Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group who staged an aborted mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, in one of the most dramatic challenges to President Vladimir V. Putin’s rule in decades, was listed as a passenger on a plane that crashed on Wednesday in Russia, killing everyone on board, the nation’s aviation authorities said.
Mr. Prigozhin’s fate was not immediately known. A passenger manifest released by the Russian authorities showed his name and that of Wagner’s top commander, Dmitri Utkin, among the seven passengers and three crew members. And Grey Zone, a Telegram account associated with the Wagner group, said that Mr. Prigozhin had been killed. But there was no official confirmation of his death from Wagner or the Russian authorities.
Russia’s aviation authority offered no comment on the reason for the crash, and announced that it had created a special commission to investigate “the circumstances and causes of the accident.”
Mr. Prigozhin, a catering entrepreneur turned outspoken tycoon who built the private Wagner paramilitary force that has fought on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine and across Africa, instigated the rebellion with his Wagner forces after railing for months in audio and video clips against Russia’s military leaders.
He complained publicly and profanely that they were incompetents and back-stabbers, and that Wagner deserved credit for battlefield successes in Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine. In launching the mutiny, he insisted, however, that he was not aiming at Mr. Putin, but rather at the defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, and Russia’s top uniformed military officers, who he said were bungling the war.
In a stunning move, Wagner’s fighters took over the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and began a march on Moscow in June, riveting the world. But just as abruptly as it started, the mutiny was called off by Mr. Prigozhin, who agreed to withdraw from Rostov-on-Don under a deal that would supposedly drop any charges and allow Mr. Prigozhin and fighters loyal to him to decamp for neighboring Belarus.
The Kremlin launched what many analysts considered a low-key crackdown in response to the mutiny. But many observers speculated that Mr. Prigozhin’s betrayal was tantamount to a death sentence.
American officials said they could not confirm Mr. Prigozhin had been killed in the plane crash, or why the jet went down.
When asked if he thought Mr. Putin was behind the plane crash, President Biden responded: “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
The plane crash happened only hours after Russian state media reported a separate, public blow against another figure suspected of being connected to the mutiny: Gen. Sergei Surovikin, a former commander who helped shore up Russia’s defenses in Ukraine, was removed from his post as the chief of Russia’s Air Force.
Analysts have described General Surovikin —…
2023-08-23 21:09:42
Article from www.nytimes.com
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