Wagner’s beheading: Prigozhin labeled ‘assassinated’ post failed coup.
Russian Paramilitary Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin Believed to Have Been Killed in Plane Crash
According to state media, Russian paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is believed to have been killed after a plane in which he was “listed among the passengers” crashed in Russia on Wednesday.
“Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed among the passengers on the plane that crashed in the Tver region,” according to an unofficial translation of a TASS report. “In the plane that crashed in the Tver region, among the passengers was Yevgeny Prigozhin – Rosaviatsia.”
A senior European official surmised to the Washington Examiner that it was an “assassination.”
Recent Events and Speculations
The incident comes just two months after the longtime Wagner Group chief led his forces in a brief but tumultuous march towards Moscow in June, with the stated goal of ousting Russian defense leaders. That abortive uprising was halted within a day, as Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have brokered an agreement to avert a major confrontation. He has attended Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Africa summit last month.
“The speed at which the Russian Govt has confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin was on a plane that crashed on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg should tell us everything we need to know,” senior British lawmaker Alicia Kearns, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Commons, wrote on social media. “Reports Russian Air Defence shot down the plane suggests Putin is sending a very loud message.”
Prigozhin had continued to send his own messages in the months since the coup, striking a pose as a patriotic powerbroker despite his insubordination.
“PMC Wagner… makes Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa more free,” Prigozhin said in a video published this week. “We’re recruiting real heroes and continue to carry out the tasks that have been set and that we promised to deal with.”
The plane went down on the same day that Russian authorities confirmed the sacking of General Sergei Surovikin, who disappeared following Prigozhin’s uprising amid an apparent Kremlin effort to identify complicit military officials. Wagner Group commander Dmitry Utkin also has been reported to have been on the plane.
“Wagner has been beheaded,” a pro-war telegram channel, VChK-OGPU, assessed in a post on the crash.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
" Conservative News Daily does not always share or support the views and opinions expressed here; they are just those of the writer."
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases
