First modification:
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian Wagner paramilitary group, and some of his top lieutenants were presumed dead by the Russian press in a disputed plane crash near Moscow. Prigozhin had led the mutiny against the Russian Defense Ministry and military leadership on June 23 and 24. He was also critical of the role of the Russian Army in the Ukrainian war. The absence of verified facts about the accident has led some Wagner supporters to accuse Putin and others of Ukraine.
The founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and six other passengers were on a private plane that crashed on Wednesday, August 23, shortly after taking off from Moscow, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority.
The rescue teams and the Russian press, which cited anonymous sources from Wagner, indicated that Prigozhin would have died. But there has been no official confirmation. If the deaths are confirmed, the accident would be the most serious blow Wagner has suffered in his history.
It is not clear why several high-ranking members of the paramilitary group, including senior leaders who are normally extremely careful about their safety, were on the same flight. And the reason for their joint trip from Moscow to St. Petersburg is unknown.
It is also not clear if it was a simple plane crash or if it was an attack. The intelligence agencies of the United States suggest that the plane would have been shot down by a surface-to-air missile fired from Russian territory.
The sources, who spoke to Britain’s Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity, said this assessment is only at the preliminary stage and is still subject to verification.
However, Prigozhin’s death would free Putin from the most serious challenge to his authority since he came to power in 1999.
Prigozhin’s presumed death would also cast doubt on Wagner’s future operations in Africa and other places where paramilitaries fight on behalf of Moscow interests.
Prigozhin is dead? Was it an accident or an attack? Or, on the contrary, is everything a strategy to hide the mercenary boss? We open the debate with our guests.
– Zayra Badillo, international analyst, historian of Russia and the Soviet Union. In addition, she is an Affiliated Professor at the Kennan Institute, at the Wilson Center in Washington, United States.
– Fernando Pedrosa, international analyst and professor of political science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).
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