According to a report from The Guardian, Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who launched a coup against Russian President Vladimir Putin over the summer, has died in a plane crash.
“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,” Rosaviatsia, Russia’s aviation authority, said.
Officials are still waiting for confirmation of Prigozhin’s death; his name was on the manifest.
From The Guardian:
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted following reports of the crash, saying, “Regarding Prigozhin: we have to wait for the fog of war to clear.”
“However, it is clear that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own beastly fear – the very one that nullified him in June 2023 – and was waiting for the moment. It is also obvious that Prigozhin signed a special death sentence for himself the moment he believed in the strange “guarantees of Lukashenko” and in the no less absurd “honest word” of Putin,” Podolyak wrote, referring to Belarusian president Alexandder Lukashenko.
“The show-stopping removal of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russian elites ahead of the 2024 elections: “Fight! Disloyalty equals death,” he added.
This story is developing…
