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https://www.npr.org/2023/08/23/1195466126/russia-wagner-prigozhin-crash
Russian officials say Wagner boss Prigozhin was on passenger list of jet
that crashed
August 23, 20231:58 PM ET
By The Associated Press
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, looks
from a military vehicle leaving an area of the HQ of the Southern
Military District in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24.
AP
MOSCOW (AP) — A private jet crashed in Russia on Wednesday, killing all
10 people aboard, emergency officials said. Mercenary chief Yevgeny
Prigozhin was on the passenger list, but it wasn't immediately clear if
he was on board.
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Prigozhin's fate has been the subject of intense speculation ever since
he mounted a short-lived mutiny against Russia's military leadership in
late June. The Kremlin said the founder of the Wagner private military
company, which fought alongside Russia's regular army in Ukraine, would
be exiled to Belarus.
But the mercenary chief has since reportedly popped up in Russia,
leading to further questions about his future.
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Wagner Group
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Yevgeny Prigozhin, 'Putin's Chef,' has emerged from the shadows with his
Wagner Group
A plane carrying three pilots and seven passengers that was en route
from Moscow to St. Petersburg went down more than 100 kilometers (60
miles) north of the capital, according to officials cited by Russia's
state news agency Tass. It was not clear if Prigozhin was among those on
board, though Russia's civilian aviation regulator, Rosaviatsia, said he
was on the manifest.
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Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing emergency
officials, that eight bodies were found at the site of the crash.
Flight tracking data reviewed by The Associated Press showed a private
jet registered to Wagner that Prigozhin had used previously took off
from Moscow on Wednesday evening and its transponder signal disappeared
minutes later.
The signal was lost in a rural region with no nearby airfields where the
jet could have landed safely.
In an image posted by a pro-Wagner social media account showing burning wreckage, a partial tail number matching a private jet belonging to the
company could be seen. The color and placement of the number on the
engine of the crashed plane matches prior photos of the Wagner jet
examined by The AP.
This week, Prigozhin posted his first recruitment video since the
mutiny, saying that Wagner is conducting reconnaissance and search
activities, and "making Russia even greater on all continents, and
Africa even more free."
Also this week, Russian media reported, citing anonymous sources, that a
top Russian general linked to Prigozhin — Gen. Sergei Surovikin — was dismissed from his position of the commander of Russia's air force.
Surovikin, who at one point led Russia's operation in Ukraine, hasn't
been seen in public since the mutiny, when he recorded a video address
urging Prigozhin's forces to pull back.
As the news about the crash was breaking, Russian President Vladimir
Putin spoke at an event commemorating the Battle of Kursk, hailing the
heroes of Russia's "the special military operation" in Ukraine.
wagner group
yevgeny prigozhin
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