The Kremlin on Friday vehemently denied responsibility for the presumed death of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the leader of the mercenary group. They dismissed the notion that the Russian government had destroyed a business jet allegedly carrying Mr. Prigozhin as Western propaganda aimed at tarnishing President Vladimir V. Putin’s reputation.
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, stated, “This is an absolute lie.”
Throughout the day, Russia’s foreign minister, state-controlled broadcasters, and Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, President of Belarus and Putin’s closest foreign ally, repeated these denials in various forms. However, these denials are likely to be met with skepticism by those who are aware of the Kremlin’s history of denying or accusing others of actions that it later admitted to or was proven to have carried out.
While some European leaders, Western news outlets, and individuals close to Mr. Prigozhin’s Wagner paramilitary force have speculated that Putin had him killed in retaliation for his brief mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, U.S. officials have been more cautious in assigning blame. President Biden stated on Thursday, “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
Mr. Peskov rejected suggestions about the cause of the plane crash, which occurred on Wednesday northwest of Moscow, as mere Western speculation. However, in the two months following the Wagner rebellion, many Russians and individuals abroad expressed surprise that Mr. Prigozhin was still alive and free.
While the Russian government has not officially confirmed the identities of those killed on Wednesday, they have stated that Mr. Prigozhin and Wagner’s top field commander, Dmitri Utkin, were among the 10 people listed on the jet’s manifest. They also confirmed that 10 bodies were recovered and that there were no survivors. Mr. Putin referred to Mr. Prigozhin in the past tense on Thursday, saying, “This was a person with a complicated fate.”
U.S. and other Western officials have expressed increasing confidence in Mr. Prigozhin’s death and have cited evidence suggesting that an explosion on the plane caused it to crash northwest of Moscow.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, echoed Mr. Peskov’s sentiments and advised waiting for the results of Russia’s official inquiry into the incident. Investigators have stated that they are analyzing the victims’ DNA for identification and have recovered the plane’s flight data recorders.
Mr. Lukashenko, who heavily relies on political and economic support from Putin, stated, “Knowing Putin, how meticulous, cautious, and precise he is, I do not believe that he would do this,” according to the Belarusian state news agency Belta.
However, Mr. Lukashenko, who acted as an intermediary to end the June mutiny, previously stated that in their…
2023-08-25 17:30:35
Original from www.nytimes.com
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