Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree requiring members of the armed forces, volunteer detachments and mercenary groups like Wagner to pledge allegiance to the national flag. The decree was signed two days after the private plane carrying Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed in central Russia. According to the first investigations, the ten occupants of the aircraft, including other Wagner leaders, died.
Previously, Wagner had refused to submit to the Russian Defense Ministry, sparking a conflict that led to the failure of the paramilitary organization’s armed rebellion two months ago. Despite having accused Prigozhin of treason after the riot, Putin offered condolences to those killed in the plane crash and praised Prighozin.
Although Prigozhin was widely presumed dead, to this day his death has not been legally confirmed with DNA tests, necessary due to the state of the bodies of the occupants of the plane that crashed on Wednesday. Identification through comparative analysis of genetic material can take several days, since it depends on the delivery of samples from the deceased’s direct relatives, explained coroner Vladimir Skakun to the Fontanka digital portal.
Press recalls that Putin does not forgive betrayals; Belarusian dictator said to have warned Prigozhin
The Russian authorities continue with the investigation of the crash of the plane, and the detonation of an explosive device placed in the landing gear compartment of the Embraer Legacy 600, is being considered as the possible cause of the crash of the aircraft. Some media also raised the possibility that the aircraft was shot down, intentionally or by mistake, by missiles from anti-aircraft units protecting a Putin residence located near the route taken by Prigozhin’s plane. The Russian authorities also do not rule out a technical defect or even a piloting error as the cause of the accident, while on social media there is no lack of people claiming that it was all a setup and that Prigozhin is alive.
Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko, who mediated the ending of the Wagner Group riot in June, said on Friday that he warned Prigozhin, through Putin, that he had information about a possible attack against him. Lukashenko added that the leader of Wagner confirmed receipt of the notification.
The Russian autocrat is unanimously considered by the independent press and the opposition as the main suspect behind the air disaster, but the Kremlin categorically rejected opposition accusations and statements by Western politicians that Putin was behind the crash of Prigozhin’s plane. “It’s an absolute lie,” stressed the spokesman for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov. However, many media recalled that, in a television message to the population on the day of the riot, June 24, Putin said he did not forgive the betrayal of the Wagner Group.
After the agreement that put an end to the mercenary revolt and which included the transfer of the group to Belarus, the Wagner was stripped of its heavy armament. Now, with the crash of Prigozhin’s plane, the mercenary company was left without a head, since in the aircraft would also be Dmitri Utkin, its most distinguished commander and whose codename “Wagner” was adopted for the entire group, of which he was a co-founder. A former Russian military intelligence (GRU) officer, Utkin fought in Chechnya, Syria and Ukraine, and was awarded the title Hero of Russia. In one of his few known photographs, he appears with a shaved head and several Nazi tattoos. Also among the ten occupants of the Embraer Legacy 600 would be Valeri Chekalov, responsible for Prigozhin’s personal safety and part of his business.
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