The death of Yevgueni Prigojine was confirmed on Sunday August 27 by the Russian Investigation Committee after a genetic expertise delivered its results.
“As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular genetic examinations were carried out. Based on their results, the identities of the ten dead have been established, they match the list shown on the flight sheet,” the committee wrote in a statement picked up by the Tass news agency. Russian Civil Aviation confirmed on Wednesday that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s name was on the list.
The private jet carrying the leader of the Wagner group and his close guard crashed late Wednesday afternoon in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, killing ten people, including Yevgeny Prigojine and his right arm, Dmitry Utkin, ex-officer of a special military intelligence unit and operational commander of Wagner.
For its part, the Kremlin denied having ordered the assassination of Yevgeny Prigojine, calling these insinuations “speculations”. Referring to the investigation, Vladimir Putin promised him Thursday that it would be conducted “in its entirety” and that it would lead to a conclusion. By decree, the Kremlin also ordered the paramilitaries to take an oath of “loyalty” to Russia, two months after their attempted military coup, which they had dubbed “march for justice”.
“The enemies killed him”
Moscow’s closest ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, backed the Kremlin by saying it “cannot imagine” the Russian president giving the order to assassinate Wagner’s boss. For their part, Westerners have pointed the finger at the Russian head of state, two months after the aborted rebellion of Wagner’s boss, but without providing evidence at this stage.
In France, the spokesman for the French government estimated Thursday that there were “reasonable doubts” on “the conditions” of the air crash whose boss of the paramilitary group, at the origin of a rebellion in June in Russia, would be one of the victims
Since the plane crash, residents of various Russian cities where the Wagner group had its training centers, from Novosibirsk (western Siberia) to Saint Petersburg (north-west), have come to lay flowers on improvised memorials in Evguéni Prigojine, a sign of the warlord’s popularity with some. “The enemies killed him (…), but we hope that revenge will reach those who committed this crime,” one of Prigozhin’s supporters told reporters on Sunday, who came to a makeshift memorial in Moscow, covered in flowers.
