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MOSCOW. – Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday sent his condolences to the family of Yevgeny Prigozhin yesterday, breaking his silence after the mercenary leader’s plane crashed with no survivors two months after he led a mutiny against army chiefs.
In a televised address, he sent his condolences to the families of the dead, and also described Prigozhin as a talented businessman
He said Prigozhin was a person “with a complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in life.” He said that an investigation into the crash would take time.
Earlier, UK defence sources have said the Russian intelligence service is most likely to have targeted the plane
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with the crash, but “everyone is aware who is involved”
Reported to be alongside Prigozhin on the plane was his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin, as well as five other Wagner members and three crew.
“Initial data suggests employees of the Wagner company were on board,” Putin acknowledges.
“I would like to note that these are people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine,” he continues.
“We remember and know it, and we will not forget it.”
Mr Putin has frequently claimed the presence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine as a justification for his invasion of the neighbouring country – claims which have been debunked. It’s also worth noting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy is Jewish.
“I have known Prigozhin for a long time, since the beginning of the 1990s,” Putin says in his televised address.
In an apparent reference to Wagner’s aborted mutiny in June, Putin continues: “This was a person with a complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in life, but also sought to achieve the necessary results – both for himself and at time when I asked him to, for the common cause, such as in these recent months.”
Mr Putin also said that “as far as I’m aware”, Prigozhin “only yesterday [Wednesday] returned from Africa. He met certain official persons there”.
In recent days the Wagner boss is believed to have been present in West Africa – where Western analysts fear the group was seeking to widen its reach into other countries, including Niger, where a coup has just taken place.
Wagner is a key pillar of Russian foreign policy, with its forces helping to prop up governments in Syria, Mali, the Central African Republic and Libya in exchange for lucrative mining rights.
Mr Putin said that it was necessary to await the outcome of the official investigation into the crash, in which all 10 people on board were killed, saying the examination would take some time. – BBC.com
Online Reporter