{"id":2011754,"date":"2023-08-25T09:41:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T13:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kremlin-denies-killing-wagner-chief\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T09:43:07","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T13:43:07","slug":"kremlin-denies-killing-wagner-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kremlin-denies-killing-wagner-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Kremlin denies responsibility for Wagner chief&#8217;s death."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkremlin-denies-killing-wagner-chief%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2011754&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>The Kremlin Denies Reports of Russian Mercenary Boss&#8217;s Death<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Kremlin said that Western suggestions Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed \u200bon its orders were an &#8220;absolute lie&#8221; while declining to definitively confirm his death, citing\u200b the need to wait for test results.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Russia&#8217;s aviation authority has said that Prigozhin, head of the \u2063Wagner mercenary \u2062group,\u200b was on\u2064 board a private jet \u200dwhich crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of \u2062Moscow with no survivors.<\/p>\n<p>President\u2062 Vladimir Putin sent his\u200b condolences to\u200c the families of those killed in the \u2064crash on Thursday and spoke of Prigozhin\u2062 in \u2064the \u200cpast tense, breaking his silence after the\u2063 incident which occurred exactly two months to the\u200b day after Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against army chiefs.<\/p>\n<p>Putin cited &#8220;preliminary\u200c information&#8221;\u2064 as\u200d indicating that Prigozhin\u2064 and his top associates in the Wagner mercenary group had all been killed and, while praising Prigozhin, said \u2063he had also made some &#8220;serious mistakes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Western politicians and\u200b commentators have suggested, without presenting evidence, that Putin ordered Prigozhin to\u200d be killed\u2063 in order to punish him for launching the June 23-34 \u2064mutiny against the army&#8217;s leadership which also represented \u2062the biggest challenge to Putin&#8217;s own rule since he came to power in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov \u200csaid the accusation \u2063and many others like it were false.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;There \u2064is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane\u200c crash and the tragic deaths of the plane&#8217;s passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of \u200ccourse, in the West, all this speculation\u200b is presented from a well-known angle,&#8221; \u200dPeskov told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;All\u200d of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to \u2064base \u200byourself \u2063on \u200dfacts. There are not many facts yet.\u2062 They\u200d need to be established in the course\u2064 of investigative actions,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>U.S. \u200cofficials \u200con Thursday <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/wagner-bosss-plane-was-deliberately-downed-us-officials-believe\/\">told<\/a> several media outlets they believe \u200bthe plane was deliberately taken down, though there was disagreement among the officials as to whether the plane was destroyed by an on-board explosion or a missile.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier on Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov had scolded U.S. \u200cPresident Joe Biden for expressing \u2063his lack \u200cof surprise that Prigozhin \u2062had been killed in a plane crash, accusing Biden of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kremlin-denies-killing-wagner-chief\/\" title=\"Kremlin denies responsibility for Wagner chief's death.\">disregarding diplomatic\u2062 norms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>&#8216;Wait for Test Results&#8217;<\/h3>\n<p>Russian investigators\u2062 have opened\u2064 a probe into \u200dwhat happened, but have not yet said what they suspect caused the plane to suddenly fall from the sky northwest of Moscow.<\/p>\n<p>Nor have\u2063 they\u200d officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies recovered from the wreckage.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if the \u2063Kremlin had\u2062 received official confirmation of\u2063 Prigozhin&#8217;s death, Peskov said: &#8220;If\u200d you listened carefully \u200dto the Russian president&#8217;s statement, he said that all the necessary tests, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-medical-system-in-california-to-pay-nearly-3-million-after-claims-of-unnecessary-genetic-testing\/\" title=\"University Medical System In California To Pay Nearly  Million After Claims Of \u2018Unnecessary Genetic Testing\u2019\">including genetic tests<\/a>, will\u200b now be carried out. The\u2064 official results -\u200c as soon as\u200c they are ready to be\u200d published,\u2063 will be\u200d published.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Peskov, who said \u2063Putin had not\u2063 met Prigozhin recently, also said it was unclear how long the tests and investigative \u2064work would \u2064take.<\/p>\n<p>It was \u200btherefore impossible to\u2063 start talking\u2064 about whether Putin would attend Prigozhin&#8217;s funeral, Peskov said in answer \u2064to a question on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There \u2064are no\u200b dates for the funeral yet, it is impossible to talk about it at all. The only thing I can say is that the \u2064president has a rather busy schedule at the moment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus\u2064 who is now a senior fellow\u2062 at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said\u2063 the funeral would be significant.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If Putin wishes to emphasise that Prigozhin died as a traitor, he will ignore\u2062 it,&#8221; said Gould-Davies. &#8220;[While] Prigozhin&#8217;s supporters\u2064 may use it as an opportunity to eulogise him and his critique of the Kremlin&#8217;s conduct of the war\u2014and could strengthen the hostility of a core of Wagner loyalists towards the Kremlin,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>British military intelligence said on Friday there was not yet definitive proof that Prigozhin\u200c had been onboard but that it was &#8220;highly likely&#8221; he was dead.<\/p>\n<p>The Pentagon has said its own\u200d initial assessment is that Prigozhin was killed.<\/p>\n<p>Russia&#8217;s Baza news outlet, which has good sources among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/oregon-governor-encourages-people-to-call-police-on-neighbors-violating-covid-orders\/\" title=\"Oregon Governor Encourages People To Call Police On Neighbors Violating COVID Orders\">law enforcement agencies<\/a>, has\u200d reported that investigators\u200d are focusing on a \u200ctheory that one or two bombs may have been planted on board \u2063the plane.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the future\u2064 of the Wagner Group, which has\u200c series of lucrative contracts across \u2062Africa and\u2063 a contingent in \u200cBelarus training the army there but now appears leaderless, Kremlin spokesman Peskov was concise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t tell you anything\u200d now, I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; he\u200d said.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting\u200c by Reuters; writing by Andrew Osborn;\u2063 editing\u2063 by Guy \u200dFaulconbridge)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kremlin denies Western claims that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, was killed on their command. They refuse to confirm his death until test results are obtained. Russia&#8217;s aviation authority confirms Prigozhin&#8217;s presence on a private jet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":2011755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2011754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}