Wagner Group Leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Dies in Plane Crash in Russia

•I am not surprised by his possible death, says Biden

Wagner Group leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was on the passenger list of a plane that crashed in Russia’s Tver region yesterday, according to the press service of Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency.

Ten people were killed in the crash near the town of Kuzhenkino, including Prigozhin.

“An investigation has been launched into the crash of the Embraer aircraft, which occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the list of passengers, among them is the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin,” the department said in a statement.

Among the 10 dead were three crew members and seven passengers. The seven passengers were identified as Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Dmitriy Utkin, Nikolay Matuseev and Prigozhin, the ABC News reported.

The crew was identified as Cmdr. Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.

The Federal Air Transport Agency said the plane was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a statement, “The demonstrative elimination of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russia’s elites ahead of the 2024 elections.”

White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, said in a statement earlier in the day that officials were watching the reports of the plane crash.

“If confirmed, no one should be surprised. The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now — it would seem — to this,” she said.

Prigozhin is the head of the private paramilitary organisation Wagner Group, which played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before briefly launching an insurrection against the Russian military in June. Forces loyal to Prigozhin marched toward Moscow, before turning back after several days.

Prigozhin allegedly struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin where he didn’t face prosecution and was relocated to Belarus, according to the Kremlin.

The Russian president and Prigozhin allegedly met face to face on June 29, less than a week after the failed coup, the Kremlin said.

On July 3, Prigozhin released a message on social media claiming the rebelling was aimed at “fighting traitors and mobilising our society.”

“I think we have achieved a lot of it. In the near future, I am sure that you will see our next victories at the front. Thanks guys,” he allegedly said.

Prigozhin’s last known public appearance came in a video dated August 21 from an undisclosed location in Africa.

Prigozhin helped to launch the Wagner Group toward the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the Crimean Peninsula around 2014, according to reports published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

In 2018, U.S. prosecutors charged Prigozhin for his suspected role in funding the Internet Research Agency, which the U.S. described as a Russian “troll farm” that sought to use digital campaigns to increase political and social tensions in the U.S.

The Department of Justice accused the IRA of conspiring to “defraud the United States … for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.”I am Not Surprised’ by Prigozhin’s Possible Death, Says Biden

Meanwhile, US President, Joe Biden, yesterday, said he was “not surprised” at news that Prigozhin may have died in a plane crash in Russia.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” Biden said.

 “There’s not much that happens in Russia that (President Vladimir) Putin is not behind,” Biden told reporters after taking an exercise class with his family near Lake Tahoe.

“But I don’t know enough to know the answer” of what may have happened to the powerful former Putin henchman, he said.

Prigozhin’s name was on the passenger list of the aircraft, which crashed northwest of Moscow, according to Russian state media.

Last month in Helsinki, Biden jokingly warned that Prigozhin, whose elite Wagner force has played an important role in the war on Ukraine, should watch his step after his abortive rebellion.

“If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate. I’d keep my eye on my menu,” Biden said.