2023-08-25 19:07:08
Russia woke up yesterday with a news hangover after the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin. In the offices, cafeterias and WhatsApp groups, the star topic was, of course, the death of the head of the Wagner group until Wednesday, while the Russians could hardly shake off their astonishment after what had happened. No one doubted the news, assuming that the official confirmation that the Kremlin published early in the afternoon would not be necessary.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Federal Air Transport Agency reported the death of 10 passengers traveling on the Embraer Legacy 600, Prigozhin’s private plane that covered a route between Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It all happened around 6:40 p.m. Russian capital time, while they were flying over the Tver region.
With the explosion of the plane the hypotheses exploded. The official, based on an investigation ordered as soon as what happened was known, has not given many details so far. It is known through other means that during the flight there was an explosion under the landing gear that possibly caused one of the wings to break. The collision between it and the flight stabilizer led the device to descend in free fall from a height of almost 8,000 meters.
The state of the charred bodies has made their immediate recognition impossible, which is why various biological tests have begun in Moscow laboratories to clarify the identity of the ship’s occupants.
The truth is, that some inhabitants of the areas close to the accident what happened speak of several explosions, specifically two that were felt in a large radius and several witnesses saw how Prigozhin’s private jet fell in the middle of the field.
It could have been more serious, since there are populated areas not too far from the scene of the events. Unofficial news channels go even further assuring that the plane could have been shot down by surface-to-air missiles. However, the preliminary assessment of the US intelligence services, the Embraer plane crash was intentionally caused by an explosion.
“At this time we have no information to suggest that a surface-to-air missile was launched against the private plane in which Yevgeny Prigozhin was allegedly traveling,” a Biden Administration official said in statements reported by the Financial Times. The main theory that Washington has is that there was a bomb on board.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations have not given more details at the moment, although not many people trust that this official version coincides with what happened. In their first hypotheses the terrorist attack is not found, although they are not going to rule out any option, since they believe that the origin of the accident could be due to technical or human failures.
Ivan Sibul, a renowned air accident specialist investigator who has worked in recent years on cases such as the one that took the life of Christophe de Margerie, president and CEO of the French oil company Total SA, has been appointed responsible for the investigation. who died at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport in October 2014 when his plane collided with a snowplow.
Reactions to Prigozhin’s death began to occupy Telegram channels and comments on Twitter as soon as the news broke. Members and supporters of the Wagner group spoke of a “settling of scores” by Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom they accused of avenging the rebellion carried out by Prigozhin and his men in June. All those who wanted to pay their particular tribute to him would come to the oligarch’s headquarters in St. Petersburg, bringing flowers and handwritten notes. Flags of the Wagner group hung from the entrance gate and a cross was drawn on the building with the lights on from the offices.
Between the coming and going of rumors and comments, President Putin himself made an appearance late in the afternoon, who took advantage of a work meeting in the Kremlin to confirm that, who had been his friend, had died in that fatal “accident”. , promising to clarify the reasons for it.
“It’s always a tragedy. In fact, if the members of the Wagner group were on that plane, and preliminary data indicates that they were, I would like to point out that these people made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, we remember it, we know it and We will not forget it”, declared the Russian president who did not hesitate to describe Prigozhin as “a talented man”, who also made “mistakes” and sent his condolences to the family of those who died in the accident.
Putin’s words contrast with those expressed by the leader of the ruling Just Russia party, Serguei Mironov, who assured hours before that the head of the Wagner group was a nuisance. “Prigozhin was in the way of many in Russia, in Ukraine and in the West,” the politician, a friend of Putin, published.
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