In the plane that crashed in the Tver Oblast, 300 kilometers north of Moscow on Wednesday, not only the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was traveling, but also his partner, Dmitri Utkin. The authorities have not yet confirmed the identity of the remains found at the scene of the incident, but sources presume that both leaders are deceased.
But who was Utkin, the second in the Wagner group? When the group of mercenaries still moved in the shadows, it was assumed that one of its founders and leaders was Utkin, a former Russian soldier. Although the leader of the organization has always been Prigozhin, the former soldier was the second in command and one of the protagonists of the failed coup in June this year.
The former soldier participated in various wars led by Russia, including the invasion of Chechnya and Ukraine. He was also part of Wagner’s birth in 2014, when the group debuted in its operations by joining the offensive on Crimea that ended in Russian annexation. But, before that, the former officer was already an expert in the war.
Until 2013, he was an officer in the Special Forces of the Russian army, and in fact, he reached the position of lieutenant colonel. Two years later, the former soldier was received by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, where he was awarded the Order of Courage, a distinguished military decoration. Although Utkin has been recognized by the Russian government on several occasions, the former officer is a notorious neo-Nazi.
That said, the former officer is known for naming the group ‘Wagner’, after the famous German composer, and a favorite of Adolf Hitler. Through images posted on social networks, it can be seen that Utkin has tattoos on his chest and shoulders with the SS, a paramilitary group that was Hitler’s personal guard during his years in power. According to the sources, several Wagner members have displayed flags and symbols related to fascist movements in the past, showing their affiliation with neo-Nazi beliefs.
Utkin is sanctioned by the United States for being one of Wagner’s leaders and by the Council of the European Union, which considers him responsible for “serious human rights abuses committed by the group, including torture, executions, and extrajudicial killings.” In addition, both Wagner bosses were accused of mobilizing more than 5,000 mercenaries to Moscow in the failed attempt to topple the Kremlin.
Pending DNA results identifying the heads of the Russian organization, the United States and Ukraine have suggested that Putin was responsible for the attack. However, the security forces have not yet confirmed the identity of the remains or the cause of the incident.
