DNA genetic analyzes confirm that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, was among the ten people killed last week in the crash of the Embraer Legacy plane in the Tver region, north of Moscow.
The Investigative Committee, which is in charge of the investigation, announced on Sunday that it had completed forensic tests and had positively identified those inside the device, including the head of the main Russian mercenary army and his right hand, Commander Dmitri Utkin. After examining the human remains collected from the crash site, it was established that they "correspond to the list declared on the flight sheet", says a message released by the investigators. According to the list, in addition to those mentioned, there were five more lieutenants of Prigozhin and three crew members on board.
The Embraer Legacy private jet crashed in Tver Oblast on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 23. He was traveling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, waited almost 24 hours to speak about the disappearance of a man who in recent years considered his ally. Putin praised him and said he was a talented businessman and a "man with a difficult destiny". He assured that he achieved "results for a common cause", but also explained that he had made "big mistakes".
The Russian leader did not explain the last words, but it could be referring to the rebellion that Prigozhin led two months ago, when he took up arms against the Russian military leadership, which was a real challenge to Putin himself , the most serious since he came to power more than 23 years ago. He then spoke of a "stab in the back", "traitors" and warned of the danger of a "civil war".
Prigozhin accused his two personal enemies in the army, the Minister of Defence, Sergei Shoigu, and the Chief of the General Staff, Valery Guerassimov, of an attack that the mercenary camp would have suffered. He demanded that they be arrested and released to him, and urged other Russian servicemen to join the cause. He then took control of Rostov-on-Don, an important city in southern Russia, and thousands of his men marched in column toward Moscow. A pulse with Putin himself.
The riot ended with an agreement brokered by the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, when the mercenaries were already 200 kilometers from the Russian capital. In exchange for not being prosecuted, the Wagner Group and Prigozhin himself agreed to go into exile in Belarus and cease activity in Russia.
The Wagnerites left Ukraine despite the prominent role they played on the battlefield, most notably in the long assault on the city of Bakhmut, which Russian troops took in May.
Considering Wagner's "betrayal", several versions have appeared these days about the cause of the plane. There has been speculation on Russian social networks that what brought him down was a surface-to-air missile, a bomb attack or a Ukrainian drone. Telegram channels close to Wagner even speculated that Prigozhin was not actually on the plane. The secret services and some Western politicians have seen Putin's shadow in a conspiracy to get rid of the controversial oligarch. The Kremlin on Friday denied killing Prigozhin. The spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said that "this is all a lie".
The cause of Prigozhin's plane crash remains unknown. Lukashenko said on Friday that he had told Prigozhin through Putin that he had information that an attack on him was being prepared. Lukashenko added that the leader of the Wagners later confirmed to him that he had received the warning. The Belarusian leader also denied the involvement of the ally, Vladimir Putin, in what happened. He assured that he could not imagine that "Putin was to blame".
The Investigation Committee, which has opened a criminal investigation, is studying, according to the RBK newspaper, several hypotheses: pilot error, mechanical error of the plane and also an external cause.
