Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of a Russian mercenary group who attempted a mutiny against President Vladimir Putin in June, was listed among the passengers aboard a plane that crashed Wednesday north of Moscow. His death has not been confirmed directly, but Russian authorities say that all passengers and crew perished.
According to a Russian civil aviation agency post on Telegram, the airline operating the flight named Prigozhin Evgeniy among the passengers onboard.
Prigozhin, 62, started the Wagner Group, a private military force that has aided Russian troops in Ukraine and in other nations. The group was known for its brutality in Ukraine and elsewhere.
For a time, Prigozhin and Putin were allies before Prigozhin accused Russian military leaders of mismanaging the Ukraine invasion and attempted a takeover of the government in June. The rebellion failed, and Putin allowed Prigozhin to go into exile in Belarus.
Was Prigozhin aboard the plane? We don’t know.
Details are sketchy, but Prigozhin is believed to have been aboard an Embraer business jet flying from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport to St. Petersburg, according to CNBC, citing a report from TASS, a Russian state media outlet. Prigozhin was on the passenger list, said Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civilian aviation regulator. It’s unclear whether he boarded the plane.
Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin.
The jet crashed near Kuzhenkino, a settlement in the Tver region about 60 miles north of Moscow, The Washington Post reported.
The cause of the crash was unknown Wednesday.
Earlier reports of Prigozhin’s death have been received with skepticism. In 2019, he was reported killed in a plane crash in the Congo. That turned out to be false.
Prigozhin was said to be recruiting soldiers for the Wagner Group for deployment in Africa, The Associated Press reported Aug. 21.
CONTRIBUTING Jim Sergent, Karina Zaiets, John Bacon and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY
SOURCE USA TODAY Network reporting and research; Associated Press
