Among the passengers of Prigozhin’s plane that crashed near Tver were two of his deputies.
10 people were flying on the plane crashed near Tver, businessman and founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin. Among them were Prigozhin himself and the leaders of his PMC – Dmitry Utkin with the call sign Wagner and ex-businessman Valery Chekalov. A total of 10 people died. The list of passengers of the crashed Embraer plane is published in Telegram– channel of the Federal Air Transport Agency.
Passengers of the crashed plane of Prigozhin:
- Evgeny Prigozhin – founder of PMC “Wagner” and the group of companies “Concord”;
- Dmitry Utkin – commander of the PMC “Wagner”, who is called the right hand of Prigozhin;
- Valery Chekalov – Prigozhin’s deputy in the Wagner PMC, a former businessman;
- Yevgeny Makaryan – fighter PMC “Wagner”;
- Alexander Totmin – fighter PMC “Wagner”;
- Sergei Propustin – fighter PMC “Wagner”;
- Nikolay Matuseev;
- Alexey Levshin – pilot;
- Rustam Karimov – co-pilot;
- Kristina Raspopova is a flight attendant.
The plane crashed near the urban-type settlement of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region on Wednesday, August 23. He made a flight on the route Moscow – St. Petersburg. Before the crash, eyewitnesses reported two strong pops. Several versions of the causes of the crash are being considered. According to some reports, the Investigative Committee of Russia makes a pilot error, technical problems and external influences.
The Federal Air Transport Agency noted that the flight was carried out on the basis of a permit issued in the prescribed manner.
Photo: Vitaly Shustrov / RIA Novosti
Who was Yevgeny Prigogine?
Evgeny Prigozhin was born in 1961 in Leningrad. In his youth, he was in prison several times. After his release, he began to do business: during his life he opened several restaurants and the Concord catering company, which organized ceremonial receptions and dinners at the highest level.
As Prigozhin himself later said, PMC Wagner was created by him in 2014 against the backdrop of the conflict in the Donbass. Wagner fighters were also involved in armed conflicts in Syria, a number of African, Arab and Latin American countries.
PMC took part in a special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine. In particular, the Wagnerites participated in the assault on Soledar and Artemovsk, the battle for which lasted 225 days. During this time, Prigozhin recorded and published his popular videos.
Related materials:
On June 23, 2023, Prigozhin’s press service accused the Russian Ministry of Defense of allegedly carrying out a missile attack on Wagner’s locations. 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. During the movement, Wagner fighters opened fire on Russian troops. Channel One military commander Irina Kuksenkova reported that the Wagnerites destroyed the air command center that was on the Il-22 aircraft. Then 10 people died. Also, according to military correspondents, six helicopters crashed during the mutiny.
The Wagner columns stopped at a distance of 200 kilometers from Moscow after a telephone conversation between a businessman and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Prigozhin said that he ordered the Wagnerites to return to the field camps, and then, by agreement with Lukashenka, left for Belarus, where some of his subordinates soon relocated. After that, he flew to Russia several more times, including to meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
What is known about the dead PMC leaders Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalin?
Among the passengers of the plane crashed near Tver were two deputies of Yevgeny Prigozhin from among the leadership of the Wagner PMC.
Among them, in particular, is reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin, who is called the commander of the Wagner PMC. He is a professional military man, until 2013 he was the commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate special forces brigade of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense.
![](https://icdn.lenta.ru/images/2023/08/24/13/20230824132011879/owl_pic_620_17be2afcbfbe08bc3a82e966fdd5dafb.jpg)
Photo: RF IC / RIA Novosti
Another passenger was ex-businessman Valery Chekalov, who was associated with Prigozhin’s business structures. He was also Prigozhin’s deputy at the Wagner PMC, presumably in charge of the PMC’s security service.
Four other passengers and crew members were among the dead.
On board the crashed plane were other Wagner fighters: Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin and Sergey Propustin. All three are on the lists of the Ukrainian site “Peacemaker”. According to him, Totmin fought in Sudan, and Propustin had a military specialty “reconnaissance grenade launcher.”
It is also known that Totmin is a native of the Altai Territory. He was a boxer. His coach Andrey Pomazkov toldthat Totmin served in the personal security of the head of the Wagner PMC.
Information about another passenger, Nikolai Matuseyev, could not be found.
Also on the list of the dead are crew members: flight commander Alexei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova. About the last knownthat she moved from Moscow to St. Petersburg when she got a job with the MNT Aero transportation business that owned the crashed plane. It is reported that a few days ago the flight attendant was transferred back to the capital – to work on an “important route.” Before the last flight, she posted a photo on social networks from a cafe in Sheremetyevo and called her relatives.
#passengers #crashed #plane #Prigozhin