A plane with 10 people on board crashed in the Tver region, not far from Moscow, this evening, the TASS agency announced.
According to the Russian civil aviation, Yevgeny Prigozhin – the leader of the private military group “Wagner” – was on the passenger list.
In June, he led an attempted riot in Russia and even led hundreds of Wagner members to Moscow, but the march was halted, he said, so as not to spill Russian blood.
“We did not aim to overthrow the government” – Prigozhin with his first statement after the riot
The Emergencies Ministry in Moscow confirmed the incident.
Is Prigozhin in Belarus – first shots with the leader of “Wagner” after the coup attempt
The plane was an “Embraer”, it was flying on the route Moscow – St. Petersburg, and according to preliminary data, all 7 passengers and three crew members on board died.
CIA chief: Putin is trying to buy time to figure out how to deal with Prigogine
The machine took off from Sheremetyevo and after half an hour in the air, for unknown reasons, it fell. The plane caught fire when it hit the ground.
The remains of four people were found.
After the attempted riot, there were reports that Prigozhin was in Belarus.
Several videos with him also appeared, and footage was released yesterday in which Prigozhin did not specify where he was, but assured that “Wagner” brings freedom to Africa.
How will Prigozhin’s turmoil affect the course of the war in Ukraine?
It has been suggested that the plane may have been owned by Prigogine.
The machine has been the subject of US sanctions since 2019 due to connections with Prigogine. The Wagner leader used it, including shortly after the attempted riot in June, and flew it from St. Petersburg to Belarus.
The governor of the Tver region personally oversees the investigation, which has already begun near the village of Kuzhenkino.
According to unconfirmed information, Dmitry Utkin, the real founder of the private military group “Wagner”, was also on board the crashed plane.