Putin sends condolences to Wagner frontman's family, says he is in no rush to resolve matter
The Russian president spoke almost 24 hours after the incident involving an aircraft in which the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the mercenary group known as “Wagner”, appeared on the passenger list. Prigozhin, a former ally of the Kremlin leader, led a rebellion against his rule. So far, there is no official confirmation of his death.
Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin - Photo Reproduction/Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin/ Pool Photo, press office of Prigozhin via AP
The Russian president Vladimir Putin broke the silence this Thursday (24th) and in a statement broadcast by television channels in the country, he spoke about the tragic accident involving an aircraft that possibly killed the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozohin, on Wednesday (23). Putin also sent condolences to the family. The death, however, has not yet been officially confirmed by any authority so far.
Victims
After the news of the crash of a small plane on the outskirts of Moscow, local media reported that Prigozhin was on board the aircraft. Posteriorly, the Russian civil aviation agency confirmed that the leader of the Wagner group was registered in the passenger list and had boarded.
A Russian Aviation Agency reported that on the private flight, which made the route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, it carried both Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, the main commander of the Wagner organization, Valeriy Chekalov, who was allegedly responsible for the finances of the mercenary group, Yevgeny Makaryan, Sergey Propustin and Alexander Totmin, members of Prigozhin's personal security team, as well as cameraman Nikolay Matuseev. The crew consisted of Commander Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova. According to information from the Russian Emergencies Ministry, all 10 people on board the plane, including seven passengers and three crew members, died.
Plane crash
According to data available on Flightradar24, the Embraer Legacy 600 with identification RA-02795 disappeared from radar systems at 18:11 Moscow time. Until that moment, there were no restrictions on problems with the aircraft. However, in the last 30 seconds, a sudden drop occurred, as pointed out by the flight tracking records. Flightradar24 representative Ian Petchenik described this event as a "sudden vertical descent".
Restos del avión en llamas - Reproducción de fotografías/Ostorozhno Novosti/Disclosure/Reuters/Getty Images
In that period of about 30 seconds, the plane lost over 8,000 feet of its altitude cruising, which was at 28,000 feet. Petchenik commented that "whatever happened happened quickly". The accident took place in the vicinity of the village of Kuzhenkono, located in the Tver region, north of Moscow. Videos shared on social media platforms show a plane that resembles the private jet falling from the sky, as well as another unspecified video showing burning debris on the ground.
Video shared on social media
Investigations
According to international agencies, Russian investigators launched a criminal investigation after reports unconfirmed that a plane may have been shot down by missiles ground-to-air, however, agencies were unable to verify this claim. The exact cause of the crash remains unclear, but Prigozhin's supporters quickly blamed the Russian Ministry of Defense for involvement in his death. The Telegram channel called Gray Zone, with over half a million subscribers associated with Wagner, paid tribute to Prigozhin, portraying him as a hero and a patriot who reportedly lost his life at the hands of unidentified people, who were called "traitors to Russia".
On the still unclear cause of the plane crash, Vladimir Putin said that it is necessary to wait for the instructions of the investigators and stressed that he is not in a hurry to resolve the matter. Not to mention their recent falling out, Putin praised Prigozhin's business skills and said he had known him since the 1990s.
"(Prigozhin) was a person with a complicated destiny, and he made serious mistakes in life, but he also tried to achieve the necessary results, both for himself and at the time I asked him, for the common cause, as in these last months", declared the Russian president.
Both were previously solid allies, but grew apart after Prigozhin led an insurgency against the Russian government in protest against the lack of equipment and weapons for Wagner Group troops, which were fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine. After the Wagner Group uprising, which took place in June and lasted about 24 hours, Putin even branded his former friend a traitor in a public speech.
