Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke for the first time of the apparent death of the mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Thursday night as a preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that Mr Prigozhin’s private jet was probably downed by a bomb on the aircraft.
Mr Putin described Mr Prigozhin as “a talented businessman” who had “made some serious mistakes in life”, but also “achieved necessary results”.
Although there has been no official confirmation of Mr Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash on Wednesday night, Mr Putin spoke of him in the past tense.
[ Wagner mercenary chief Prigozhin reported to have died in plane crashOpens in new window ]
Mr Prigozhin’s most “serious mistake” was doubtless his day-long mutiny against regular Russian forces on June 24th, after which defence minister Sergei Shoigu ordered Mr Prigozhin’s Wagner militia to submit to official military command.
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Mr Prigozhin’s apparent ability to travel freely for the past two months intrigued observers. Mr Putin said in a televised meeting that Mr Prigozhin had returned from Africa earlier on Wednesday and held meetings with officials in Moscow.
The Russian leader offered his condolences to the families of the 10 people who were killed when the plane crashed into a field between Moscow and St Petersburg. He said the victims of the crash “made a substantial contribution” to what he called “fighting the neo-Nazi regime” in Kyiv. “We remember this, know this, and won’t forget it.”
The Wagner group had fought Ukrainian forces at Bakhmut in the Donbas region for nearly a year.
“Necessary results” may also have referred to Wagner’s role in shoring up the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and the way it has supplanted French influence in several African countries, most recently Niger.
Mr Putin promised that Russian investigators would pursue the truth about the crash “to the end” but said the investigation would take time.
A preliminary assessment conducted by US officials concluded that the crash was intentionally caused by an explosion, the Associated Press reported.
US and European officials told the New York Times they believed Mr Putin ordered the destruction of the aircraft. Mr Putin had labelled the attempted June mutiny a “betrayal”.
One official said the explosion was consistent with Mr Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics”.
It may also have been intended to convey a message to any members of the Russian elite whose loyalty to Mr Putin might waiver in the face of western retaliation for the Russian dictator’s assault on Ukraine.
