2023-08-30 11:26:07
No crowds. The burial Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, was held this Wednesday in privacy in a cemetery in his hometown, Saint Petersburg, where he was heading on a flight that left Moscow on August 23 when the plane in the one that was flying exploded in mid-flight. “The last farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place behind closed doors. Those who want to say goodbye to him can visit the Porojóvskoye cemetery,” his team said in a statement published on Telegram.
According to The Times, during the ceremony, Prigozhin was hailed as a “second Nelson Mandela” by the mercenary group he founded, which was instrumental in the conquest of Bakhmut and Mariupol.
The Wagner group paid tribute to its former boss by posting pictures of Prigozhin in a shirt and jeans and posing for selfies “with grateful people in Africa, where some called him the second Nelson Mandela.”
Less than fifty relatives and close collaborators were able to say goodbye to the leader of the Wagnerite mercenaries in the cemetery, according to Efe. Media close to the security company explained that the family chose said cemetery because it is where the remains of the businessman’s father also lie.
The local and foreign press had no knowledge of the burial place at any time until it had already taken place, which is why there was even speculation that he would be buried in the same cemetery as Putin’s parents, also a native of Saint Petersburg. In the few images offered by television, it is seen how Prigozhin’s grave is dominated by a photo, several bouquets of red roses and a roofed cross.
Russia has reported that it will not open an investigation into the plane crash according to international standards “for the time being”. Two Wagner senior officers and four bodyguards were among the 10 people killed when the Brazilian-made Embraer crashed north of Moscow last week. Prigozhin died two months after staging a brief mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in defiance of President Vladimir Putin, who did not attend the funeral of his former friend.
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