What we know — and don’t — about the Russian crash that possibly killed Prigozhin

MOSCOW — Russian aviation authorities say Wagner Group mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger listing of a airplane that crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday that left no survivors. But officers have stopped in need of immediately confirming Prigozhin’s demise or the reason for the crash.

This is what we do — and do not — know to this point:

The crash

Flight monitoring knowledge confirmed the enterprise jet making a routine flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg earlier than instantly shedding altitude slightly over half-hour into its journey. Witness video seems to point out the airplane hurtling towards a discipline, with presumably one among its wings severed. Subsequent movies present the airplane engulfed in flames. Whereas not independently confirmed by NPR, the movies seem to match the placement of the crash and airplane.

Rescue crews say they later recovered the stays of all of the individuals on board. The crash scene, positioned close to the village of Kuzenkhiino in Russia’s Tver area some 185 miles northwest of Moscow, has been sealed off by police and the victims’ stays reportedly eliminated to a neighborhood morgue. Russia’s Investigative Committee — a Kremlin loyalist physique with powers akin to the FBI — has opened a prison investigation. Aviation authorities have launched parallel probes into the reason for the crash.

The passengers

Ten individuals have been aboard the Brazilian-made Embraer Legacy 600 enterprise jet, Russian aviation authorities say — seven passengers and three crew. Authorities affirm Prigozhin’s title was listed among the many passengers. The flight manifest additionally included high Wagner lieutenants together with Dmitry Uktin, whose nom de guerre, Wagner, turned the mercenary group’s title. Flight logs present Prigozhin had flown on the airplane in current months.

Authorities haven’t issued any statements positively figuring out the our bodies. Neither Prigozhin nor any of the others on the flight manifest have been heard from because the crash.

Timing

The crash comes precisely two months after Prigozhin led a failed mutiny in opposition to Russia’s navy management over its perceived failures within the warfare in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin initially took to the airwaves to insist the Wagner rebels could be punished as traitors.

He and Prigozhin later brokered a deal that ended the insurrection in alternate for the rebels’ amnesty and exile in neighboring Belarus. The long run for Prigozhin and his Wagner forces has been a supply of intense hypothesis ever since. Numerous unconfirmed reviews had Prigozhin noticed in Belarus, Africa and inside Russia itself.

Russian response

Mourners have been leaving flowers at a makeshift memorial outdoors the Wagner headquarters in St. Petersburg and in different Russian cities the place Wagner recruitment was energetic.

Conspiracy theories have raged on-line in regards to the trigger and timing of the crash. Wagner-related social media channels say an assault was carried out by “enemies of Russia.” Who precisely they bear in mind is not clear. Some have blamed President Putin or the Russian navy; others, Ukraine and the West.

Kremlin response

Within the hours following the crash, Putin was at a ceremony to honor troops who fought in Ukraine and made no reference to the incident. Greater than 24 hours later, the Kremlin chief expressed condolences Thursday to the households of these killed within the crash. He additionally famous Wagner members have been reportedly on board and spoke warmly of his relationship with Prigozhin prior to now tense.

The Kremlin chief didn’t particularly say Prigozhin was aboard the airplane, however vowed a state investigation could be carried out in full.

Western response

President Biden expressed the view of many allies of Ukraine that the crash was not an accident. “I do not know for a reality what occurred, however I am not shocked,” he mentioned. “There’s not a lot that occurred in Russia that Putin’s not behind, however I do not know sufficient to reply.”

“It’s no accident that the world instantly seems to be on the Kremlin when a disgraced former confidant of Putin instantly, actually falls from the sky two months after he tried a mutiny,” mentioned Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s international minister.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had the same response. “All people understands who was concerned,” he mentioned.