Prigozhin plane crash ‘was no accident’ as Russian authorities claim Wagner boss among 10 passengers killed
24 August 2023, 06:39 | Updated: 24 August 2023, 07:28
Security sources in the UK have claimed the crashed plane said to be carrying Wagner leader Prigozhin ‘has all the hallmarks of FSB’.
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Nine other people on board also died in the crash, which took place at about 6.30pm local time (4.30pm UK time) on Wednesday.
British security sources have now suggeseted that the crash of the Wagner boss’ private jet was carried out by the FSB intelligence agency on Vladimir Putin’s orders.
The Embraer jet crashed in a field in a rural area in the Tver region, about 215 miles north-west of Moscow. It was flying from the Russian capital to St Petersburg.
Some outlets claimed the jet had been shot down, while others said there were explosions on board.
“Of course it’s Putin,” one source told the Telegraph. “Putin as a leader cannot afford to be humiliated in the way that he was. Putin functions on two things: Loyalty above talent... and the consequence of betrayal.
“All the mood music, all the habits, all the history point to the FSB. The FSB remains loyal to Putin.”
Prigozhin, 62, led the Wagner Group uprising, which saw the mercenaries head towards Moscow from Ukraine, before agreeing to stand down, took place exactly two months before the plane crash, on June 23.
Former head of MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove, said that Prigozhin’s death was “unsurprising”.
He said: “Most people will jump to the conclusion that this isn’t an accident,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll be presented as an accident and there will be an element of doubt, but everyone in the West will come to the same conclusion – that this is Putin’s revenge on people who challenge his power base.
“We used to have a saying when I worked on the Soviet Union, which was that the wise line to take on Soviet Russia was that nothing happened by accident, and one might apply that to this event.”
The windows of the Wagner Group's St Petersburg headquarters were lit up in a cross formation on Wednesday evening after the crash. Well-wishers brought flowers to a cafe linked to Prigozhin in the northern Russian city.
John Foreman, a former British defence attache in Moscow said: “The timing is not accidental.
“Two months to the day Prigozhin had his march on Moscow, his mutiny, a few days later he’s dead. Mr Putin’s revenge has been served on Prigozhin.
He continued: “Putin is willing to take revenge against those who threaten him and sends a chilling effect to anyone who wants to come for him. It’s in the daytime, all over the media, anyone else thinking they would come for the tsar will think again.
“It shows the brutality and violence at the heart of the Russian regime, which is how he has stayed in power for so long.”
It comes after the Russian emergency services confirmed on Thursday morning that all ten passengers on board the Embraer Legacy jet have been recovered.
An investigation has been launched into the Embraer plane crash that occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the passenger list, among them is the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin," Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia, said.
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and his second-in-command Dmitry Utkin were among those on board, Russian authorities said.
Passengers Sergey Propustin, Yevgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Nikolay Matuseev also reportedly all died on board.
The crew members, who also died, were: Aleksei Levshin, commander, Rustam Karimov, co-pilot, and Kristina Raspopova, flight attendant.
However, some have speculated the crash may have been the Wagner chief’s attempt to fake his own death after a second plane, which is believed to have links with the Prigozhin, was spotted on the flight radar flying over the same Tzer region.
Keir Giles of the London-based think tank Chatham house said: “It's been announced that a passenger by the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board - but it is also known that multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeny Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels. Let’s not be surprised if he pops up shortly in a new video from Africa.”
The British government said they were monitoring the situation.
US President Joe Biden said he was "not surprised" at the Prigozhin plane crash.
Biden said: "I don't know for a fact what happened. But I'm not surprised...
"There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don't know enough to know the answer."
Footage and images from the scene show the jet spiralling towards the ground, a trail of smoke visible from the fuselage.
Other footage shows the plane's burning wreckage in a field. The plane fell near several villages, but no one on the ground is thought to have been hurt. The mercenary boss, who was exiled to Russian ally Belarus after the march on Moscow recently released a video showing him speaking in camouflage and holding a rifle.
He is believed to have been in the African country of Mali, where the Wagner Group has operated in recent years.
It was the first video address Prigozhin had shared since the attempted uprising in June.
Prigozhin is thought to have flown into Russia from Africa on Wednesday.
