There are various reports that a Wagner-owned Embraer Legacy 600 Business Jet was shot down by Russian air defenses over the Tver region by a Pantsir air defense system (though some reports say a bomb may have been planted on board).
Tass reports that Yevgeny Prigozhin was aboard along with 6 others. Another report says 10 people were killed, though the difference may have been due to the counting of the three crew members.
The plane may have been on its way from St. Petersburg to Moscow. On Monday, Prigozhin posted a video suggesting he was in Africa.
Prigozhin was on the list of passengers of the plane, according to a Rosaviatsia. The Russian Civil Aviation Authority now appears to confirm that he was on the passenger list, though it's far too soon to identify a body. Prigozhin's right-hand man"Dmytro Utkin was also on board the plane that crashed, per a pro-Wagner Telegram account.
A second plane belonging to Wager was flying over Moscow and returned.
This is exactly what everyone said would happen to Prigozhin after Wagner sent the convoy to Russia and led the rebellion. The speed at which he was confirmed as a passenger also sounds like Putin sending a message and it comes exactly two months after the rebellion.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was a 62-year-old who entered Putin's inner circle as his chef or caterer and parlayed that into control of the Wagner private military group. The group was tasked with the brutal job of taking Bahkmut this spring and that led to him repeatedly criticizing top Russian generals and war planners. Ultimately, it led him to lead a rebellion against Moscow that was for 24 hours an extremely sensitive situation. It led to several deaths on the Russian side as Wagner troops shot down Russian planes and helicopters or the road towards Moscow.
Eventually, Prigozhin called it off and Wagner agreed to relocate to Belarus. Ultimately, they fell out of favor there as well and the group was in limbo in the area, though still active in Africa.
Another sign that this wasn't an accident was that Russian air force leader Sergei Surovikin was relieved of his command today, according to RIA. He was a friend of Prigozhin and hasn't been seen since the rebellion.
In terms of markets, I don't see an impact due to this but it surely highlights Putin's strength and resolve to win the war in Ukraine, and perhaps his par
Update: Russian media now says Prigozhin's body has been 'preliminarily identified'.
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