ldnhePutin delivers mixed tribute to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin after
deadly plane crashne
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[August 25, 2023]
By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences
to the family of Yevgeny Prigozhin on Thursday, breaking his silence
after the mercenary leader's plane crashed with no survivors two months
after he led a mutiny against army chiefs.
Putin's comments, which suggested he harbored decidedly mixed feelings
about Wagner's mercenary boss, were the most definitive yet on
Prigozhin's fate. Before he spoke, the only official statement had come
from the aviation authority which said Prigozhin had been on board the
downed plane.
Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have
not yet said what they suspect caused the plane to suddenly fall from
the sky northwest of Moscow on Wednesday evening.
Nor have they officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies
recovered from the wreckage.
U.S. officials told Reuters that Washington is looking at a number of
theories over what brought down the plane, including a surface-to-air
missile.
The U.S. Department of Defense on Thursday said there was currently no
information to suggest that a surface-to-air missile took down the
plane.
The presumed death of Prigozhin leaves Russian President Vladimir Putin
stronger in the short term, removing a powerful figure who launched a
June 23-24 mutiny against the army's leadership and threatened to make
him look weak.
But it would also deprive Putin of a forceful and astute player who had
proved his utility to the Kremlin by sending his fighters into some of
the bloodiest battles of the Ukraine war and by advancing Russian
interests across Africa which are now likely to be re-organized.
It remains to be seen too how Wagner fighters, some of whom have already
spoken of betrayal and foul play, react.
Pledging a thorough investigation which he said would take time, Putin
said that "preliminary data" indicated that Prigozhin and other Wagner
employees had been on the downed plane. The passenger list suggests that
Wagner's core leadership team were flying with him too and had also
perished.
Putin paid generous tribute to the renegade mercenary calling him a
talented businessman who knew how to look after his own interests and
who could, when asked, do his bit for the common cause.
But he also described Prigozhin as a flawed character who had made some
bad mistakes.
"I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all
the victims. It's always a tragedy," Putin said in televised remarks
made during a meeting in the Kremlin with the Moscow-installed chief of
Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
"I had known Prigozhin for a very long time, since the start of the 90s.
He was a man with a difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in
life."
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, one of Putin's most loyal allies, said
that Prigozhin was his friend and he had asked the mercenary chief "to
set aside his personal ambitions".
"But lately he either did not see or did not want to see a full picture
of what was going on in the country," Kadyrov said.
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A wreckage of the private jet linked to
Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is seen near the crash site
in the Tver region, Russia, August 24, 2023. REUTERS/Marina Lystseva
'A METALLIC BANG'
The Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet, which had been flying from
Moscow to St. Petersburg, crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in
the Tver region north of Moscow.
A Reuters reporter at the crash site on Thursday morning saw men
carrying away black body bags on stretchers. Part of the plane's
tail and other fragments lay on the ground near a wooded area where
forensic investigators had erected a tent.
The Baza news outlet, which has good sources among law enforcement
agencies, reported that investigators were focusing on a theory that
one or two bombs may have been planted on board.
Residents of Kuzhenkino, the village near the crash site, said they
had heard a bang and then saw the jet plummet to the ground. The
plane showed no sign of a problem until a precipitous drop in its
final 30 seconds, according to flight-tracking data.
One villager, who gave his name as Anatoly, said: "It wasn't
thunder, it was a metallic bang - let's put it that way."
Mourners left flowers and lit candles near Wagner's offices in St.
Petersburg and at other locations across Russia.
A Telegram channel linked to Wagner, Grey Zone, pronounced Prigozhin
dead on Wednesday evening, hailing him as a hero and a patriot who
had died at the hands of "traitors to Russia".
Russian militants who fight on Ukraine's side and have carried out
several attacks on Russian border regions urged the Wagner Group to
avenge Prigozhin's death and join their ranks. It was not
immediately clear how members of the Wagner Group reacted to their
call.
Amid the absence of verified facts, some of his supporters have
pointed the finger of blame at the state, others at Ukraine, which
marked its Independence Day on Thursday
Putin said in June that Prigozhin's the mutiny against the army,
which saw Wagner fighters shoot down Russian military helicopters,
could have tipped Russia into civil war.
The mercenary leader had also spent months criticizing the conduct
of Russia's war in Ukraine - which Moscow calls a "special military
operation" - and had tried to topple Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu
and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff.
The mutiny was ended by an apparent Kremlin deal which saw Prigozhin
agree to relocate to neighboring Belarus. But he had appeared to
move freely inside Russia.
Many Russians had wondered how he was able to get away with such
brazen criticism without consequence.
Prigozhin posted a video address on Monday which he suggested was
made in Africa. He turned up at a Russia-Africa summit in St.
Petersburg in July.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by
Andrew Heavens and Stephen Coates)
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