plane crash
Kremlin denies involvement in Prigozhin’s death
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (above) and Russian President Vladimir Putin recently had differences. photo
© -/AP/dpa
The head of Wagner’s private army, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is presumed dead. Russian involvement is suspected. Now the Kremlin is commenting on it.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has made allegations of involvement with the Kremlin in the alleged death of mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin dismissed.
“That is an absolute lie,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow. Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies that there was a lot of speculation about the plane crash that was “fueled in the West from a certain corner”.
The Kremlin has not yet confirmed Prigozhin’s death either. Peskov advised waiting for the results of the investigations, as Putin said the previous evening. “When the official results are ready to be released, they will be released.”
Was death intentional?
A plane crashed halfway from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Wednesday. All people on board perished. According to the passenger list, Prigozhin, head of Wagner’s private army, was also on the plane.
Two months earlier, he and his gunmen had mutinied against Putin and the military leadership. Allegations are made on the Russian Internet that the flight was sabotaged out of revenge. Western governments also do not assume a technical cause.
Peskow said he could say nothing about the future of the Wagner gunmen. According to Russian law, there is no private military company Wagner. Nevertheless, of course, the group existed. The shadow army was deployed in Syria and many African countries, and also fought openly in Ukraine.