Sun 27 August 2023:
The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner paramilitary group, following a plane crash on Wednesday has been confirmed by formal genetic analysis, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said.
“According to their results, the identities of all 10 victims were established, they correspond to the list stated in the flight list,” the committee said.
Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of those on board the plane.
BELARUSIAN LEADER LUKASHENKO SAYS HE WARNED WAGNER BOSS TWICE TO ‘WATCH OUT’
Once a businessman with a catering empire friendly with Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin manoeuvred himself into a position so powerful that, as Russia’s war in Ukraine progressed, he could openly question his paymasters’ strategy.
The owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, the mercenary force that has fought some of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine – most notably the drawn-out pursuit of Bakhmut – the 62-year-old stepped into his most dangerous role yet this summer: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership.
Now, two months after his men’s attempted uprising ended in uneasy peace talks, Prigozhin is dead in a plane crash just outside of Moscow.
RUSSIA CALLS ACCUSATIONS IT KILLED WAGNER HEAD PRIGOZHIN AN ‘ABSOLUTE LIE’
‘The plane will fall apart in the air’: Prophetic video of Prigozhin sparks online discussion
A 40-second clip of an old interview in which Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said he would rather be killed than lie to his country and talked about a plane disintegrating in the sky unleashed a flood of online theorising on Sunday about his presumed death.
In the clip, from an interview originally published on April 29 with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, Prigozhin says Russia was on the brink of disaster because the defence establishment was gradually kicking out truth-tellers who refused to suck up to upper management.
PRIVATE JET CRASHES IN RUSSIA WITH WAGNER HEAD PRIGOZHIN ‘ON BOARD’
“Today we have reached the boiling point,” he said in the clip published on Grey Zone, Wagner’s Telegram channel. “Why am I speaking so honestly? Because I don’t have the right before those people who will live on in this country. They are now being lied to. Better kill me.”
“But I will not lie. I must say honestly that Russia is on the brink of disaster. And if these cogs are not adjusted today, then the plane will fall apart in the air.”
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
______________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
