Russian authorities have confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder and leader of the Wagner mercenary group that tried to lead a rebellion against the Russian military, was killed in a fiery plane crash outside Moscow last week.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement Sunday that forensic and genetic tests identified all 10 bodies recovered from Wednesday’s crash site and determined they belonged to those listed in the flight log.
Prigozhin, 62, and several of his top lieutenants were listed in the flight log as passengers and crew on the plane, which went down less than 30 minutes into the journey and there were no survivors.
The plane caught fire on impact, officials told state-run TASS media, which has been accused of spreading Russian propaganda during the Ukraine war.
Sunday’s statement did not offer any details about what may have caused the crash.
The crash came just two days after Prigozhin shared his first video address since his failed coup attempt two months ago. During the June 24 incident, Prigozhin led his mercenaries toward Moscow in an armed uprising before stopping them about 100 miles short of the capital.
The move, condemned by Russian President Vladimir Putin as “treason,” led to Prigozhin’s exile to Belarus.
Although he was considered a “traitor” following the coup attempt, Putin’s statement labeled Prigozhin a “talented businessman” who had made “serious mistakes” and had a “difficult fate.”
Who is the head of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Russian President Vladimir Putin praised mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin as a talented businessman following the plane crash that apparently killed him.
Prigozhin is the owner of the private military contractor Wagner Group.
Prigozhin planned to arrest the top Russian military officers during his coup attempt.
Flames engulf plane after crash.TELEGRAM/ @grey_zone/AFP via Getty Images
Prigozhin and his mercenaries did not face charges and were instead exiled despite leading an armed rebellion against the Kremlin.
Prigozhin began his career as a petty criminal – he was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981 and served 12 years in prison.
The location where the plane crashed.
He criticized Russia’s Defense Ministry as incompetent and accused it of withholding weapons and ammunition from its troops, who are fighting on behalf of Russia in Ukraine.
Prigozhin has been indicted in the United States for meddling in the 2016 presidential election through his infamous internet “troll factory”.
READ MORE
“It’s always a tragedy,” Putin said of his former ally in televised comments Thursday. “I have known Prigozhin for many years, since the early 1990s. He is a man with a complicated background.”
“He made a serious mistake in his life and he reached the necessary decision, both for himself and, when I asked him, for common purposes, as in the past few months,” he added.
The Russian leader also expressed his condolences to the other Wagner fighters who died in the fiery crash.
“Of course, if they are there and, according to preliminary information, employees of the Wagner Company are on board, I would like to note that those people made a great contribution to our common goal of fighting the Nazi regime in Ukraine,” Putin said.
Prigozhin’s short-lived rebellion was the biggest threat to the strongman’s grip in decades, and fueled speculation that Putin had masterminded the plane disaster, which US officials believe was caused by an explosion on board.
With Postal wire
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
