Since Prigozhin’s plane crashed north of Moscow on August 23, Vladimir Putn has hardly dealt with the case. Just a few farewell messages from the former friend, who in his eyes became one of the main traitors after the attempted march on the capital on June 24. Today, however, the Kremlin chief somehow decided to partially break the silence. And he did it during the year Valdai forum. According to Putin, the crashed plane was not shot down and he ruled out the presence of possible external factors in the tragedy.
Putin’s words
It is perhaps no coincidence that the Russian president decided to talk about Prigozhin just in Valdai. The forum is an important event on Putin’s annual agenda and can attract significant media attention. The Kremlin leader is therefore well aware that he can spread his messages more widely.
According to Putin, the plane on which Prigozhin was traveling was not shot down. In addition, the head of the Russian Federation suspected explosions on board. “fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the plane crash,” the Kremlin chief continues. Therefore, there were no external factors as the cause of the plane crash. From Moscow’s perspective, it is important to highlight this last fact. Many analysts have actually suspected the use of anti-aircraft missiles by Russian forces on the orders of Putin himself or the head of the Defense Ministry against former leader Wagner’s aircraft.
“There were no external factors,” Putin added. “This is an already confirmed fact, the result of the analyzes carried out by the Investigative Committee of Russia.” According to this reconstruction, the attack occurred on board the vehicle. However, no allegations or hypotheses have been made in this regard.
The Tver incident
The fatal crash of Prigozhin’s plane occurred exactly two months after Wagner’s attempted march on Moscow. The private military company, once the Kremlin’s long arm in Africa and in the Ukrainian trenches themselves, turned into Putin’s worst nightmare on June 24 when the march was stopped just steps from the capital.
An irreparable insult by Prigozhin to Putin, at least in the opinion of the Russian president, who actually spoke of treason after the failed coup. So, the epilogue of the story took place at the end of August, when the plane with Prigozhin crashed in the Tver region. Wagner’s number one was to return from a trip to Africa, a continent where the company had its main economic and political interests.