The last months in the life of Wagner PMC chief Yevgeny Prigozhin were the stuff of modern legend, filled with glory, infamy and tragedy.
His trajectory, from victory in Bakhmut (now called Artemovsk), the biggest battle since WWII, to the ‘treasonous insurrection’ against the Russian government and Military, culminated in a spectacular – if horrifying – fashion.
Prigozhin died when his business jet crashed on 23 August, a mere two months after the staged aborted mutiny against Russian military commanders saw his Wagner mercenary troops take control of Rostov and advance towards Moscow.
The crash of his fiery plane was caught on video, and broadcast all around the planet.
Now, for the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the cause of the crashm claiming that the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin and two top advisers may have been caused by hand grenades detonating inside the aircraft, and further speculated that the Wagner boss may have been on drugs.
The Guardian reported:
“’Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash’, Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club think-tank in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
‘There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact’, Putin said, contradicting reports by western intelligence services that said a bomb was the likely reason behind the crash.”
WATCH:
Putin implied that alcohol and drugs could have played a role in the crash.
“’Unfortunately, no examination was carried out to determine the presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood of the victims’, Putin said.
‘Although we know … that the FSB discovered not only 10bn roubles in cash, but also 5kg of cocaine’, he said, referring to the stacks of cash and drugs that the security services allegedly discovered during a search of Prigozhin’s mansion after his failed rebellion.”
Putin said ‘there was no external influence’ on the Embraer Legacy 600 jet, which burned and crashed while flying between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Politico reported:
“The body of 62-year-old Prigozhin was buried at a private ceremony less than a week after he and his lieutenants died in the plane crash. The incident sparked rampant speculation of foul play from the Kremlin, coming just two months to the day after Prigozhin launched an insurrection against Russia’s top brass and had his fighters march on Moscow.
Putin had initially described the putsch as “treason” but, speaking days after his former ally’s death, softened his tone. “He was a man with a complex fate. [Sometimes] he made mistakes; and [sometimes] he got the results he wanted — for himself and in response to my requests, for a common cause,” the Russian president said.”
Putin further stated that there were ‘no private military companies in Russia’, because there was no law to regulate them.
New York Times reported:
“Mr. Putin began by saying it was the Russian Defense Ministry that had brought the extralegal mercenary force into the war effort in the first place, in a manner that he described as ‘clumsy’.
‘It was caused by the requirements of the current situation on the battlefield, to put it bluntly’, Mr. Putin said. ‘And when the Defense Ministry proposed that units from this company participate in military action, I didn’t refuse’.”
Read more about Wagner:
VIDEO: “Wagner” Group Soldiers Raise the Russian Flag after Historic Victory in Bakhmut, Ukraine