Russian President Vladimir Putin has provided his condolences to the households of victims a airplane crash that killed mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and a number of other prime brass of the infamous paramilitary group Wagner.
Putin broke his silence Thursday on the incident in televised feedback describing Wednesday’s crash as a “tragedy.”
Prigozhin was registered on the airplane that was carrying 9 others who’re additionally presumed to have died.
Wednesday night’s crash came about precisely two months after Prigozhin led a riot in opposition to Moscow’s prime army brass, thought of by some observers to have been the largest risk to Putin’s lengthy rule.
Although Moscow opened a probe into violations of air visitors guidelines, investigators have been silent since, as hypothesis of a attainable assassination has grown.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted Kyiv had nothing to do with the incident.
“I think everyone knows who this concerns,” he mentioned, in what seemed to be a reference to Putin.
“There is a court in The Hague, there is a court of God. But Russia has an alternative (court) – President Putin,” he mentioned when requested once more in regards to the air crash later Thursday.
A ‘frequent trigger’
When Putin broke his silence Thursday, he paid a professional tribute to the mercenary boss and the paramilitary group he led.
“I knew Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 90s. He was a man of complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results,” Putin mentioned.
In an deal with to Russians through the Wagner riot on June 23-24 by which he warned in opposition to “civil war,” Putin had referred to as Prigozhin – as soon as his ally – a “traitor.”
But on Thursday, he mentioned the Wagner members who had died within the crash had made a “significant contribution” to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
They had shared a standard trigger, Putin mentioned, including: “We remember that, we know that, and we will not forget that.”
He mentioned the investigation into the crash would take time, however added: “It will be conducted in full and brought to a conclusion.”
Chechen strongman and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov paid tribute to Prigozhin’s “iron character” in a message on Telegram.
But he added: “Recently he either did not see or did not want to see the full picture of what is happening in the country.”
‘Reasonable doubts’
Some Western leaders expressed doubts that the crash had been an accident.
“There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind,” mentioned U.S. President Joe Biden, after having mentioned he didn’t know what occurred.
France noticed “reasonable doubts” in regards to the crash, whereas Germany mentioned it adopted a sample of “unclarified” fatalities in Russia.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock mentioned it was suspicious that “a disgraced former confidant of Putin suddenly, literally falls from the sky two months after he attempted a mutiny.”
Even influential pro-Kremlin figures, resembling state tv character and Putin ally Margarita Simonyan, appeared to recommend that it might have been an assassination.
“Among the versions that are being discussed (about the crash) is that it was staged. But personally, I’m leaning toward the more obvious one,” she mentioned on social media.
Russia’s aviation authority revealed the passenger record for the Embraer personal jet late Wednesday.
It included Prigozhin and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy determine who managed Wagner’s operations and allegedly served in Russian army intelligence.
Russian police patrolled the crash website close to the village of Kuzhenkino, some 350 kilometers (220 miles) north of Moscow within the Tver area.
One lady dwelling close to Kuzhenkino mentioned her neighbour had heard a roar and noticed “sparkling from the plane,” accompanied by hearth.
“A neighbour ran up to me with shaking hands and when we went to the window I saw only one mushroom (cloud from the explosion), a black cloud,” she mentioned in video revealed by state-run news company RIA Novosti.
‘Real patriot’
Video verified by AFP from the scene appeared to point out the Embraer Legacy airplane in a plume of white smoke because it fell from the sky.
The Flightradar24 tracker web site mentioned the airplane flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg appeared on their radar till the final 30 seconds and descended “dramatically” at round 3:20 p.m. GMT.
Some Wagner-linked Telegram channels initially advised the airplane had been shot down by Russian air protection, on a day when Kyiv struck Russia with extra drone assaults.
Prigozhin appeared to take pleasure in some recognition in Russia.
He appealed to nationalist-leaning Russians – additionally suspicious of the military management through the Ukraine offensive – who embraced his tough-guy model.
Some even speculated that he would participate within the 2024 presidential election, which is anticipated to increase Putin’s rule till no less than 2030.
“He was one of the few real patriots in our country,” Pavel Zakharov mentioned as he laid flowers at Wagner’s headquarters in St. Petersburg.
Many Russians eagerly awaited Prigozhin’s outspoken, usually expletive-laden social media movies, a pointy distinction to the tightly managed narrative of Russian officers.
Ukrainians hope loss of life ‘true’
Wagner places of work had been nonetheless working and even recruiting in Russia after Prigozhin’s riot, which noticed his males take over a army headquarters within the southern metropolis of Rostov-on-Don and march on Moscow.
In Siberia, a area from the place Wagner recruited closely, folks additionally laid flowers on the mercenary firm’s workplace in Novosibirsk.
But in Ukraine, the place Wagner fighters had been identified for his or her distinctive brutality – together with extrajudicial killings of their very own males – many welcomed the news of Prigozhin’s loss of life.
“I feel really happy that this person died, if it is true,” authorities employee Iryna Kuchina instructed AFP in Kyiv.
Prigozhin recruited tens of 1000’s of Russian convicts to combat in Ukraine, usually thrown into the entrance line.
Wagner’s future with out Prigozhin remained unclear.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
