Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of PMC Wagner, a Russian mercenary group has reportedly been laid to rest in a private funeral held in his hometown of St. Petersburg on Tuesday 29th of August.
Prigozhin was reported dead after the private plane he was travelling in crashed in Kuzhenkino, Bologovsky District, Tver Oblast, Russia on August 23 killing all ten on board inluding his second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin who is credited with giving PMC Wagner its name.
Russia’s top criminal investigative committee confirmed his death on Sunday, the 27th of August following an autopsy conducted on the bodies recovered from the crash site.
Prigozhin’s spokespeople said a service took place behind closed doors on Tuesday directing “those who wish to bid their farewell” to the former Wagner leader to go to the Porokhovskoye cemetery in his hometown of St. Petersburg.
See the video embedded below covering the private burial of PMC Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Speculations have been rife since the plane crash took place exactly two months after Prigozhin led a rebellion against the Russian military establishment taking over the Russian military headquarters at Rostov-on-Don and later ‘marching on Moscow’.
Several pundits and experts on Russian matters have maintained that Prigozhin’s death was not a surprise while alluding that most of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s critics have ended up in near-similar fate.
When asked what he thought of Prigozhin’s death, U.S president Joe Biden said “there’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind.” An preliminary assessment by the American intelligence concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to crash.
New Details
A video has since emerged where the former Wagner boss spoke about his safety. The video, which appears to have been shot in Africa just a few days before the crash that killed him where he is speaking to the camera assuring his supporters that he is doing fine: “For those who are discussing whether am alive or not, how am doing right now, it’s the weekend, second half of August 2023, I’m in Africa.”
Prigozhin continued, “so for those discussing wiping me out or my private life, how much I earn or whatever else- everything is okay”, he concluded. Experts have said the video may be a hint that Prigozhin knew he was being targeted with elimination.
Watch the video of Prigozhin talking about his safety a few days before the plane crash that took his life alongside 9 others who included a crew of 3 and senior Wagner leaders.
The private jet, Embraer Legacy, which was registered to PMC Wagner has been described as one the safest private jets having never been known to have crashed, including after one of them collided with a Boeing jet while fly over the Amazon.
Utkin, the second-in-command of the PMC Wagner has also reportedly been laid to rest. We shall keep updating the story as more new details emerge regarding fate of Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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