Putin speaks on plane crash
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Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences Thursday to the family of onetime friend, Russian mercenary group founder and aborted coup leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who apparently died in the suspicious crash of his private plane northwest of Moscow.
The Russian agency in charge of civil aviation listed Prigozhin, 62, top lieutenant Dmitry Utkin and five other Wagner members among 10 passengers and crew on the Embraer business jet that crashed Wednesday night. The Federal Air Transport Agency said all aboard had died and that an investigation into the crash was underway.
“He was a man of difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life,” Putin said, as reported by state media, adding that “he achieved the results he needed.”
Putin said Prigozhin and his lieutenants aboard the plane provided a “significant contribution” to the war effort. But Prigozhin’s brief June rebellion was the strongest challenge in decades to Putin’s iron-fisted rule, an act the Russian leader called “treason” and a “stab in the back.” That raised the question of whether the former restaurateur would be punished despite a deal that appeared to protect him.
A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment found the plane crash was caused by an intentional explosion, according to U.S. and Western officials, who were not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity. One of them said the blast was in keeping with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”
Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, appeared to remove early doubts about whether Prigozhin was on the doomed flight when he told reporters Thursday: “Our initial assessment is that it’s likely Prigozhin was killed” in the crash.
Reuters, citing U.S. officials it did not name, said a surface-to-air missile originating from inside Russia probably shot down the plane, but Ryder said, “We assess that information to be inaccurate.”
Ukraine has denied responsibility. Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the “demonstrative elimination” of Prigozhin shows the worthlessness of Russian security guarantees.
“A good lesson to all the ‘doves of peace’ who still believe in the possibility of negotiating with Putin under the condition of a cease-fire and arms supply termination,” he said.
Plane crash: Wagner chief presumed dead in Russia plane crash: Aug. 23 recap
Developments:
◾ Russian media outlets said the bodies were badly burned, slowing the process of formal identification.
◾ The aircraft tracker flightradar24 said the plane began flying erratically several minutes after leveling off at 28,000 feet. The plane descended from more than 30,000 feet to less than 20,000 feet in 32 seconds before no further data was received, flightracker24 said.
◾ Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said its special forces landed Thursday night on occupied Crimea and, after engaging the Russians in combat, “the enemy suffered losses among personnel, enemy equipment was destroyed.” The claim could not be independently verified.
◾ Norway said Thursday it would supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, two right away for pilot training and an undermined number later, the Kyiv Independent reported. Denmark and the Netherlands have also pledged F-16s to Ukraine.
The Kremlin and the Russian Ministry of Defense had been putting the squeeze on Wagner’s operations since the revolt, and “the assassination of Wagner’s top leadership was likely the final step” to eradicate it, a Washington-based think tank concluded.
The Institute for the Study of War said the ministry was already working on forming new mercenary groups to replace Wagner’s operations in Africa and the Middle East, even poaching personnel from Prigozhin’s private army. At the same time, Russian officials were making it difficult for Wagner to recruit new fighters, diminishing its influence, partly by tarnishing Prigozhin’s reputation.
“The Russian MoD and the Kremlin had effectively created conditions in which Prigozhin could no longer adequately support the Wagner contingent unless he was able to secure new funding and missions for Wagner personnel in the immediate term,” the institute said.
Four days before Prigozhin’s apparent death, Putin made a rare visit Saturday to the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District at Rostov-on-Don, a southern city of more than 1 million people about 100 miles from the frontline, the British Defense Ministry said in its latest war update.
The headquarters was seized in June without a shot being fired by Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries, who found a largely unimpeded path and plenty of support as they marched toward Moscow before ending their rebellion 120 miles from the capital.
The visit shortly before Prigozhin’s demise had a purpose beyond meeting with Gen. Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s top commander in Ukraine, and other military officials.
“Putin highly likely wishes to project his authority and to portray the senior military command as functioning as usual,” the ministry said.
Sergei Mironov, leader of the pro-Kremlin Fair Russia party, posted his own eulogy to the victims on Telegram, lauding Prigozhin as a man with a big heart “who can make mischief … but will not betray.” He warned that retribution was inevitable.
“They love them, they hate them,” he said. “Prigozhin interfered with too many people in Russia, Ukraine, and the West. Now it seems that at some point the number of enemies reached a critical point.”
Ukraine celebrated Independence Day on Thursday, marking the 32nd anniversary of its split from the Soviet Union. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke to the war-torn nation, lauding its citizens for the strength and endurance they have shown in the face of Russia’s invasion. He also promised to be tough on anyone who tries to “undermine, trade, or weaken Ukraine’s power” from within.
“We will cherish our unity,” he said. “When Russia invaded with a full-scale war, there was not a single day that Ukraine lacked unity.”
President Joe Biden issued a statement promising to work with partners around the world in supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s aggression. He also pledged to hold Russian forces accountable for the war crimes and other atrocities committed in Ukraine.
“I sincerely hope that next year, Ukrainians will be able to celebrate their Independence Day in peace and safety, knowing how their extraordinary courage inspired the world,” Biden said.
Ukrainian border guards and intelligence say the Wagner Group mercenaries who had relocated to Belarus after the short-lived coup are now leaving the Russian neighbor. Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko helped negotiate a deal that gave thousands of Wagner troops safe passage to his country. Now camps are being disassembled and the soldiers are leaving, Pravda Ukraine reports.
The deal that ended the insurrection allowed Wagner troops to join the Russian regular army or leave for Belarus. The Kremlin had said neither the soldiers nor Prigozhin would face punishment. The plane crash that killed Prigozhin also killed his top officers, leaving the future of Wagner in turmoil.
A spontaneous memorial began to form near the Wagner Center in St. Petersburg as people brought flowers, candles and symbols of the Wagner Group. The lights on the building were turned on in the shape of a cross. The military blogging site Grey Zone posted tributes, saying Prigozhin “died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia. But even in Hell he will be the best! Glory to Russia!”
Putin and Prigozhin met in the early 1990s when Prigozhin was a restauranteur and Putin was an aide to St. Petersburg’s mayor. Putin’s rise to power would allow Prigozhin to become wealthy from Kremlin contracts, and Prigozhin led thousands of his mercenaries on a string of hard-fought successes in Ukraine.
But Prigozhin repeatedly railed against the Russian Defense Ministry for lack of support, and two months ago he led his forces on a 36-hour rebellion and march that came within 120 miles of Moscow before a deal was reached. Prigozhin and his crew were granted asylum in Belarus, but he did not stay there for long, making trips to Africa and Russia and even meeting with Putin days after the coup was quelled.
A court in Moscow ruled that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich can be held for three more months pending trial on espionage charges that he, the Journal and the U.S. government flatly deny. The Journal said a judge ruled in favor of Russia’s Federal Security Service, whose agents took Gershkovich into custody in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on March 29 while he was reporting on a story.
The Journal issued a statement that said in part: “We are deeply disappointed he continues to be arbitrarily and wrongfully detained for doing his job as a journalist. The baseless accusations against him are categorically false, and we continue to push for his immediate release. Journalism is not a crime.”