Accident or murder? The circumstances of the crash of the plane carrying Evguéni Prigojine, boss of the Wagner group, raise questions. While the Russian media announce his death, some voices are raised to raise the possibility of an assassination ordered by the Kremlin. This hypothesis echoes the attempted mutiny initiated by Prigojine last June.
The plane crash happened exactly two months after the failed Prigozhin mutiny. Among the ten passengers aboard the aircraft were Dimitri Utkin, considered the co-founder of Wagner, and other executives of the mercenary group. While details about the circumstances of the accident remain unclear, the Kremlin refuses to comment on reports that the bodies of the passengers have been found.
Many observers believe that the thesis of Prigozhin’s death is the most plausible. This hypothesis is reinforced by several coincidences, such as the symbolic timing of the crash, two months after the mutiny, the fact that Prigozhin and Utkin rarely traveled together to avoid this type of scenario, as well as the speech delivered by Vladimir Putin celebrating the victory of the USSR against Nazi Germany at the very moment of the accident.
While there is nothing to definitively confirm that it was an assassination ordered by the Kremlin, some analysts raise the possibility of an operation orchestrated by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. According to this theory, Prigojine was lured to Mali by rumors that the GRU were seeking to remove Wagner’s mercenaries and replace them with their own men. This operation would have made it possible to know precisely the flight on which Prigojine was.
Whatever the truth about the circumstances of this crash, it is undeniable that Prigozhin was a controversial man and on borrowed time since his attempted mutiny. His possible elimination sends a strong signal to the Russian elites: no betrayal will be tolerated by Vladimir Putin.
In conclusion, the crash of the plane carrying Yevgeny Prigojine raises many questions and gives rise to speculation about the possibility of an assassination ordered by the Kremlin. While the exact circumstances remain unclear, coincidences and Prigozhin’s controversial profile fuel theories of an operation orchestrated by Russian intelligence services