President Joe Biden said Wednesday he was not surprised by the plane crash that appears to have killed the leader of a revolt against Vladimir Putin, and hinted that the Russian president was behind it.
“I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said while vacationing on Lake Tahoe.
Biden spoke to reporters after he and his family worked out at a pelodog, a combination Pilates and cycling studio. As he exited the studio, he took a wrong turn and had to turn back to join his family and the Intelligence squad.
And when asked if Putin was behind the crash of a plane on which Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger, Biden said he wasn’t sure, noting he’d been working out for the past 90 minutes.
“There’s not much happening in Russia that isn’t done by Putin.” But I don’t know enough to know the answer. “I’ve been training for the last hour and a half,” he said.
President Biden spoke to reporters after a workout and while sipping a banana-blueberry smoothie
The president, who brought a banana-blueberry smoothie with him during his speech, also said he will watch the Republican primary debate later Wednesday night, although Donald Trump, the front-runner in the race, opted to skip the event.
But he joked he had no expectations for the night Republicans first officially gathered and attempted to defeat him in next year’s election.
“I’ll try to see as much as I can – get, yes,” he said.
When asked about his expectations, he smiled widely and laughed, “I don’t have any.”
Biden spent the afternoon in the wellness studio. He appeared to be lost exiting the Tahoe Valley studio and took a wrong turn upon exiting.
He turned left and walked a few yards before turning to head back the other way, grinning as he joined his Intelligence squad and family to head to the motorcade.
The President, First Lady Jill Biden, and her family members attended a Pilates class followed by a spinning class, the White House said.
Biden’s granddaughters Maisy and Naomi were spotted in a group along with Naomi’s husband Peter Neal. As did Biden’s daughter, Ashley, and Melissa Cohen, Hunter Biden’s wife.
At one point, Hunter Biden’s young son Beau ran down the sidewalk and into the gym.
The President is on a week-long vacation at the mountain lake resort that sits on the borders of California and Nevada.
He visited Maui on Monday to view the devastation caused by the wildfires, but faced criticism for trying to engage with the victims by digging into his own family tragedy and speaking out about a decades-old kitchen fire at his home.
He is staying with his family, including his son Hunter, in the $18 million home of billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer after complaints the rent may violate local county housing codes.
President Joe Biden made a wrong turn after exiting a training studio and turned back the other way
Jill Biden after family training
President Joe Biden waves his smoothie after his Pilates and spinning class
It was not initially known if Wagner boss Prigozhin (pictured in a video reportedly filmed in Africa and released on Monday) – known as the Wagner boss and with long-standing ties to the Kremlin dictator – was on board
Russian state media said Prigozhin was dead after a plane crashed in Russia on Wednesday, two months after his failed coup attempt against Putin – his name was on the passenger list.
Video footage allegedly shows the plane falling from the sky in the Bologovsky district of the Tver region, 60 miles north of Moscow. A burning wreckage was later seen in a field, which appeared to be an airplane. Unconfirmed images showed it was completely ablaze.
The tracking data available for the crashed plane appears to show that it climbed to about 29,000 feet before suddenly disappearing and dropping to 0 feet.
Russian state television Rossiya24 announced Prigozhin’s death, stating: “A private jet en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg has crashed.”
“Ten people were killed.” Among the passengers was Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The name of Dmitri Utkin, the most prominent commander of the Wagner mercenary group, was also on the passenger list of the crashed plane.
US intelligence had been surprised that Putin had not acted against Prigozhin after his short-lived mutiny in June. And they could not confirm his death immediately after the crash.
Prigozhin’s Wagner force was a core component of Russian forces against Ukraine.
The Wagner group saw some of the worst fighting in Ukraine, numbers so dwindling that Prigozhin recruited thousands of dangerous convicted criminals straight from prison to join his forces.
Witnesses to the crash heard a loud bang before seeing the plane “fall out of the sky” – locals are sharing these images of the aftermath on social media, although it’s currently unconfirmed if this is the plane
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Russian Army tank gunner Alexei Neustroyev after awarding him the honorary title of “Hero of Russia” at a ceremony in Moscow on Wednesday
President Biden walks to speak with reporters after his training class in Lake Tahoe
In late June, Prigozhin launched an unprecedented verbal attack on President Putin and his allies before marching 25,000 troops toward Moscow.
The mutiny was ended through negotiations and an apparent settlement with the Kremlin, in which Prigozhin agreed to resettle in neighboring Belarus. But he still appeared to move freely within Russia after the deal.
After the June meeting, Biden said Putin was “absolutely” weakened.
He also joked at the time that Prigozhin should be careful.
“If I were him, I would be careful about what I eat.” “I would watch my menu,” Biden said.
“But joking aside, who knows? “I don’t know, I don’t think any of us know for sure what the future of Prigozhin in Russia is,” the president added.