The Russian authorities informed this Wednesday that Yevgeny Prigozhinleader and founder of wagner groupwas aboard a plane that crashed while going from Moscow to Saint Petersburgand in which the 10 passengers died.
Prigozhin62, led an unsuccessful riot in June in the wagner group against the government of Vladimir Putinafter that private military organization was allied with the Kremlin in the invasion to Ukraine.
The circumstances of his alleged death fuel speculation about internal struggles around the power of the Kremlinan environment in which Prighozin he had been in recent years one of the most active and controversial agents.
Gray Zonea channel of Telegram which is believed to be linked to Prigozhinblamed for his death and that of his partner, Dmitry Utkinwho was also flying with him, to the action of “the traitors of Russia.”
What exactly is the Wagner Group?
He wagner group is a private army of mercenaries that has been fighting alongside the Russian regular army in Ukrainewhere it is estimated that it had tens of thousands of troops.
The group describes itself as a “private military company”. The Russian government took steps that were seen as an attempt to control it, and which were the root of the June riot.
Rich businessman with a criminal record, a Prigozhin he was known as the “Putin’s chef” because it provided catering services to the Kremlin.
It was in 2014 when Wagner began supporting pro-Russian separatist militias in eastern Ukraine and its troops are believed to have contributed to the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula to Russia.
Much shrouded in mystery and opacity, the group is believed to get its name from the radio code of its first commander on the ground, the now apparently dead utkin.
Before the war broke out in Ukrainethere were an estimated 5,000 combatants from Wagner, most of them veterans of elite regiments and Russian special forces. as own utkina soldier who hardened himself fighting in the service of Moscow in Chechnya.
Source: Ambito
