Wagner chief Prigozhin was on plane that crashed in Russia, aviation agency says
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner who staged a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, was on board a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency said.
“An investigation has been launched into the crash of the Embraer aircraft, which occurred tonight in the Tver region,” the Federal Air Transport Agency said in a statement, according to the official state news agency TASS. “According to the list of passengers, among them is the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin.” […]
The bodies of eight people have been found at the crash site, state media outlet Russia 24 reported. Earlier, TASS reported the plane “burned up” on impact after being in the air for about half an hour.
Russian investigators have initiated a criminal case following the crash. The Russian Investigative Committee said that a team was on the way to the scene to “establish the causes of the crash.” […]
US President Joe Biden suggested Putin may have been behind the crash. “You may recall, I was asked about this,” Biden told CNN. “I said I would be careful what I rode in. I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised.”
Yeah. I mean, it could be entirely coincidental that this plane carrying an enemy of uncle Vlad should happen to, you know, just fall out of the sky like that and it was just a happy accident (literally) for Putin who was not involved with it in any way… but… no. I don’t think anyone actually believes that for a second, whether or not it actually is the case. The real question, of course, is whether this is something Vlad pulled off specially for Prigozhin, or whether he’s just got bored with pushing his opponents out of high windows and we can look forward to more varied acts of assassination…
