Putin Finally Breaks Silence On The Death Of Wagner Chief; Shares Condolences

Putin on Death Of Wagner Chief: The mercenary leader – Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane crashed with no survivors two months after he led a mutiny against army superiors. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to his family.

Although they cautioned that the information was preliminary and under evaluation, two U.S. officials told media that Washington thought a surface-to-air missile that originated from within Russia most likely brought down the airliner. They provided no evidence and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

No official word from Moscow

There has been no official word from Moscow on what may have caused Wednesday night’s tragedy, despite Russian police having begun a criminal investigation. A statement from the aviation authority stating that Prigozhin was on board was the only official confirmation of his death prior to Putin’s remarks.

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Putin breaks silence on death of Wagner Chief

Putin finally spoke out, praising Prigozhin as a successful businessman he had known since the 1990s and announcing that the crash inquiry will take some time.

The leader of the Wagner mercenary force and a self-declared adversary of the army’s senior brass due to what he claimed was their inept handling of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Prigozhin, 62, was a self-declared enemy.

Prior to that, Putin virtually addressed the BRICS meeting in South Africa, where his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, was also present. Neither mentioned the reported plane tragedy that claimed the lives of ten individuals.

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State media barely mentioned the disaster.

In addition to carrying top members of Prigozhin’s team, the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver area north of Moscow was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

On stretchers, persons were seen being taken away from the disaster site on Thursday morning by a reporter. Nearby a forested area where forensic investigators had pitched a tent, pieces of the jet, including its tail, were scattered over the ground.