Hell he will be the best!”
Accident site is guarded
According to a head of the rescue services quoted by RIA Novosti, eight bodies were found at the crash site by the evening. The Russian state news agency TASS later reported seven bodies recovered.
Confusion about second plane
Alleged videos of the crash were distributed in several Telegram channels connected to the Wagner Group – their authenticity could not be verified. Another alleged private plane that is assigned to Prigozhin and, according to flight data, was also on its way to St. Petersburg caused additional confusion on Wednesday. This reversed after the crash of the first plane and later landed in Moscow.
“The assassination of Prigozhin will have disastrous consequences,” influential Russian military journalist Roman Saponkov wrote in Telegram. “The people who gave the orders don’t understand the mood and morale of the army.” Prigozhin was popular with soldiers for his criticism of regular army leadership and some of his mercenaries’ successes on the battlefield.
Expert Mangott: “Suspected Murder”
The fact that a Telegram channel close to the Wagner Group reported Prigozhin’s death was seen by Russia expert Gerhard Mangott in the ZIB2 interview as proof of his death. The fact that the mutiny was able to take place was a sign of Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s weakness. “The alleged assassination today is probably evidence that Putin wanted to prove: ‘I’m not weak.'”
Political scientist on plane crash in Russia
Political scientist Gerhard Mangott speaks, among other things, about the plane crash in Russia, in which mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list, and whether the crash could have been an assassination attempt.
Zelenskyj: “Everyone knows who has something to do with it”
According to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Ukraine has nothing to do with Prigozhin’s alleged death. “Everyone knows who has something to do with it,” he told journalists, alluding to Kremlin boss Putin.
Immediately after the incident, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak said the plane crash was “a signal from Putin to the Russian elites” ahead of the 2024 presidential election. It means “Beware! Disloyalty means death.” Prigozhin “signed his own death warrant the moment he stopped 200 kilometers from Moscow,” Podoljak was quoted as saying by the German newspaper “Bild”.
Biden ‘not surprised’
US President Joe Biden was “not surprised” by the possible death of the Wagner boss. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said. He recently said with regard to the Russian mercenary boss that he had to be “careful”.
The EU did not want to comment on the situation for the time being. The reports of the plane crash had been seen, but the information was very difficult to verify, a spokesman said. “Hardly anything that comes out of Russia these days is credible.” The spokesman also declined to comment on the possible political consequences of the latest developments. “At this point, that would be pure speculation,” he said.
Schallenberg: Expected consequences
“We already said two months ago that it is to be expected that there will be consequences (as a result of the Wagner uprising, note)”, said Austria’s Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) in the ZIB2 interview. “Forgive and forget are not very strong qualities in the President of the Russian Federation.”
Schallenberg (ÖVP) on the war of aggression in Ukraine
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) talks, among other things, about the plane crash in Russia and whether there could be consequences after the revolt.
The exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya wrote on Twitter (X) that “criminal Prigozhin” would be “missed by no one” in Belarus. He was “a murderer” and “should be remembered as such”. In addition, “his death” may “dissolve the Wagner Group’s presence in Belarus and reduce the threat to our country and our neighbors.”
APA/AFP/Vladimir Nikolayev Flowers were also laid in front of the Wagner office in Novosibirsk
It was not until Tuesday that General Sergei Surovikin, who was regarded as the liaison of Wagner boss Prigozhin and who is said to have known about the uprising in advance, is said to have been deposed. According to Western experts, Surovikin has been de facto sidelined in recent months.
more on the subject
Putin deposes General Surovikin
Revolt started exactly two months ago
Exactly two months ago – on June 23 – Prigozhin (62) mutinied with his private army Wagner against the Russian leadership, although the background to these events is still unclear today. President Putin called him a traitor.
A day later, however, Prigozhin ended the uprising after mediation by the Belarusian head of state Alexander Lukashenko. He then offered him refuge in Belarus. For their part, Prigozhin’s mercenaries were given the choice of either going to Belarus, joining the regular Russian army, or returning home.
Both: APA/AFP/Telegram The recordings should show the crashed private jet
Video should show Prigozhin in Africa
Prigozhin’s fate was uncertain in the weeks that followed. On Monday he appeared in a video distributed by Wagner-related groups in online networks. In it he reported being in Africa. Against the backdrop of a desert landscape, Prigozhin said he was working to “make Russia even bigger on every continent and Africa even freer.”
The group of mercenaries he had built up first carried out unofficial special assignments for Russia in Syria and later also in several African countries. In the war of aggression against Ukraine, Prigozhin recruited prisoners from Russian prisons. The force suffered heavy losses in the fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Prigozhin accused the regular military leadership of incompetence and corruption.
Prigozhin himself was in prison and later became known as “Putin’s cook”. He is also said to have been the businessman behind the troll factories in St. Petersburg, which tried to influence western countries via social media.
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