Mrinalini Majumdar, Pune
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner chief, is reportedly no more. The speculation of foul play comes after June when the Wagner chief orchestrated an attempted revolt against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin, 62, is reported to have died in a plane accident 300 kilometers (200 miles) from Moscow on August 23, precisely two months following his rebellion, increasing suspicions that Putin merely patiently awaited to display his fury in a fashion that was going to act as a signal to others. According to other claims as well, the plane collapsed on a journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg. According to state newswire RIA Novosti, all ten individuals on board the jet, which included three crew members, died in the crash. Russian officials stated that a man named Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the passengers, but provided no other information.
Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a revolt march on Moscow in an attempt to destabilize the Russian military authority. It was a brief insurrection. However, following the attempted revolt, the world assumed that Wagner’s mercenary leader would be imprisoned, disappear, or killed right away. The death does not come as a surprise, but it does raise questions. It is still unknown what happened to the jet that fell from the sky. Earlier on August 24, anonymous US officials said they thought it was the result of a surface-to-air missile. As global forces debate the likely causes of the jet crash that killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin as well as his co-founder Dmitry Utkin, Vladimir Putin has now broken his silence about the matter. On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin applauded mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin as a “talented businessman” and expressed heartfelt sympathies to the relatives of those killed in a plane crash a day earlier, as reported by Reuters.
The tragic death of Yevgeny Prigozhin has made many weary of Putin’s powers. Despite no evidence of the Russian President’s involvement, it is safe to say that there is a possibility of foul play.