The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has confirmed that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board a plane that crashed in the Tver region Wednesday.
The CNN quoted the aviation agency as saying that according to the carrier that operated the Embraer that crashed, Prigozhin was on board the plane.
The agency also mention others who were on the plane to include Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan and Aleksandr Totmin.
Others on board are Valeriy Chekalov, a senior aide to Prigozhin designated by the US Treasury for acting “for or on behalf of Prigozhin and has facilitated shipments of munitions to the Russian Federation” and Dmitriy Utkin, a trusted lieutenant of Prigozhin’s since the beginning of the Wagner Group Nikolay Matuseev.
Prigozhin was a Russian oligarch, mercenary leader, and former close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until he launched a rebellion in June 2023.
He was sometimes called “Putin’s chef“, as he owned restaurants and catering companies that provide services for the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies, notably the Wagner private military company, which was supported by the Russian state, as well as three companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 US elections.
According to a 2022 investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin’s activities “are tightly integrated with Russia’s Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU”.
