Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founding father of the Wagner mercenary group who staged an aborted mutiny towards Russia’s navy management in June, in one of the crucial dramatic challenges to President Vladimir V. Putin’s rule in a long time, was listed as a passenger on a aircraft that crashed on Wednesday in Russia, killing everybody on board, the nation’s aviation authorities stated.
Mr. Prigozhin’s destiny was not instantly recognized. A passenger manifest launched by the Russian authorities confirmed his title and that of Wagner’s high commander, Dmitri Utkin, among the many seven passengers and three crew members. And Gray Zone, a Telegram account related to the Wagner group, stated that Mr. Prigozhin had been killed. However there was no official affirmation of his demise from Wagner or the Russian authorities.
Russia’s aviation authority supplied no touch upon the explanation for the crash, and introduced that it had created a particular fee to research “the circumstances and causes of the accident.”
Mr. Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur turned outspoken tycoon who constructed the non-public Wagner paramilitary drive that has fought on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine and throughout Africa, instigated the revolt together with his Wagner forces after railing for months in audio and video clips towards Russia’s navy leaders.
He complained publicly and profanely that they had been incompetents and back-stabbers, and that Wagner deserved credit score for battlefield successes in Mr. Putin’s conflict in Ukraine. In launching the mutiny, he insisted, nonetheless, that he was not aiming at Mr. Putin, however moderately on the protection minister, Sergei Okay. Shoigu, and Russia’s high uniformed navy officers, who he stated had been bungling the conflict.
In a surprising transfer, Wagner’s fighters took over the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and started a march on Moscow in June, riveting the world. However simply as abruptly because it began, the mutiny was known as off by Mr. Prigozhin, who agreed to withdraw from Rostov-on-Don underneath a deal that may supposedly drop any fees and permit Mr. Prigozhin and fighters loyal to him to decamp for neighboring Belarus.
The Kremlin launched what many analysts thought-about a low-key crackdown in response to the mutiny. However many observers speculated that Mr. Prigozhin’s betrayal was tantamount to a demise sentence.
American officers stated they may not verify Mr. Prigozhin had been killed within the aircraft crash, or why the jet went down.
When requested if he thought Mr. Putin was behind the aircraft crash, President Biden responded: “There’s not a lot that occurs in Russia that Putin’s not behind. However I don’t know sufficient to know the reply.”
The aircraft crash occurred solely hours after Russian state media reported a separate, public blow towards one other determine suspected of being linked to the mutiny: Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander who helped shore up Russia’s defenses in Ukraine, was faraway from his put up because the chief of Russia’s Air Power.
Analysts have described Basic Surovikin — known as “Basic Armageddon” for his ruthless ways — as a brutally efficient chief in a Russian navy that even many cheerleaders of the conflict have described as riddled with incompetence. However his hyperlinks to Mr. Prigozhin appeared to precipitate his fall from grace.
American officers stated the overall had advance information of the Wagner revolt, and he has not been seen in public for the reason that mutiny. The Russian information company RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday that he “is now on a brief trip.”
Col. Gen. Viktor Afzalov, chief of the Air Power’s normal employees, was named the appearing commander, it reported.
Even after the mutiny, Mr. Prigozhin, 62, appeared to maneuver about freely in latest weeks, and even met with Mr. Putin on the Kremlin on June 29. On Monday, Mr. Prigozhin launched a quick video message on-line, hinting that he was in Africa, although the video recording’s timing and site had been unclear. Wearing fatigues and holding an assault rifle, he stated that Wagner was “making Russia even higher, on all continents, and Africa much more free.”
Regardless of the uncertainty across the aircraft crash and Mr. Prigozhin’s destiny, U.S. intelligence companies stated they’d been stunned that Mr. Putin had not but taken motion towards the Wagner chief after his mutiny.
In July, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, stated {that a} “sophisticated dance” with Mr. Putin had developed. Mr. Prigozhin traveled between Russia and Belarus, the place President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko had supplied Mr. Prigozhin and his fighters refuge, and different areas. However Mr. Burns predicted that Mr. Putin would transfer towards Mr. Prigozhin.
“Putin is somebody who usually thinks that revenge is a dish greatest served chilly,” Mr. Burns stated on the Aspen Safety Discussion board in Colorado final month. “So he’s going to attempt to settle the state of affairs to the extent he can. However, once more, in my expertise, Putin is the last word apostle of payback. So I’d be stunned if Prigozhin escapes additional retribution for this.”
The aircraft that listed Mr. Prigozhin as a passenger on Wednesday left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport about 6 p.m. native time, sure for St. Petersburg. It went down lower than 100 miles to the northwest, close to town of Tver. RIA Novosti posted an unconfirmed video, broadly shared on social media, that purports to point out the aircraft tumbling from the sky, smoke billowing.
Video shared on the Telegram messaging app appeared to point out the plane burning on the bottom. The paint and a partial registration quantity, RA-02795, seen on the plane within the video, an Embraer Legacy 600 enterprise jet, align with a jet that Mr. Prigozhin is understood to make use of.
Ten our bodies had been recovered on the crash website, RIA Novosti reported, citing Russian Emergency Providers officers. The state tv channel Rossiya-24 cited the authorities as saying that seven passengers and three crew members had been on the aircraft.
Mr. Putin didn’t remark instantly on the crash. Across the time the information broke, Russian tv broadcast stay footage of his look within the Kursk area to honor the eightieth anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
“I heartily congratulate all residents of Russia on this occasion,” Mr. Putin stated whereas standing onstage in entrance of an orchestra.
Officers in Ukraine, which has suffered steep losses of life and has seen villages, cities and cities devastated by Mr. Putin’s 18-month conflict, had been additionally cautious about saying precisely what had occurred. However Andriy Yermak, the top of the president’s workplace, posted what gave the impression to be a thinly veiled reference to the crash on his Telegram account: an audio hyperlink to the music “Freeway to Hell.”
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Nationwide Safety Council, Adrienne Watson, stated that if Mr. Prigozhin’s demise was confirmed, “nobody must be stunned.” She added, “The disastrous conflict in Ukraine led to a non-public military marching on Moscow, and now, it could appear, to this.”
Some Russian bloggers and different pro-Moscow voices warned towards concluding that Mr. Prigozhin was lifeless, a lot much less that he had been killed intentionally. The professional-war Russian navy weblog Arkhangel Spetsnaz urged its greater than 900,000 followers on Telegram to “go away all conjectures and investigations for later.” The put up added, “The enemy takes benefit of each destabilizing state of affairs.”
However Gray Zone, the weblog near the Wagner group, reported that Mr. Prigozhin and Mr. Utkin, his high commander, had been killed.
Mr. Prigozhin “died because of the actions of traitors of Russia,” a put up by Gray Zone stated. “However even in hell, he would be the greatest!”
Reporting was contributed by Valerie Hopkins, Paul Sonne, Riley Mellen, Eric Schmitt, Erica L. Inexperienced, Julian E. Barnes and Cassandra Vinograd.
