Moscow:

At memorials to Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in an unexplained plane crash exactly 40 days ago, dozens of mourners hailed the mutinous mercenary chief as a patriotic hero of Russia who had spoken truth to power.

The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St. Petersburg crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on Aug. 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin’s four bodyguards, and a crew of three.

It is still unclear what caused the plane to crash two months to the day since Prigozhin’s failed mutiny. The Kremlin said on Aug. 30 that investigators were considering the possibility that the plane was downed on purpose.

At his grave in the former imperial capital of St. Petersburg, his mother, Violetta, and his son, Pavel, laid flowers. Supporters waved the black flags of Wagner which sport a skull and the motto “Blood, Honour, Motherland, Courage”.

In Eastern Orthodoxy, it is believed that the soul makes its final journey to either heaven or hell on the 40th day after death.

At memorials in Moscow and other Russian cities, dozens of Wagner fighters and ordinary Russians paid their respects, though there was no mass outpouring of grief. Russian state television was silent.

“He can be criticized for certain events, but he was a patriot who defended the motherland’s interests on different continents,” Wagner’s recruitment arm said in a statement on Telegram.

“He was charismatic and importantly he was close to the fighters and to the people. And that’s why he became popular both in Russia and abroad,” it said.

Prigozhin’s mutiny posed the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule since the former KGB spy rose to power in 1999. Western diplomats say it exposed the strains on Russia of the war in Ukraine.

“Leader”

After months of insulting Putin’s top brass with a variety of crude expletives and prison slang over their perceived failure to fight the Ukraine war properly, Prigozhin took control of the southern city of Rostov in late June.

His fighters shot down a number of Russian aircraft, killing their pilots, and advanced towards Moscow before turning back 200 km (125 miles) from the capital.

Putin initially cast Prigozhin as a traitor whose mutiny could have tipped Russia into civil war, though he later made a deal with him to defuse the crisis.

Mourners spoke of respect for Prigozhin.

“He was a real authority, a leader,” Mikhail, a serviceman in Russia’s armed forces who refused to give his second name, told Reuters.

Moscow resident Marta, who also refused to give her surname, said the people believed in Prigozhin but that Wagner had been “decapitated” by the deaths of him and co-founder Dmitry Utkin.

“Hope for justice died with him,” she said. “People believed in him.”

Pro-Wagner groups posted a video of Prigozhin flying to Mali where, after a thunderstorm, he met a senior commander known by his call sign “Lotus” – Anton Yelizarov – who is now reported to be leading the group.

Opponents such as the United States cast Wagner as a brutal crime group that plundered African states and meted out sledgehammer deaths to those who challenged it.

Putin was on Friday shown meeting one of the most senior former commanders of the Wagner mercenary group and discussing how best to use “volunteer units” in the Ukraine war.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

Russia informed Brazil’s aviation authority that it will not open an investigation into the plane crash that killed mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin under international rules “at the moment”, the Brazilian agency told Reuters on Tuesday.

Prigozhin, two top lieutenants of his Wagner Group and four bodyguards were among 10 people who died when the Brazilian-made Embraer jet crashed north of Moscow last week. He died two months to the day after staging a brief mutiny against the Russian defense establishment that posed the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s rule since he rose to power in 1999.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash two months after staging a short-lived mutiny, was on Tuesday laid to rest in a secret ceremony in his native Saint Petersburg.

He was believed to have been buried at the Porokhovskoye cemetery amid heightened security after his firm said a private ceremony had been held for the warlord “in a closed setting”.

The cemetery was cordoned off and access was restricted, but an AFP photographer saw the back of what appeared to be Prigozhin’s fresh grave, which was marked by a wooden cross.

At the burial site, mourners left a framed excerpt from “Nature Morte”, a poem by Soviet poet and Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky, which contains the words “dead or alive?”

Prigozhin’s press service only said that a private ceremony had been held for Prigozhin — who held the title of the Hero of Russia, the country’s top honour — at the cemetery located on the northeastern outskirts of Saint Petersburg.

“Yevgeny Viktorovich’s farewell was held in a closed setting. Those wishing to say goodbye can visit the Porokhovskoye cemetery,” his firm said.

Ukrainian officials pointed to the secrecy surrounding the ceremony, suggesting the Kremlin feared possible protests.

“The secret funeral of Wagner ex-chief Prigozhin as an absolute symbol of Putin’s genuine fear,” Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on messaging app Telegram.

The funeral appears to draw a curtain on an extraordinary chapter in recent Russian history that saw Prigozhin help lead Moscow’s assaults for cities and towns in eastern Ukraine and challenge Moscow’s leadership.

– ‘Shrouded in secrecy’ –

“The funeral of Prigozhin marked the culmination of a covert operation aimed at his elimination,” wrote political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya.

“Conducted under the strict oversight of the security agencies, the entire process was shrouded in secrecy and involved deceptive tactics.”

Russian authorities said that Prigozhin died in a private jet crash along with nine other people last week.

The spectacular plane crash in the Tver region took place two months after Prigozhin ordered his troops to topple Russia’s military leadership, in what was the most significant challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power in 2000.

Many military analysts said the downing of Prigozhin’s plane appeared deliberate, with some suggesting it might have been blown out of the sky by a missile and others pointing to a possible bomb.

The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.

But political commentators said that, with next year’s presidential election in Russia approaching fast, Prigozhin had become a huge liability for the Kremlin.

Russian officials opened an investigation into air traffic violations after the crash but have not disclosed details about a possible cause.

– Questions over death –

After the mutiny, Putin accused Prigozhin of treason, but following the crash, the Russian president said that he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s, describing him as a man who made mistakes but “achieved results”.

Putin’s comments did little to stem mounting questions over Prigozhin’s death, with makeshift shrines to the Wagner chief springing up across Russian cities.

The Kremlin said earlier Tuesday that Putin would not attend Prigozhin’s funeral.

“The president’s presence is not envisaged,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Wagner outfit had taken a prime role in Putin’s offensive in Ukraine, taking on the most dangerous frontline work, as the regular army appeared to falter, while sustaining what Western sources have described as huge losses.

Unlike Russia’s generals, who have been criticised for shirking the battles, the stocky and bald Prigozhin regularly posed for pictures alongside mercenaries allegedly on the front lines.

Prigozhin was allowed to openly recruit for new members in Russian prison camps and savaged Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Prigozhin has been described as a billionaire with a vast fortune built on state contracts, although the extent of his wealth is unknown.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A memorial service has taken place for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, his spokespeople said on August 29 in a terse statement on social media.
| Photo Credit: AP

A memorial service has taken place for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, his spokespeople said on August 29 in a terse statement on social media.

“Those who wish to bid their farewell” to the 62-year-old mercenary leader should go to the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, his hometown, the statement said.

Earlier media reports about the funeral mentioned other cemeteries in the city as likely sites for the burial, which has been shrouded in secrecy.

It wasn’t clear from the statement if Prigozhin has already been buried or if it was still to happen.

Earlier, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend a funeral for Prigozhin, who challenged the Russian leader’s authority in an armed rebellion in June. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t give any details about the burial because it was a private family matter.

The tight secrecy and confusion surrounding the funeral of Prigozhin and his top lieutenants reflected a dilemma faced by the Kremlin amid swirling speculation that the crash was likely a vendetta for his mutiny.

While it tried to avoid any pomp-filled ceremony for the man branded by Mr. Putin as a traitor for his June 23-24 rebellion, the Kremlin couldn’t afford to denigrate Prigozhin, who was given Russia’s highest award for leading Wagner forces in Ukraine and was idolized by many of the country’s hawks.

Putin’s comments on Prigozhin’s death reflected that careful stand. He noted last week that Wagner leaders “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine and described Prigozhin as a ”talented businessman” and “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life.”

Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, noted that Prigozhin has become a legendary figure for his supporters who are increasingly critical of the authorities.

“Prigozhin’s funeral raises an issue of communication between the bureaucratic Russian government system that doesn’t have much political potential and the politically active patriotic segment of the Russian public,” Mr. Markov said.

The country’s top criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, officially confirmed Prigozhin’s death on Sunday.

The committee didn’t say what might have caused Prigozhin’s business jet to plummet from the sky minutes after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg. Just before the crash, Prigozhin had returned from a trip to Africa, where he sought to expand Wagner Group’s activities.

Also on Tuesday, a funeral was held at St. Petersburg’s Northern Cemetery for Wagner’s logistics chief Valery Chekalov, who died in the Aug. 23 crash alongside Prigozin.

Prigozhin’s second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, a retired military intelligence officer who gave the mercenary group its name based on his own nom de guerre, was also among the 10 people killed in the crash.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to crash, and Western officials have pointed to a long list of Putin’s foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin rejected Western allegations the President was behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”

The crash came exactly two months after the brutal and profane mercenary boss launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. Prigozhin ordered his mercenaries to take over the military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then began a march on Moscow. They downed several military aircraft, killing more than a dozen pilots.

Mr. Putin denounced the revolt as “treason” and vowed to punish its perpetrators but hours later struck a deal that saw Prigozhin ending the mutiny in exchange for amnesty and permission for him and his troops to move to Belarus.

The fate of Wagner, which until recently played a prominent role in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries, is uncertain.

Mr. Putin said Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Russian military, move to Belarus or retire from service. Several thousand have deployed to Belarus, where they are in a camp southeast of the capital, Minsk.

Moscow:

Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was confirmed dead on Sunday by Russia’s Investigative Committee after a plane crash near Moscow, was a Kremlin confidant catapulted to infamy by the offensive in Ukraine before he turned his troops on Russia’s capital.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s order in June that his private fighting group march on Moscow to unseat Russia’s top brass presented the most serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s hold on power over more than two-decades.

His forces captured a key military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russian before setting their course for Moscow, where authorities heightened the security in anticipation of a showdown.

“The evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped,” the Wagner chief announced after claiming the defence ministry had launched strikes on Wagner bases.

But the failed bid ended with President Putin ultimately offering exile in neighbouring Belarus to the mutineers and Yevgeny Prigozhin, who then appeared in footage vowing to make Africa “freer” and suggested he was on the continent.

Before President Putin, who accused Yevgeny Prigozhin of treason, ordered troops to Ukraine in February last year, the 62-year-old mercenary head dispatched fighters from his private force to conflicts in the Middle East and Africa but always denied involvement.

That changed last year when he announced himself as the founder of the Wagner group and began a mass recruitment drive at Russia’s prisons for foot soldiers to fight in exchange for an amnesty.

Bitter top brass rivalry

He gained public acclaim as Wagner spearheaded the capture of several key Ukrainian towns including Bakhmut. But Yevgeny Prigozhin began blasting what he said was systemic mismanagement and lying in the Russian defence ministry.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was locked in a bitter months-long power struggle with the defence ministry as his ragtag forces spearheaded the costly battles for limited gains in eastern Ukraine.

He had earlier accused the Russian military of trying to “steal” victories from Wagner and slammed Moscow’s “monstrous bureaucracy” for grinding progress on the ground.

And he directly blamed Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other senior officials for his fighters’ deaths, claiming Moscow had not provided sufficient ammunition.

Unlike Russia’s generals, who have been criticised for shirking the battles, the stocky and bald Prigozhin regularly posed for pictures alongside mercenaries allegedly on the front lines.

He posted on social media images from the cockpit of a SU-24 fighter jet and challenged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to an aerial duel.

The former hotdog seller and native of Putin’s hometown Saint Petersburg, who was jailed for nearly a decade during the Soviet era, for years dismissed he was linked with the Wagner.

But last September, he conceded that he had founded the fighting force and opened headquarters in Saint Petersburg.

A video surfaced of a man bearing a strong resemblance to Yevgeny Prigozhin in a prison courtyard, offering contracts to prisoners to fight in Ukraine with a chilling set of conditions.

Shooting deserters

“If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we will regard it as desertion and will shoot you,” said the man.

When video footage circulated showing an alleged Wagner deserter being executed with a sledgehammer, Yevgeny Prigozhin praised the killing, calling the man featured in the video a “dog”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin rose from a modest background in Russia’s former imperial capital to become part of an inner circle close to Putin.

He spent nine years in prison in the final period of the USSR after being convicted of fraud and theft and, in the chaos of the 1990s, he began a moderately successful fast food company.

He fell into the restaurant sector and opened a luxury location in Saint Petersburg whose customers included President Putin, then making the transition from working in the KGB to local politics.

The company he founded at one point worked for the Kremlin, earning Yevgeny Prigozhin the soubriquet of “Putin’s chef”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has been described as a billionaire with a vast fortune built on state contracts, although the extent of his wealth is unknown.

One of the best-known images shows him at the Kremlin in 2011, bending down over a seated Putin and offering him a dish while the Russian leader looks back with an approving glance.

The ‘troll factory’

He was sanctioned by Washington, which accused him of playing a role in meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, in particular through his internet “troll factory”.

Yevgeny Prigozhin at the time denied any involvement and in 2020 asked for $50 billion in compensation from the United States.

In July 2018, three journalists researching Wagner’s operations in the Central African Republic for an investigative media outlet were killed in an ambush.

Western countries have accused the private fighting group of coming to the aid of the military junta in Mali, in a move that contributed to France’s decision to end an almost decade-long military operation there.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow:

The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner paramilitary group, following a plane crash on Wednesday has been confirmed by formal genetic analysis, Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday.

“Molecular-genetic examinations have been completed as part of the investigation into the plane crash in the Tver region,” the Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

“According to their results, the identities of all 10 victims were established, they correspond to the list stated in the flight list,” she added.

Among the other nine people listed onboard the Embraer private jet was Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner’s operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence.

Speculation the Kremlin may have been involved in Wednesday’s crash has been rife, with the incident coming exactly two months after Wagner staged a mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the incident as “tragic” to reporters on Friday, calling rumours of Yevgeny Prigozhin been killed on its orders an “absolute lie”.

Russian officials opened an investigation into air traffic violations after the crash but have otherwise not disclosed details about the possible cause.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)