Putin spoke about the death of Prigozhin and expressed condolences to the families of other victims
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time about the crash of an Embraer aircraft in the Tver region, in which the founder of the private military company (PMC) Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin died. The head of state expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
The businessman’s plane crashed on August 23. Among the passengers was Prigozhin himself, as well as the key commander of the Wagner, Dmitry Utkin. According to one version of the investigation, there could be a bomb in the landing gear compartment of the aircraft.
“As for this aviation accident, first of all I want to express my sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It is always a tragedy,” Putin said.
Putin assured that the investigation into the crash of Prigozhin’s plane will be completed
The head of state assured that the investigation into the plane crash near Tver would be completed.
“What is absolutely certain: the head of the Investigative Committee reported to me this morning – they have already begun a preliminary investigation of this incident. It will be carried out in full and brought to an end,” the head of state said.
The President revealed the circumstances of Prigozhin’s return to Russia on the day of his death
Yevgeny Prigozhin returned from Africa on August 23, the day his plane crashed, Putin said.
He was a talented person, a talented businessman, he worked not only in our country, with results, he worked abroad, in Africa, in particular
He noted that Prigozhin was a talented person and businessman who worked effectively abroad, including in Africa. According to the president, Prigozhin was engaged in oil, gas and precious metals there.
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Putin called Prigozhin a man of difficult fate, who achieved the desired results
Vladimir Putin said that he had known Yevgeny Prigozhin since the early 1990s. According to the president, the deceased businessman was a man of difficult fate, who achieved the necessary results both for himself and for the common cause, including when Putin himself asked him to.
“He was a talented person, a talented businessman, he worked not only in our country, with results, he worked abroad, in Africa, in particular,” Putin said.
In addition, the President noted that the PMC “Wagner” made “a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine.” Putin assured that these merits would not be forgotten.
Prigozhin died two months after the rebellion
On June 23, 2023, the press service of Yevgeny Prigozhin accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of allegedly carrying out a missile attack on the Wagner deployment sites. PMC fighters occupied the building of the headquarters of the Southern Military District (SMD) in the center of Rostov-on-Don, and also advanced towards Moscow. Vladimir Putin then called their actions a military mutiny and said that its organizers had betrayed not only the country, but also their own people.
The Wagner columns stopped at a distance of 200 kilometers from the capital after a telephone conversation between the businessman and President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. Prigozhin said that he ordered the Wagnerites to return to the field camps, and then, by agreement with Lukashenka, he left for Belarus, where some of his subordinates soon relocated.
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