Source – elpais.com
- “…The mutiny on June 23-24 was the last red line crossed by Prigozhin…After the failure of the coup, Putin promised a pardon to the Wagner members in his message to the nation delivered two days later. But the president hinted that he would not forget the rebellion by differentiating between its leaders and its soldiers.
Russia confirms Prigozhin’s death when his plane crashed two months after rebelling against the Kremlin
(Also Read: Wagner Plane ‘Crash’ Whodunnit & Is Prigozhin Really Dead? @ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-assesses-russian-surface-air-missile-took-out-wagner-plane-whodunnit-prigozhin)
The Emergencies Ministry announces the death of the 10 people on board, including the head of the Wagner mercenary company and his ‘number two’
(Also Read: Kremlin Rejects “Absolute Lie” That Putin Ordered Killing Of Wagner’s Prigozhin @ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/kremlin-rejects-absolute-lie-putin-ordered-killing-wagners-prigozhin)
The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has confirmed this Wednesday the death of the head of the Wagner mercenary company, Yevgueni Prigozhin, after the plane in which he was traveling crashed. All 10 passengers on board have died, according to the Emergencies Ministry. From Wagner’s environment they confirm that both his boss and one of his most important commanders were traveling on the device, the far-right Dmitri Utkin, a former agent of the army intelligence service and who participated in the Russian incursion into the Ukrainian region of Donbas after the illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“An investigation has been launched into the Embraer plane disaster that occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the list of passengers, among them are the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin,” confirmed the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency. It is an Embraer Legacy 600, tail number RA-02795. The authorities report that the device crashed at around 6:40 p.m. in Moscow, 5:40 p.m. in mainland Spain, next to the village of Kuzhenkino.
This incident occurs two months after the mutiny that Prigozhin led against the Kremlin . Then, armored columns headed for hours to Moscow, in what posed the greatest threat that President Vladimir Putin has known in his more than two decades in power.
“The head of the Wagner Group, a hero of Russia, a true patriot of his homeland, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia. But even in hell it will be the best! Glory to Russia!”, assured Gray Zone, a Telegram channel close to the businessman. This group accuses the Defense Ministry headed by Sergei Shoigu, a declared enemy of Prigozhin, of having shot down the plane with an anti-aircraft system.
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“I just spoke with some prominent ‘musicians’ [the nickname given to Wagner members]. They confirm the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitri Utkin”, assured the president of the ultranationalist movement Together with Russia, Vladimir Rogov. The Russian media Fontanka also points out that the mercenary staff was traveling in the device, according to their sources in St. Petersburg, the city where the emporium of the businessman known as Putin’s chef had its operations center.
After the failure of the coup, Putin promised a pardon to the Wagner members in his message to the nation delivered two days later. But the president hinted that he would not forget the rebellion by differentiating between its leaders and its soldiers. “The vast majority of the fighters and commanders of the Wagner group are also Russian patriots,” the Russian president emphasized. “The organizers of the rebellion betrayed their country, their people, they betrayed those who were dragged into crime. They lied to them, pushed them under fire to shoot their own, ”he added.Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
The mutiny on June 23-24 was the last red line crossed by Prigozhin. He had previously broken the Kremlin’s law of silence by showing the corpses of his soldiers while insulting Minister Shoigu for not arming his men. “These comrades died yesterday. Due to ammunition famine. One fifth, one fifth! Mothers, women and children will receive their bodies. Who is to blame for their deaths? The culprit is the one who does not solve the ammunition supply. At the end of the [supply] list there should be the signature of [Russian Chief of Staff] Valery Gerasimov, or Shoigu. They don’t want to make the decision. They don’t want Wagner to exist,” Prigozhin denounced in a gloomy video on February 22, when the first anniversary of the war was about to expire.
Prigozhin had reappeared this Monday in an undetermined country in Africa. Supposedly pardoned by President Putin in exchange for transferring the Wagner Group to Belarus, the businessman released a video in which he appeared dressed in a camouflage suit and an assault rifle. “We are working,” said the head of the mercenaries. “Temperature, 50+ degrees, just the way we like it. The Wagner Group performs reconnaissance tasks. We make Russia even bigger on all continents and Africa even freer,” said the businessman almost two months after challenging the president.
Prigozhin entered the 90s in the Kremlin circles. It was in Saint Petersburg, where the Russian president and his environment came from, thanks to his catering business. He extended his services to power with the troll factory that clouded elections in various countries and with the company of mercenaries. After having denied the existence of Wagner since his men intervened in the Ukrainian region of Donbas in the spring of 2014, he only acknowledged that this company was a reality and had already begun the invasion of the country.
“Putin forgives no one”
That same Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the plane crash was known, the first international reactions began to arrive. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m not surprised,” said US President Joe Biden, who recalled the phrase he had said when asked about Prigozhin’s fate after the failed mutiny: “I would be careful.” About the responsibility of the Russian president in what happened, Biden does not seem to have many doubts. “Not many things happen in Russia that don’t have Putin behind them,” he replied.
The Government of Ukraine pointed in the same direction. Mikhailo Podoliak, adviser to President Volodímir Zelenski, who asked to wait until the situation is clarified. “Meanwhile, it is obvious that Putin does not forgive anyone. He was waiting for this moment. It is also obvious that Prigozhin signed his death sentence at the moment when he believed in Lukashenko’s ‘guarantees’ and Putin’s equally absurd ‘word of honor’,” the adviser wrote on the X social network, formerly Twitter. from Zelensky.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told CNN: “If confirmed, it shows that Putin eliminates his opponents and scares anyone with a different opinion from his.”
Removal of his ally Surovikin
The incident occurred on the same day that the dismissal of his ally, General Sergei Surovikin (Novosibirsk, 56 years old), as head of the Russian Federation Aerospace Forces was leaked due to his closeness to the company mercenaries.
Following last year’s autumn setbacks on the Kharkiv and Kherson fronts, the Kremlin chose Surovikin on October 8, 2022 as the sole commander of its forces in Ukraine. His first move was to organize an orderly withdrawal from the city of Kherson to the opposite side of the river. Second, to fortify their new lines and begin a continuous bombing campaign against Ukrainian civilian infrastructure that included power plants in the dead of winter.
Prigozhin, openly at odds with Shoigu and Gerasimov, openly applauded Surovikin’s appointment in October 2022. So did Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, then a staunch public defender of Wagner’s boss.
The president of that republic of the Caucasus began to distance himself from Prigozhin at the beginning of this year, when Surovikin was replaced by the chief of the General Staff, Gerasimov, and the owner of Wagner began to pour out increasingly harsh criticism of the Ministry in public. of Russian Defense for not supplying him with the ammunition he demanded in the Bakhmut offensive.
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