How Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeniy Prigozhin died in Russian plane crash
By Emma Ogbuehi (With Agency Reports)
Sketchy details have emerged on how Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Wagner Group mercenary chief who led a short-lived mutiny against the Russina President, Vladimir Putin in June, died in plane crash.
Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a plane that crashed in Russia on Wednesday, killing all 10 people on board, including three pilots and seven passengers
News of his suspected demise was broken by Russian state news agency Tass, which cited the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, according to Agency Reports. Russia’s emergency services did not immediately confirm whether Prigozhin had been on board and died.
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Prigozhin had largely disappeared from the public eye after leading the short-lived rebellion, in which his mercenary fighters briefly occupied a military headquarters in southern Russia and marched on the capital, shocking President Vladimir Putin and the country’s military leadership.
Under a deal brokered with Putin by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin agreed to call off the mutiny in exchange for pardons and the ability to relocate his fighters to
Al Jazeera added that Russia’s civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, also confirmed that Prigozhin was on the passenger list. However, it was not immediately clear if he had boarded the flight.
According to the medium, the Embraer aircraft, en route from Moscow to St Petersburg, was carrying seven passengers and three crew.
While his rebellion lasted, Prigozhin posed the gravest challenge ever to President Putin’s two-decade grip on power.
Prigozhin had his mercenaries occupy the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and then sent military columns marching towards Moscow.
He called the Russian military leadership corrupt and incompetent. He had complained for months of inadequate munitions supplies for his fighters serving on the frontlines of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
At the time, Putin described the revolt as “treason”.
But shortly before his troops reached Moscow, Prigozhin ordered a retreat after negotiations with the Kremlin, in which Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko acted as mediator.
As part of the deal reached to escape prosecution, Prigozhin and his Wagner fighters were offered sanctuary in Belarus.