Secret has surrounded the preparations for farewell to Evgeny Prigozhin until the last moment. The farewell to Wagner’s boss was held privately in a cemetery on the outskirts of his hometown of St. Petersburg.
“The farewell to Evgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those wishing to say goodbye can visit the Porojovskoye cemetery,” his press service said Tuesday in a short message on Telegram, accompanied by a photo of Prigozhin. The site was left under heavy police guard, with security forces lined up along the perimeter. Inside, according to local media, agents every 10 meters.
The Kremlin was keen that the event not become a big public show of support for Prigozhin, who was a key player on the Ukrainian front but highly controversial for speaking out about the shortcomings of the Russian military and its top officials. Traffic around different cemeteries was cut, creating huge traffic jams in various neighborhoods of Saint Petersburg.
The Kremlin had previously said that Vladimir Putin would not attend the funeral. Several countries have pointed to the Russian president as the main suspect, but the Kremlin spokesman has rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion that Putin ordered his death in revenge for the revolt.
In the Porojovskoye cemetery they informed the Russian media ‘Msk1’ that Evgeny Prigozhin was buried around 1:00 p.m.: “This is what the relatives wanted.” Prigozhin died in a plane crash on August 23, just two months to the day he staged a riot in the biggest internal challenge to Putin since he came to power in 1999.
Information about the funeral of Evgeny Prigozhin remained secret throughout Tuesday. The police helped by tightening security at several cemeteries at once. RIA Novosti confirmed, citing a source close to Prigozhin, that the funeral was held, according to the wishes of the relatives, only in his presence and with his closest friends.
Two other prominent Wagner figures, four of Prigozhin’s bodyguards and three crew members, were also killed when their private Embraer Legacy 600 plane crashed north of Moscow. During the day on Tuesday at the North Cemetery in St. Petersburg, they said goodbye to another of the passengers of the commercial plane and a senior manager of the Prigozhin network of companies, Valery Chekalov. There they expelled several cameras from the place with bad manners and threats.
During the day, the Russian media followed the entry of hearses through different cemeteries guarded by the police. State Duma deputy from the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party Vasily Vlasov was seen arriving at the Serafimovskoye cemetery. An employee of the Beloostrovsky cemetery commented during the day that “until Prigozhin is buried, the police will be in all cemeteries,” according to the ‘Fontanka’ media.
The very arrival of guests caused confusion. At noon two funeral vehicles parked in the North Cemetery. In the group of mourners were Prigozhin’s personal bodyguard, Sergei Plashchenko, who was lucky not to board the crashed plane last week.
Another funeral for Wagner will be held on Thursday at the Mytishchi cemetery in Moscow, a source from a funeral company told ‘MSK1.ru’. A strong police presence is expected because Dimitri Utkin, Wagner’s commander, will presumably be buried there. Like Prigozhin, Utkin was decorated as a Hero of Russia and is entitled to a cemetery like the one in Mytishchi, a commuter town north of the capital.
Prigozhin’s disappearance has not lessened the concern of neighboring countries. The governments of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have demanded that Belarus send the Wagner mercenaries based there out of the country, who on more than one occasion have suggested the possibility of marching towards Warsaw.