The plane with the founder of PMC “Wagner” Prigozhin crashed in the Tver region
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In the Tver region, a plane crashed, carrying the founders of Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, and only ten people, including three crew members. None of them survived. According to experts in the field of accident investigation, the cause of the crash could be an explosion that occurred in the tail section of the aircraft, which was torn off from it. Holes in the fuselage and wings, they believe, indicate a possible defeat of a business jet by a missile. In the TFR, the crash is being investigated as a crime committed through negligence by pilots or persons preparing the car for takeoff.
The team of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s closest associates, who recently returned to Russia from another trip to Africa, flew from Sheremetyevo Airport to St. Petersburg on two Embraer Legacy 600 aircraft. Mr. Prigozhin’s structures acquired them a couple of years ago.
When around 18:20 the planes were climbing over the Bologovsky district of the Tver region, eyewitnesses heard two explosions in the sky, after which one of the planes, first rotating in a spiral, and then simply falling, rushed to the ground. During the fall near the village of Kuzhenkino, Embraer tanks filled before departure exploded, and a large-scale fire broke out at the crash site, destroying the wreckage and the bodies of people among them in a matter of minutes. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, Yevgeny Prigozhin was registered as a passenger of the crashed plane. In total, there were ten people on board, including, according to some reports, Dmitry Utkin, who commanded the PMC fighters, and two pilots. The second plane circled over the crash site and returned to Moscow.
To establish the identity of most of the victims of the tragedy, it will be necessary to conduct DNA tests. However, Messrs. Prigozhin and Utkin, according to PMC representatives, have already been identified. Experts have yet to establish the cause of the disaster.
So far, experts in the field of accident investigation interviewed by Kommersant are inclined to the version that the cause of the death of the Embraer Legacy was not a malfunction of the machine or the mistakes of the pilots who controlled it, but most likely the combat defeat of the aircraft or an explosion on board led to the disaster. Telegram channels controlled by Mr. Prigozhin reported that the plane could have been shot down by an anti-aircraft missile system. This version is also supported by the fact that the business jet was destroyed in the air. Its tail section was found far from the hull crash site. And on the wreckage, including the wing, numerous holes are visible, reminiscent of the impact of the striking elements of surface-to-air missiles.
In turn, in the Western Interregional Investigation Department of the TFR on transport, Kommersant was informed that there were no grounds for the version of the terrorist attack, so a criminal case was initiated under Art. 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of the rules of safety and operation of a vehicle, which, through negligence, led to the death of two or more persons). The technical investigation of the crash will be conducted by the Interstate Aviation Committee, and the Federal Air Transport Agency has formed a commission to study materials related to the preparation for the flight of the crew and the business jet itself, the technical condition of the crashed car and the actions of ground services.
“We are in such a situation that it is not known whether we will get out or not,” one of its founders, former GRU colonel Dmitry Utkin, said a year ago after the first serious conflicts between the Wagner PMC and the Ministry of Defense. According to him, the military has long sought the transfer of PMCs under their control, for example, by merging the company with private structures that were already under the Defense Ministry. The situation escalated during the NWO, when the “musicians” actually became a private army, which could call any specialist into its ranks for a decent reward, and formed assault groups at the expense of prisoners who were guaranteed a pardon.
If, when it was created in 2013, Wagner included three to four dozen people, then up to 60 thousand “musicians” participated in the SVO, who were armed not only with small arms, but even tanks and combat aircraft. But they, according to Yevgeny Prigozhin, were sorely lacking in ammunition, primarily shells for guns, which the military was supposed to provide.
The conflict with the Ministry of Defense was the reason for “march of justice” of the column of PMC “Wagner” to Moscow June 23-24 of this year, during which they expected to achieve the resignation of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov. The Wagner forces occupied Rostov-on-Don and the headquarters of the Southern Military District, and a couple of hundred kilometers did not reach the capital. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who entered into negotiations with Mr. Prigozhin, persuaded him to return to bases in the LPR. Then the PMC actually fell apart – some of the fighters decided, together with Yevgeny Prigozhin, at the invitation of Mr. Lukashenko, to train the armed forces of Belarus, and most of them joined the structures of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The criminal case of rebellion (Article 279 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against Mr. Prigozhin was terminated by the FSB, but another department, the TFR, continued to investigate the events related to the march. It was about clarifying the circumstances of the destruction of various equipment during the campaign, including aviation and the death of people during this. So, for example, in the Voronezh region detained a PMC fighter who shot two of his comrades who refused to participate in the rebellion.
Mr. Prigozhin himself was not involved in the proceedings. He was returned money, weapons, documents and awards, including the stars of the Hero of Russia, the DPR and the LPR, confiscated during the investigation.
He participated in a meeting of PMC commanders with President Vladimir Putin and traveled to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk and other cities on business, using the very same Embraer for flights, in the crash of which he died.
“All comments are now in official summaries. Further, it is a matter of investigation,” said State Duma deputy, head of the press service of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Alexander Yushchenko, to Kommersant. “What happened there? Attack, breakdown, was it shot down? Nobody knows anything.”
“I think that there is no need to draw any hasty conclusions. Investigative groups are working, the governor keeps everything under control,” Yaroslav Nilov, deputy head of the LDPR Duma faction, told Kommersant, who refrained from commenting.
State Duma Vice Speaker Vladislav Davankov (New People) also told Kommersant that his party would be waiting for the official results of the investigation: “And if they have questions, then we will already apply to official bodies with requests.” United Russia also refrained from commenting, recommending to wait for the results of the official investigation into the incident. Finally, the press service of A Just Russia – For Truth declined to comment officially, citing a lack of contact with party leader Sergei Mironov. But State Duma deputy from SRZP Nikolai Novichkov told Kommersant that, like “all patriots of Russia,” he sincerely hopes that Mr. Prigozhin, “a patriot and hero who fought for Russia,” is still alive.
From hot dogs to Concorde
Yevgeny Prigozhin, whom the media since the mid-2000s called “a businessman close to Vladimir Putin”, was born in 1961 in Leningrad, in 1979 he was sentenced to a suspended sentence for theft, and in 1981 to 12 years of real imprisonment for robbery and involvement of a teenager in criminal activities. Mr. Prigozhin was released ahead of schedule in 1990 and started selling hot dogs. In 1995, he founded the Concord Catering company, which by 2016, according to media estimates, had actually become a monopolist in the school food market in Moscow. It was also reported that Concorde was the organizer of a number of high-level celebrations, including on the occasion of the inauguration of President Vladimir Putin in 2012.
In 2014, the Wagner PMC was founded, whose fighters took part in military operations in eastern Ukraine (in connection with which Mr. Prigozhin was included in the US sanctions list), and then in Syria. In February 2018, U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller accused Yevgeny Prigozhin of interfering in the U.S. presidential election by organizing a “troll factory” represented by the Internet Research Agency.
Mr. Prigozhin admitted his involvement in the Wagner PMC only in 2022, when almost open recruitment of prisoners into its ranks began to participate in a special operation in Ukraine. At the same time, the conflict between the businessman and the Ministry of Defense began to develop, which entered an open phase at the beginning of 2023: Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov were creating an artificial shortage of ammunition for PMCs, which caused them to suffer heavy losses. Later, the founder of Wagner stated that he refused to fulfill the order of Mr. Shoigu on the conclusion of contracts with the military department by PMC fighters, and on June 23, 2023, he accused the Ministry of Defense of a missile attack on his camps and announced that he was starting a “march of justice” to Moscow in order to “sort things out with the military command. On the night of June 24, one part of the Wagner fighters took control of Rostov-on-Don, and the other advanced in the direction of the capital.
Vladimir Putin, in a special address on the morning of June 24, called this march “a stab in the back” and its organizers “traitors.” It was possible to stop the rebellion through the mediation of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, who invited Yevgeny Prigozhin and his fighters to move to the territory of his country. On June 29, Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with the commanders of the Wagner PMC, at which, according to presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the head of state listened to the explanations of the commanders and offered them employment options.
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