The Kremlin said today, Wednesday, that the investigation into the downing of the plane of mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin considered the possibility that the downing of the plane was a deliberate act.
“Obviously, different versions are being considered, including the version of deliberate atrocities, and you know what I’m talking about,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the daily briefing.
Prigozhin, his assistant Dmitry Utkin and eight other people died on the 23rd of last month, when the Embraer Legacy 600 they were traveling in suddenly crashed midway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Flight patterns recorded by meteorological sites indicate some catastrophic events occurred on board the aircraft, resulting in a vertical descent after 32 seconds of instability. Countries such as the United States and Ukraine immediately named President Vladimir Putin as the prime suspect in the crime.
After all, Prigozhin was a close ally of the Kremlin leader until he fell out with the Russian military leadership over the competition between his Wagner Group and the regular forces operating in Ukraine. At the end of June, the crisis turned into a mutiny aimed at overthrowing the leadership of the armed forces, which was aborted on its first day, but which exposed Putin in the most humiliating way of his two decades in power.
Peskov described this hypothesis, supported by the collection of those killed in suspicious circumstances or who were killed amid discontent in the Kremlin, as an absolute lie. The United States, due to its monitoring of launches in Russia, ruled out the use of an anti-aircraft missile, which could theoretically only be done by Kremlin forces – although the version also excludes actions by hackers on Russian soil.
And the pool of assumptions will remain dense, not least because Russia controls information about the crash investigation. Russia’s Air Accidents Investigation Agency said on Wednesday that it was not involved in the investigation, suggesting that the matter is solely in the hands of law enforcement agencies.
Moreover, Peskov said there is no chance of foreign participation “in the Russia investigation.” He was referring to the report, which was confirmed by the Reuters news agency bindingAnd that Moscow will not ask the Brazilian authorities for support in the investigation.
This will be the norm, since the plane on which Prigogine died was manufactured in Brazil. According to Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Convention, which both Brasília and Moscow have signed, the recommendation was that Embraer participate in the analysis of the case.
However, there is no obligation. The specific aircraft has not received maintenance from the Brazilian manufacturer since the vehicle entered the US sanctions list in 2019.
Prigozhin was buried on Tuesday in a cemetery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, where Putin was also born, and with whom he has been associated since the 1990s, a Hero of Russia, the country’s highest honour.
This Wednesday, members of Wagner and other admirers of Prigozhin began visiting the grave, which remains a simple grave adorned with an Orthodox wooden cross. As in the group tombs, it would have to be replaced by a small granite pyramid.
The struggle continues over Wagner’s military and economic spoils, with Putin playing the mediating role. The group has a presence in at least seven African countries and in Syria. After the rebellion, his nucleus was exiled to Belarus, a Russian-friendly dictatorship that brokered an end to the mercenary-promoted rebellion.
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