The plane was flying from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, where Wagner’s headquarters are based
Moscow
A day after a plane crash that presumably killed Russia’s infamous mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and all other nine people on board, Russian President Vladimir was still silent on the incident on Thursday.
The crash on Wednesday evening took place exactly two months after Prigozhin led a rebellion against Moscow’s top military brass, in the biggest threat to Putin’s long rule.
Moscow opened a probe into violations of air traffic rules but investigators have been mute since, and speculation of a possible assassination is rife.
Ukraine denied involvement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying: “We have nothing to do with this situation, that’s for sure.”
“I think everyone knows who this concerns,” Zelensky said, in an apparent reference to Putin.
Moscow had still not officially confirmed the death of the 62-year-old warlord, saying only that he was listed as a passenger on the flight.
During the Wagner rebellion on June 23-24, Putin gave an address to Russians in which he called Prigozhin — once his ally — a “traitor”, and warned against “civil war”.
Prigozhin had spent months launching scathing attacks on the way Moscow led its Ukraine offensive before his 48-hour mutiny shook Putin’s rule.
Many were surprised when Moscow then dropped charges against Prigozhin and allowed him to go into exile in Belarus.
Some Western leaders questioned if the crash was an accident.
