2023-08-30 14:59:00
Yevgueni Prigozhin, founder of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, died in a plane crash on August 23 / Photo: DPA.
The Kremlin dismissed his going to promote an international investigation of the air disaster in which Yevgueni Prigozhin, founder of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, died on August 23.
“The investigation is ongoing. It is carried out by our Investigative Committee and, in this case, any international aspect is ruled out,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said.
Prigozhin’s death
On August 23, the Russian air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, reported that Prigozhin was aboard the crashed Embraer Legacy private plane. which crashed in the Tver province while en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry announced that all 10 passengers on the plane were killed, including Dmitri Utkin, head of operations for the paramilitary group and Prigozhin’s lieutenant.
Governments confronted with the Russian president hinted that the Kremlin could be behind the event.
Putin strongly denied the accusations, which he described as an “absolute lie”, and promised a “full and complete” investigation into what happened, in his first public statement on the incident.
Prigozhin died last Wednesday when the plane he was traveling in crashed northwest of Moscow, two months after he staged a rebellion against the regular Russian Armywhen criticizing the way in which the Ministry of Defense executes the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed Prigozhin’s death on Sunday after “molecular genetic tests”, without mentioning the possibility of an accident, a bomb or a surface-to-air missile.
Western governments hinted that the Kremlin could be behind Prigozhin’s death / Photo: AFP.
The causes of the accident in the Tver province are currently under investigation. peskov anticipated that there are several lines of research of the air accident, including intentional crime.
“It is obvious that there are different versions of what happened, including the intentional crime and others,” said the presidential spokesman, reported the Sputnik news agency.
The official called to wait for the results of the investigation before making any pronouncement.
Grupo Wagner
The Wagner paramilitary group had taken an active part in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to stop Ukrainian shelling of civilians from the two Donbass oblasts, Donetsk and Lugansk.
Wagner is also in the crosshairs of the United States: US President Joe Biden asked Congress on August 10 for 200 million dollars to counteract the presence of the security company in Africa.
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