In a tragic turn of events, a plane crash in Russia’s Tver region claimed ten lives on Wednesday. Notably, among the deceased was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the renowned leader of the Wagner Group, as confirmed by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency.
The crash, which occurred near the town of Kuzhenkino, involved an Embraer aircraft. The agency’s press service affirmed, “Yevgeny Prigozhin’s name prominently features on the passenger manifest of the ill-fated flight.”
Alongside Prigozhin, the unfortunate incident took the lives of passengers Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Dmitriy Utkin, and Nikolay Matuseev. The crew members identified were Cmdr. Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov, and air hostess Kristina Raspopova.
The aircraft was on a scheduled flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg at the time of the tragedy.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a chief adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, weighed in, suggesting that “Prigozhin’s overt removal and the subsequent fall of the Wagner leadership, coming shortly after the coup attempt, sends a palpable message from Putin to Russian power players ahead of the impending 2024 elections.”
The incident also resonated across the Atlantic, with US President Joe Biden being promptly informed about the plane crash. While vacationing in Lake Tahoe, Biden remarked to journalists that although he wasn’t fully versed on the situation, such events in Russia rarely transpire without Putin’s influence.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement earlier in the day that officials were watching the reports of the plane crash.
“If confirmed, no one should be surprised. The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now — it would seem — to this,” she said.
Prigozhin is the head of the private paramilitary organization Wagner Group, which played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before briefly launching an insurrection against the Russian military in June. Forces loyal to Prigozhin marched toward Moscow, before turning back after several days.
Prigozhin allegedly struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin where he didn’t face prosecution and was relocated to Belarus, according to the Kremlin. The Russian president and Prigozhin allegedly met face to face on June 29, less than a week after the failed coup, the Kremlin said.
On July 3, Prigozhin released a message on social media claiming the rebelling was aimed at “fighting traitors and mobilizing our society.”
