MOSCOW: No cause of the crash was announced, but the announcement raised suspicions that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed.
Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led an insurgency against Russian President Vladimir Putin, was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday, Russian authorities said.
No cause of the crash was announced, but the announcement raised suspicions that Prigozhin had been killed. Putin condemned the June uprising as “treason”, but the mercenary leader appeared to escape immediate retaliation after striking a deal with the Kremlin to leave the country and move to Belarus.
Reacting to Prigozhin’s death, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk said that it took “longer” than he expected. “Slight chance this is a psy op,” he added.
Musk’s response came after user X wrote: “That didn’t take too long.”
Chief Wagner crossed into Russia with his forces to overthrow Moscow’s military leadership in June.
The 62-year-old man was on board a private plane that crashed while traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
According to preliminary information, all 10 people on board, including three crew members, were killed, the ministry said.
Russia’s Rosaviatsia aviation agency said it had set up a special commission to investigate the crash of the plane belonging to MNT-Aero.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which investigates serious crimes, said it had opened an investigation into the crash.
So far, the bodies of eight people have been found at the crash site, RIA Novosti reported, citing emergency services.
