What Vladimir Putin said about Yevgeny Prigozhin

President Vladimir Putin, a day after the plane crash in the Tver region, expressed his condolences in connection with the death of the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin and his entourage who were on the plane. “If there were, and it seems that the primary data show that there were employees of the Wagner company, I would like to note that these are people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of combating the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. We remember this, we know and we will not forget,” Putin said. He said that he had known Prigogine “for a long time, since the early 1990s.”

“He was a man of difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life. And he achieved the results he needed – both for himself, and when I asked him about it for a common cause, as in these last months, Putin said. “He was a talented person, a talented businessman, he worked not only in our country, and worked with results, but also abroad, in Africa, in particular.” According to Putin, in Africa, Prigozhin was engaged in “oil, gas, precious metals and stones.” In addition, according to the president, Prigozhin returned from Africa on the alleged day of his death, August 23, and met in Russia “with some officials.”

Putin said that the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, reported to him that a “preliminary investigation into this incident” had begun. “It will be carried out in full and will be brought to an end, there is no doubt about it. Let’s see what the investigators say in the near future,” Putin said.

The President made this statement during a meeting with the acting head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, who was the first to talk about Prigozhin, allowing himself to make an assumption about the cause of his death. According to him, the plane crashed over the Tver region due to the intervention of Ukraine (it denied it). “We understand what kind of enemy we are dealing with, and we understand that the enemy will stop at nothing,” he told Putin.

The first reports of the crash of the Embraer Legacy 600 business jet with tail number RA-02795 near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver Region, began to appear in Telegram channels around 19.25–19.30 Moscow time on August 23. A little more than 20 minutes later, the fact of the disaster was confirmed by the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

Rosaviatsia at 23.00 on the same day published a list of passengers who were supposed to be on board the Embraer-135 aircraft, which was flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Among them are Prigozhin and Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin. In total, 10 people were listed in the agency’s message, three of which were crew members.

It is not yet known how Prigozhin’s funeral will take place if it is confirmed that it was he who died. During the searches in Prigozhin’s house, which took place after the armed rebellion organized by him, it became known that in 2022 he was awarded the Hero of Russia medal. People with such a title, according to the presidential decree “On the Approval of the General Military Regulations of the Armed Forces”, are buried with military honors, a guard, an orchestra, etc., but the document does not regulate the place of burial.

On June 24, the head of the party and the Duma faction “A Just Russia – For Truth” Sergei Mironov compared Prigozhin with Yegor Prokudin, the main character in Vasily Shukshin’s story “Kalina Krasnaya”. According to Mironov, in the image of “the former prisoner they saw a man with a big heart who can make mischief, break firewood, but, having taken the right path, he will not turn off it, will not betray”: “They love such people, they hate them.”

The LDPR faction decided to express its attitude to what happened through the Zhirinovsky neural network, which operates on the basis of statements and publications of the founder of the party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in 2022. In response to the subscribers’ question “What do you think about Prigozhin’s death?” the algorithm wrote: “I regret the death of Prigogine. He was an energetic and bright person. I am sure that we would have a lot to argue about – about politics, about Russia, about the future. But fate decreed otherwise.

Apti Alaudinov, an assistant to the head of the Chechen Republic and commander of the Akhmat special forces, suggested “looking for someone who benefited from Prigozhin’s assassination” at a time when “important events are going on for us” in Africa. He recalled that PMC Wagner maintained stability on the continent in the interests of Russia. “Here we are talking about France, which is moved away from the trough. And the USA who lost there [в Африке] reins of control. There are at least a dime a dozen enemies there. And of course, to kill two birds with one stone – to remove Russia from Africa and create unrest within Russia – is a desirable goal, ”said Alaudinov on the Telegram channel.

On the day of the disaster, the main newspaper of Mali, Essor, placed the news of the probable death of the founder of PMC Wagner on the main page. The regional French-language publication Jeune Afrique, known for criticizing the activities of the Russian PMC, notes that the founder of the company, judging by indirect data, moved around Russia and outside it, in particular to Belarus, after the June 23-24 rebellion, “despite the status of an outcast.” “We are still waiting for his reappearance,” Jeune Afrique said in an Aug. 24 post.

Meanwhile, on August 24, in Johannesburg, on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with CAR President Faustin Arcange Touadéra. “The firm intention of Moscow and Bangui to deepen political dialogue, expand mutually beneficial cooperation in trade, economic, investment and humanitarian areas was confirmed,” the release published on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry says, without mentioning the events.

Already separately, Lavrov told reporters that he did not share the reaction of foreign media regarding the death of Prigozhin. In this case, it is necessary to focus on facts, and not on statements, he noted: “An investigation was launched instantly, a case was opened, investigators are working.”

The question of the fate of the PMC formations in the Central African Republic remains open. Recently, on August 1, Prigozhin posted a video in which he talks about completing tasks in Africa and recruiting people for this. According to a Vedomosti source who was in contact with Prigozhin’s PMC and previously worked in the Central African Republic, the personal factor is important for Africans in any business relationship, and the Wagner group “will continue to live”, no matter who takes control. For those who are in contact with the Wagner PMC in the region, this is a negative event, but there is no pronounced despondency among them, says another source.

Trying to understand the possible future and effectiveness of Wagner in the Sahel countries in isolation from the personality of Prigozhin and his entrepreneurial abilities, it is worth remembering that the PMC project was originally created not so much by him – it was the initiative of a number of retired and active military men, recalls researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Lukyanov. “The role of Prigozhin is significant in terms of media in the African space, but in fact he is the business director of the project. After the events of June 23–24, the situation changed, the project again became an instrument of foreign policy on distant frontiers,” the expert reflects. In the event of the death of Prigozhin and his inner circle, the Wagner PMC has “replacement mechanisms” for the relevant positions.