On Wednesday, Russian state-run news media reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner group that staged a mutiny against Russia’s army in June, was among the passengers on a plane that crashed.
“The plane that crashed in the Tver Region listed Yevgeny Prigozhin among its passengers, (Russia’s aviation agency) Rosaviatsia said,” TASS news agency reported, with RIA Novosti and Interfax issuing similar reports.
“There were 10 people on board, including 3 crew members. According to preliminary information, all those on board died,” Russia’s ministry for emergency situation had said shortly before.
Around 1700 GMT the ministry announced that a “private Embraer Legacy aircraft travelling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region.”
It said it was conducting search operations.
Videos on Wagner-linked Telegram accounts showed the wreckage of a jet burning in a field, which AFP could not independently confirm.
In June, Prigozhin staged a brief insurrection against Russia’s conventional army, with hundreds of mercenaries arming themselves and advancing from southern Russia to Moscow with the goal of deposing the country’s military authorities.
The rebellion concluded with a compromise mediated by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, under which Prigozhin and some of his troops were supposed to relocate to neighboring Belarus.
He since then refused to cede command of Wagner, but mostly stayed out of the public eye.
On Monday, video circulated showing him apparently in Africa, which he vowed to make “freer”.