2023-08-23 19:18:53
A plane with 10 people on board crashed on Wednesday August 23 in Russia without leaving any survivors, and the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner Evgueni Prigojine is on the passenger list, Russian news agencies said.
According to the Ria Novosti, TASS and Interfax agencies, referring to the Russian air transport agency Rossaviatsia, Yevgeny Prigojine’s name appears on the passenger list of this plane which was to connect Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
Debris on fire
“There were 10 people on board, including 3 crew members. According to the first information, all the people on board died”said a little earlier on Telegram the Russian Ministry of Emergencies.
According to him, this Embraer Legacy private plane crashed near the village of Kujenkino, in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow. “The Russian Emergencies Ministry is conducting search operations”he further clarified.
Videos whose authenticity AFP could not confirm were broadcast on several Telegram channels claiming to be linked to Wagner, showing burning debris in a field or a device falling from the sky.
Rebellion against the Russian General Staff
Yevgeny Prigojine had been behind a rebellion in June against the Russian general staff and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, led by his men, who had briefly captured military sites in southern Russia before to go to Moscow.
Evgueni Prigojine had quickly given up this mutiny, in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine. It ended on the evening of June 24 with an agreement providing for the departure for Belarus of Evgueni Prigojine, while his fighters could join him there, enter the regular Russian army or return to civilian life.
On Monday evening, Yevgueni Prigojine appeared in a video posted by groups close to Wagner on social networks, where he claimed to be in Africa. In a desert landscape, he said he was working “to make Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even freer”.
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