The Kremlin has slammed accusations that it killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as an “absolute lie” – as US military chiefs warned that confirming the mercenary chief’s death would take some time.
Two days after a plane crash is believed to have killed the feared fighter, who led a rebellion against the Russian military, neither the Kremlin nor Wagner have officially confirmed the 62-year-old’s death.
Prigozhin, along with six other passengers and three crew members, were listed on the manifest of the doomed Embraer Legacy 600 jet.
There has been widespread speculation about the cause of the crash, but initial US intelligence reports suggested that the Wagner leader’s private jet was brought down by an explosion on board.
On Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov applauded Western insinuations that the plane was shot down on Putin’s orders.
“Now there is a lot of speculation about the crash of this plane and the tragic death of its passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov told reporters. “Of course, in the West, all these speculations are presented from a well-known angle.”
“All this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to be based on facts,” he added. “There are not many facts yet. They need to be established during the course of the investigation.”
Initial US intelligence reports suggested that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private plane had been brought down by an internal explosion, possibly killing the warlord and nine others on board. Reuters
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also criticized Biden Friday for saying earlier this week that he was not “surprised” that Prigozhin had been killed in a plane crash, noting that “there is not much that happens in Russia that Putin does not miss.”
Ryabkov said that such a statement shows Washington’s disregard for diplomacy.
“It is not for the US president, in my opinion, to talk about such a tragic event,” Ryabkov was quoted by the state TASS news agency as saying.
Meanwhile, President Biden’s top military commander, General Mark Milley, said that it would take some time for Western intelligence agencies to say for sure that Prigozhin was on the plane, the New York Times reported.
However, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff assured that although President Vladimir Putin’s government does not want to reveal what actually happened to the plane, he expects the truth to emerge sooner or later.
“Even in things like this, eventually you figure it out,” he told reporters Thursday, before adding, “I can assure you that, as far as I know, the United States has nothing to do with any of this.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said it will take some time to confirm Prigozhin’s death.ZUMAPRESS.com
If Prigozhin is confirmed killed, Milley said his death would reverberate around the world in places where the Wagner Group has been active, including several African countries.
“If Wagner’s leadership is killed suddenly, there will be consequences,” he said. “What effect that has, I don’t know yet.”
Milley later echoed Biden’s words, saying he was not surprised by the Russian warlord’s death, just two months after he led a short-lived rebellion against his country’s military leadership that challenged Putin’s rule.
“Prigozhin may be at a certain level of risk because of the uprising that took place two months ago,” Milley said.
Putin on Thursday offered his condolences to the families of the 10 people presumed dead in the crash, among them Prigozhin, whom he praised as a “talented businessman” – after publicly labeling him a “traitor” during the June uprising.
Asked on Friday if the Russian president planned to attend Prigozhin’s funeral, Kremlin representatives hedged.
“There is no date for the funeral yet, it is impossible to talk about it at all,” Peskov said, again citing ongoing investigations and pending tests. “The only thing I can say is that the president has a pretty busy schedule at the moment.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
