Is Prigozhin really dead? After a video message from the Russian President, at least the signs are growing – although Putin is not explicit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin indirectly confirmed the death of mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin in a video message. On Thursday he condoled to the family of the Wagner boss who was allegedly killed in a plane crash. However, he did not explicitly say that Prigozhin was dead. We’ll see what the investigators find out, Putin said.
Putin carefully formulated that, according to initial findings, a plane carrying members of Wagner’s private army had crashed the previous evening. “Regarding this plane crash, first of all I would like to express my sincere condolences to the families of all victims. It is always a tragedy,” Putin said, according to a post by Turkish journalist Ragıp Soylu on X, formerly Twitter.
“Man of Difficult Destiny”
The Russian President spoke in the past tense about the former head of the Wagner mercenary group and called Prigozhin a “talented person”. “He was a person with a difficult fate and he made serious mistakes,” Putin said. At the same time, the businessman and mercenary leader achieved results – for himself and for the common cause.
According to the Kremlin chief, Wagner made an important contribution to the fighting in Ukraine that will not be forgotten. In doing so, he used his propaganda narrative to justify the illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.
He announced a comprehensive investigation into the crash. This has already begun, but will take a while, he said at a meeting with Donetsk’s Russian head of administration, Denis Puschilin.
The plane crashed in the Tver region of Russia early Wednesday evening. According to the Ministry of Disaster Management, none of the ten occupants survived. The Russian aviation authority Rozaviatsiya stated that Prigozhin was on board the plane en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. However, the authorities did not formally announce the death of the Wagner boss, and the bodies have not yet been identified.
