Moscow, 24 August 2023 (dpa/MIA) — The day after the crash of a jet which authorities said was carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday indirectly confirmed the death of the Wagner mercenary chief.

 

In an apparent tribute to his former close confidant — whose fighters played a crucial combat role in Ukraine — Putin called Prigozhin a "talented man," Russian news agencies reported.

 

"He was a man of a complicated fate. He made some serious mistakes in his life, but he also achieved the needed results – both for himself and, when I asked him, for the common cause," Putin added at a meeting with the Russian head of the Donetsk administration, Denis Pushilin.

 

The Russian leader cautiously stated that, according to initial information, a plane carrying members of the Wagner private army had crashed on Wednesday evening.

 

He then said Prigozhin's mercenary force played a decisive role in the fighting in Ukraine, one which would not be forgotten.

 

Putin expressed his condolences to the relatives of the Kremlin loyalist-turned traitor.

 

He added that an investigation was under way into the cause of the crash, but may take some time.

 

It took nearly 24 hours for Putin — who has been attending a BRICS summit meeting in South Africa via video link — to react publicly to the crash of the businiess jet which authorities said was carrying Prigozhin.

 

In June, Prigozhin led a short-lived armed rebellion and marched his troops on Moscow, posing the gravest challenge ever to Putin's more than two-decade grip on power. Putin described the revolt as "treason" and a "stab in the back."

 

The Russian government agency in charge of civil aviation, Rosaviatsiya, said Prigozhin, as well as top Wagner commander Dmitri Utkin, were among the 10 people on board the Embraer plane, and that there were no survivors.

 

A forensic medical examination with genetic analyses is to clarify whether the 10 names published on a passenger list of the aviation authority match the remains of the people found on the ground.

 

The aviation agency has not said what may have caused the crash – but speculation elsewhere was rife.

 

Grey Zone, a Telegram channel associated with the Wagner Group, said Prigozhin died and suggested — without evidence — that the plane was shot down.

 

The Russian Telegram-based news channel Shot reported, citing investigative circles, that the crash may have been triggered by a bomb in the area of the landing gear.

 

There has been no official comment on Prigozhin from either the Wagner Group or senior Russian government officials.

 

His admirers, however, have reacted with grief and anger.

 

Flowers were piled high outside the Patriot café in St Petersburg, which many of the city's residents associate with Prigozhin and Wagner, the daily Kommersant reported.

 

Known as Putin's "cook," the 62-year-old rose to prominence in the city in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse by setting up a number of different businesses and becoming known as a high-end restaurateur.

 

Years later, the Wagner Group's headquarters were established in St Petersburg.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with whatever fate befell Prigozhin. "Everyone understands who is involved," he told journalists, adding that the death of the mercenary leadership benefits Kyiv "in a certain sense."

 

"No quick conclusions can be drawn," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Deutschlandfunk radio, saying the situation was still unclear. However, she said, the incident underscores "that a system, that a power, that a dictatorship that is built on violence, will also only recognize violence internally."

 

Asked about the future of the mercenary force, Baerbock said she feared "Russia will continue with its cynical game, with or without Wagner, not only in Ukraine but above all in Africa."

 

The plane carrying seven passengers and three crew members went down near the community of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region, about 300 kilometres north-west of the Russian capital.

 

The pro-Kremlin television station Tsargrad TV reported — citing its own sources — that Prigozhin's body had been provisionally identified, but that DNA analyses were still pending.

 

Two months ago he had instigated an armed mutiny against the Russian military leadership. The background to the day-long uprising — and the deal to end it — remain murky.

 

Prigozhin had his mercenaries occupy the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and then sent military columns marching towards Moscow.

 

For months he had blasted the Russian military leadership as corrupt and incompetent, directing insults and scorn at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and armed forces chief of staff Valery Gerasimov in particular.

 

He had complained of inadequate supplies of munitions for his fighters serving on the frontlines of Putin's war in Ukraine. Prigozhin also accused Shoigu of ordering a rocket strike on Wagner camps in Ukraine.

 

At the time, Putin said the rebellion was an act of "treason" and that it could have caused the outbreak of "civil war."

 

Shortly before his troops reached Moscow, however, Prigozhin ordered a retreat after negotiations with the Kremlin, in which Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko acted as mediator.

 

As part of the deal reached to escape prosecution, Prigozhin and his Wagner fighters were offered sanctuary in Belarus. Lukashenko says many of them are now training Belarusian soldiers.

 

The Kremlin will do little to counter the "image that this is an act of retaliation," said political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

 

"Prigozhin's death should be a lesson for all potential emulators," she wrote on Telegram.