Prigozhin on passenger list: Video shows plane crash

The Telegram channel Gray Zone, which Prigozhin used, confirmed the death on Wednesday evening. An official confirmation was still pending. The aviation authority Rosawiazija announced, however, that his name was on the passenger list. According to preliminary information, all ten people on board died, the Russian civil defense said. The cause of the crash was not officially known at the time. Video footage allegedly shows the crash:

(Source: Reuters)

The Embraer Legacy aircraft was to fly from Moscow to St. Petersburg, where Prigozhin’s companies are based. It crashed in the Tver region near Kuschenkino, more than 200 kilometers from Moscow. On board were seven passengers and a crew of three.

Aimed launch?

Meanwhile, Prigozhin’s Telegram channel Gray Zone spread the version of a targeted shooting. The machine was shot down by anti-aircraft defenses over Twer, it said. The 62-year-old usually used the channel to distribute his videos. The claim of a shooting was not verifiable.

Gray Zone wrote that there were two planes from Wagner’s private army in the air. The second turned around on the flight to St. Petersburg and landed at Ostafyevo Airport south of Moscow.

Mutiny two months ago

Exactly two months ago to the day, Prigozhin mutinied with his Wagner private army against the Russian leadership, although the background to these events remains unclear to this day. During the advance on Moscow, the mutineers demanded that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Sergei Gerasimov be replaced. But Prigozhin also attacked President Vladimir Putin himself. The Kremlin chief called Prigozhin a traitor. The mutiny ended with the Wagner boss and thousands of his gunmen being able to go to Belarus.

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 was in prison himself and later made a career as purveyor to the Kremlin, hence his nickname “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.