Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, has denied any Kremlin involvement in the assassination of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
According to ABC News, Peskov told reporters on Friday that allegations pointing to the Russian government ordering the jet crash were “absolute” lies.
“There is a lot of speculation around the plane crash and the tragic death of the passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov said. “Of course, in the West, this speculation is being presented from a certain angle. All of this is an absolute lie.”
On Wednesday, Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. He was traveling with six other passengers and three crew members, all of whom killed in the crash.
Two months ago, he led a mutiny against Putin, withdrawing his forces from Ukraine, seizing the southern Russian city of Rostov on Don, and threatening to march on Moscow.
Wagner mercenaries have been fighting alongside the Russian military in Ukraine for over a year.
Speaking on the possible connection of Putin with the Wagner chief’s death, President of the United States, Joe Biden said on Wednesday, “I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised. There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind.”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also responded to Biden’s remark on Friday stating that, “It is not for the U.S. president, in my opinion, to talk about certain tragic events of this nature”.
Paying his tribute to the deceased on Thursday, Putin described Prigozhin as “a person with a complicated fate” who “made serious mistakes in life”.