Wagner boss Prigozhin on passenger list of downed plane

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is understood to have been killed in a plane crash in the Tver region, north of Moscow

The circumstances are unclear, but according to claims on a Russian Telegram channel Grey Zone, all passengers on board the plane were killed when it was shot down by Russian air defence forces. Prigozhin was listed as a passenger. 

A statement from Russia’s emergency situations ministry said a private Embraer Legacy aircraft flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino. The statement suggested ten passengers had been on board, including three crew members, and everyone on board was killed.

The Russian state news agency TASS also confirmed that Prigozhin had been listed as a passenger on board the Embraer jet.

It comes just a day after Prigozhin, who led a spectacular abortive coup (or attempt to change the military leadership) in June, was filmed in an African desert saying the Wagner mercenaries were now fighting the Islamist terrorist group ISIS to make Russia “even greater” and Africa “more free.”

A period of intense turmoil is in prospect. Today, Russia relieved General Sergei Surovikin, the head of the aerospace forces, from his duties. He has not been seen recently in public.

This month, two Russian generals have also died in suspicious circumstances. A disgraced Ukraine commander, Gennady Zhidko, died of a mystery ailment. And Gennady Lopyrev – a former member of Putin’s personal guard – died in prison before a parole bid. He was imprisoned in 2016.

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