Russian President Vladimir Putin Suspected in Plane Crash Killing Wagner Group Leader
A plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, crashed on Wednesday, and suspicions immediately fell on Russian President Vladimir Putin. CIA director Bill Burns had previously predicted that Putin would seek revenge against Prigozhin for leading a mutiny against the Russian military.
Putin has been compared to the godfather of a crime family, with a history of violent deaths, mysterious illnesses, and dubious suicides. The US has counted over two dozen such incidents linked to Putin’s regime.
One notable case is that of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who defected to England. Litvinenko died in 2006 after drinking tea poisoned with polonium, a radioactive substance. It took investigators ten years to trace the poisoning back to Russian intelligence agents.
In 2016, then-British Home Secretary Theresa May stated that it was likely the Russian state was involved in Litvinenko’s murder. The pattern repeated in 2018 when Sergei Skripal, another defector, and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent in England. May again linked the incident back to Moscow.
Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA and secretary of defense in the Obama administration, commented on Putin’s hit list. He noted that Putin has a low tolerance level and takes care of those who cross him, whether through poisonings, open windows, or gunshots in the middle of the night.
Alexei Navalny, one of Putin’s most vocal critics, also fell victim to poisoning by the same nerve agent used in England. Panetta suggested that Putin takes pride in the fact that people know he will retaliate and maintains control over Russia.
The recent plane crash that claimed Prigozhin’s life adds to the list of suspicious deaths tied to Putin’s regime. Investigations will likely continue as international scrutiny intensifies around these incidents.
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