Although the Kremlin has asked to wait for the results of the investigation that is still underway, its spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, admitted on Wednesday that the plane crash in which the mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died a week ago could have been deliberate. It is the first time that the Russian presidency has recognized that the head of the Wagner Group could have been assassinated.
The “external action” against the plane as the cause of the plane crash is one of the hypotheses handled by the Investigation Committee, as the Russian media have pointed out. But it also handles other theories, such as pilot error or mechanical failure.
“Since the investigation has not reached a conclusion, I cannot formulate it precisely, but it is obvious that there are different versions, among which is the version – you know what it is – let’s say, a deliberate atrocity… So let’s wait for the results of our investigation,” Peskov told reporters at a telephone news conference.
Given the possibility that it was an attack, the Kremlin ruled out the possibility of international institutions participating in the investigation. “The investigation is in charge of the Investigation Committee of Russia (…) Therefore, in this case there is no possibility of an international investigation,” Peskov said.
The Center for Research and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents of Brazil (Cenipa) and the Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (EMBRAER), manufacturer of the plane, had expressed their willingness to participate in the investigation.
On August 23, Prigozhin was traveling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg after a trip to Africa, accompanied by senior members of his mercenary army, including his right-hand man, Commander Dimitri Utkin.
The plane, an Embraer Legacy, went down near the town of Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast, 300 kilometers northwest of Moscow.
On Sunday the Investigative Committee announced that forensic tests and DNA analyzes had been completed, and that these had confirmed the death of the head of the mercenary army and several of his lieutenants. This Tuesday, several of them were buried in Saint Petersburg amid great security measures and secrecy.
About Prigozhin’s funeral, which was held behind closed doors, it became known only after its completion. The remains of Wagner’s boss rest in the Porokhovskoe cemetery, outside his hometown of St. Petersburg.
The accident came two months after Prigozhin led his mercenaries in a mutiny against Putin’s top military commanders, during which they seized control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and advanced on Moscow before turning 200 kilometers from the capital.
The riot, which lasted 24 hours, ended thanks to an agreement between Wagner and the Kremlin in which the Belarusian president and Kremlin ally, Alexander Lukashenko, acted as mediator. That pact provided for the Wagnerites to leave Russia and go into exile in Belarus in exchange for not being prosecuted for the uprising.
The Kremlin has called suggestions by Western politicians and commentators that Putin ordered Prigozhin killed as revenge for his disloyalty as an “absolute lie.”
