Yevgeny Prigozhin Passed Away!

Wagner Group chief dies in a plane crash.

Russian state media reported that the leader of the Wagner mercenary group was one of 10 victims in a plane crash outside of Moscow. Many believe the Federation leader Vladimir Putin ordered a hit on his former ally.

You may remember that the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was planning an armed mutiny against Russia and it came close to toppling the Kremlin. It did cease after talks.

But Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus and the Wagner mercenaries were banned from Russia. The U.S. and other intelligence agencies have signaled that his time was coming, but they didn't know when the hit was going to happen.

A mysterious plane crash of a critic of Putin is something that will have Ukraine and world leaders pondering. When we thought the armed mutiny weakened Putin, it appears the dictator was regaining his strength.

The victims of this plane crash:

Yevgeny Prigozhin: The founder, leader, and spokesmen for the Wagner group.

Dmitry Utkin: The leader of Wagner's military operations, and who the group was named after.

Sergei Propustin: Wagner veteran and officer.

Yevgeny Makaryan: Prigozhin's bodyguard.

Alexander Totmin: Prigozhin's bodyguard.

Valery Chekalov: The leader of Wagner's security and foreign logistics.

Nikolai Matyuseev: Wagner veteran and officer.

And three were crew members:

Aleksei Levshin: Pilot.

Rustam Karimov: Co-pilot.

Kristina Raspopova: Flight attendant.

The aircraft crashed near Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast, approximately 60 miles (100 km) north of its departure point in Moscow. The aircraft involved was a private jet manufactured by the Brazilian company Embraer. It is believed to be Yevgeny Prigozhin's personal aircraft, an Embraer Legacy 600; however, certain Russian media outlets suggest ownership by MNT-Aero LLC, a corporate transportation firm.

Putin once considered Prigozhin a trusted ally.

A Telegram channel associated with the Wagner Group called "Grey Zone" reported that the jet was downed by Russian air defenses. The channel claimed that local residents near the crash site heard two loud noises before the incident and observed two vapour trails. However, this assertion was contested due to the lack of visible missile trails in the released footage. All ten passengers' remains were successfully recovered.

According to Flightradar24 data, the plane had ascended to an altitude of 28,000 ft (8,500 m) subsequent to takeoff. Video footage of the crash displayed the aircraft in an apparent flat spin just before impacting the ground. It seemed to be missing either its vertical stabilizer or one of its wings.

Prigozhin was occasionally referred to as "Putin's chef" because he owned restaurants and catering companies that provide services to the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies, notably the Wagner private military company, which received support from the Russian state, as well as three companies accused of interfering in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections. According to a 2022 investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin's activities "are tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".

He was wanted by the FBI and had a $250,000 bounty for his arrest. He was ordered to encourage election interference to help Washed Up 45 beat Hillary Clinton (and later Joe Biden) through a continuing manipulation of information through social media.

Wagner mercenaries allegedly are plotting a revenge attack.

Prigozhin financed and directed a network of companies including a company called the Internet Research Agency Ltd. (Russian: ООО «Агентство интернет-исследований»), Concord Management and Consulting Company and one other related company. The three companies are accused of Internet trolling and attempting to influence the 2016 US presidential elections and other activity to influence political events outside Russia.

Russian journalist Andrey Soshnikov reported that Alexey Soskovets, who had participated in Russian youth political community, was directly connected to the offices of Internet Research in Olgino. His company, North-Western Service Agency, won 17 or 18 (according to different sources) contracts for organizing celebrations, forums and sport competitions for authorities of Saint Petersburg. The agency was the only participant in half of those bids. In the summer of 2013, the agency won a tender for providing freight services for participants of a Seliger camp.

In February 2023, Prigozhin stated that he founded the IRA: "I've never just been the financier of the Internet Research Agency. I invented it, I created it, I managed it for a long time." The admission came months after Prigozhin had admitted to Russian interference in U.S. elections.