WAGNER FOUNDER YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN KILLED IN PLANE CRASH
Russian Mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been killed in a plane crash, confirmed Russian authorities. Russian aviation confirmed Prigozhin was one of ten passengers listed for the flight.
A business jet en route from Moscow to St Petersburg crashed Wednesday evening, killing all ten people on board including Prigozhin who led a brief rebellion against Russian strongest man president Putin, Russian emergency officials said.
Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company.
Russia’s civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, confirmed that Prigozhin was on the passenger list.
Russia's state news agency Tass cited emergency officials as saying that the plane carried three pilots and seven passengers. The authorities said they were investigating the crash, which occurred in the Tver region more than 100 kilometers north of Moscow.
Prigozhin, whose private military force Wagner fought alongside Russia's regular army in Ukraine, mounted a short-lived armed mutiny against Russia's military leadership in late June.
The Kremlin said he would be exiled to Belarus, and his fighters would either retire, follow him there, or join the Russian military.
Video shared widely on social media channels, including by a senior advisor to the Ukrainian government, appears to show a plane fall from the sky, and then burst into flames on the ground.
There is already speculation that perhaps the notorious Russian KGB intelligence agent could have caused the sabotage to the plane. Two days ago Prigozhin appeared on a video believed to have been taken from Tumbato in Mali. Prigozhin has also criticized the Russian defender Minister and chief of Russian Federation Army forces for failing to give his forces enough military equipment in the fight against Ukrainian army forces in the battle of Bahamut in July.
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