On Thursday, the European Union (EU) expressed skepticism over the Russian narrative of the death of the leader of Russia’s Wagner military group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, in a plane crash in Russia.
The ambiguity surrounding the incident has raised eyebrows in the international community.
EU’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Peter Stano, emphasized the difficulty in verifying reports of Prigozhin’s death. He stated, “Given the current climate, it’s increasingly challenging to place trust in information emanating from Russia.”
Stano refrained from delving into potential political implications arising from Prigozhin’s alleged death, noting that any such comment would be based on “mere conjecture.”
Moreover, Stano suggested that, despite Prigozhin’s purported death, Wagner Group’s activities in hotspots like Ukraine, Syria, and Libya are unlikely to cease, underscoring the group’s deep connections with the Russian establishment.
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.”
