Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short-lived rebellion against the Russian military earlier this year, is believed to be dead Wednesday following a plane crash north of Moscow, which killed all 10 people on board.
Russia’s civil aviation agency, citing the airline, said that Prigozhin was on board.
According to several reports, the accident instantly gave rise to suspicions regarding the fate of the Wagner chief, who had been away from the limelight since he led the mutiny in June.
The Plane Crash
According to flight-tracking data, an Embraer (EMBR3.SA) Legacy 600 executive aircraft, in which Prigozhin was allegedly present, exhibited no signs of a malfunction until a sharp drop in its final 30 seconds.
Russia’s emergency ministry said that the plane was travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it crashed near Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region. According to Rosaviatsia, Russia’s aviation agency, Prigozhin was one of 10 people on board.
Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalov, members of the private military group Wagner, are also on the list of passengers, as reported by the Russian aviation agency.
According to Ian Petchenik of Flightradar24, the aircraft made a “sudden downward vertical” at 3:19 p.m. GMT. The plane plummeted from its 28,000-foot cruising altitude of more than 8,000 feet in roughly 30 seconds.
“They may have been wrestling (with the aircraft) after whatever happened,” Petchenik stated. But before its drop, there was “no indication that there was anything wrong with this aircraft,” he added.
⚡️#BREAKING Wagner leader Yevegny Prigozhin has been confirmed dead after his private jet crashed over the Tver region in Russia. pic.twitter.com/mRTZFpRM9l
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) August 23, 2023
Unverified video footage shared on social media shows a plane resembling a private jet falling from the sky. Another unverified video showed the plane’s burning wreckage on the ground. At least one body was visible. According to media reports, rescuers retrieved seven bodies from the scene.
The Russian aviation authorities are investigating the plane crash. A team of investigators from the Russian Investigative Committee has also been sent to the accident scene. First responders are currently working on the site, as reported by Russian state-controlled media TASS.
According to TASS, the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee’s Main Investigative Department launched a criminal inquiry into suspected violations of air transportation safety and operational rules under Russian Criminal Code Article 263.
Prigozhin’s Coup Attempt
Wagner troops were actively capturing the eastern Ukrainian towns of Soledar and Bakhmut during Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Before calling for an armed rebellion, Prigozhin spent months condemning Russian military leadership and its assistance to his troops.
Sources indicate tensions between Russia’s defence ministry and Wagner reached a boiling point in June, when Prigozhin claimed Russian soldiers attacked Wagner’s field camps in eastern Ukraine.
Later, the Wagner leader announced that his troops had crossed the border into Russia and were prepared to go “all the way” against the Russian military. During a revolt, Wagner fighters attacked Russian helicopters, killed several pilots and enraged the army.
Wagner’s soldiers had seized control of a critical military facility in Rostov-on-Don and were prepared to advance toward Moscow. However, Wagner forces finally halted their march and said they would return “to avoid shedding Russian blood” — an agreement mediated by Belarusian President Lukashenko.
President Vladimir Putin condemned the uprising as “treason” and a “stab in the back” and pledged to avenge it. However, Prigozhin’s allegations were quickly dismissed. The Wagner commander, whose soldiers were among the most significant fighting forces for Russia in Ukraine, was permitted to evacuate to Belarus while occasionally visiting Russia.
Prigozhin released his first video since the mutiny earlier this week, stating Wagner is conducting surveillance and search activities and “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free.”
Prigozhin publishes first video since attempted coup.
— Russian Propaganda (@RussianPropOnYT) August 21, 2023
Yevgeny Prigozhin address from a African country , where the presence of the Wagner Group is increasing:
— “We are working. Temperature +50°. Everything we love. The Wagner Group conducts reconnaissance and search… pic.twitter.com/gZgisdZJa9
Prigozhin, Putin’s ‘Personal Chef’
In 1981, Prigozhin was found guilty of robbery and violence and sentenced to 12 years. In the 1990s, after his release, he started a restaurant in Saint Petersburg.
He used that connection to develop a catering business and win large Russian government contracts, earning him the name “Putin’s chef.” Later, he moved into other industries, including media and an infamous online “troll factory,” which led to his arrest in the US for interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Prigozhin formed the Wagner Group, a private military corporation (PMC), in 2014. Although the Wagner Group was formed in 2014 and engaged in hostilities in the formerly Ukrainian Donbas area, Prigozhin declined to declare his position in the group until last year.
Prigozhin did not admit to establishing, leading, or financing Wagner until September 2022. By this point, his mercenaries, including soldiers he had recruited in Russian jails, were fighting and dying in Ukraine, particularly in Bakhmut.
In January, Prigozhin announced victory over the Ukrainian salt mining town of Soledar and accused the Russian Defence Ministry of trying to steal Wagner’s glory.
Wagner was initially seen in action in eastern Ukraine, shortly after a separatist rebellion broke out in April 2014, only weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.