Yevgeny Prighozin, the leader of Wagner who led a mutiny against the Putin regime, was found dead in a plane crash in Russia.
Reports are already assuming that the plane crash was orchestrated by the Russian state. The details could be a mechanical sabotage, onboard explosion, or downing by anti-air missiles. The BBC reports:
But today, as the news broke that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane had fallen out of the sky, crashing in a fireball in Russia’s Tver Region, most people were far from shocked. In fact, most Russians were probably surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.
Speculation had been swirling for weeks in Russia about exactly what fate awaited Yevgeny Prigozhin. Exactly two months ago, the Wagner boss launched his brief mutiny.
Putin has clearly said that he cannot forgive disloyalty. His prosecution of the war in Ukraine is proof of that. He sees Ukraine being a rebellion province of Russia. Putin has already showed countless times that he is willing to assassinate domestic rivals to his rule. Newsweek explains:
Over the last year, oligarchs with questionable loyalties and other potential Putin critics have been falling out of windows, including one in a hospital, at an alarming rate. The “special military operation” in Ukraine has brought out muted criticism in Russia. For the most important audience—Russian President Vladimir Putin—the criticism was not muted enough.
Long before Putin invaded Ukraine, the Russian dissident and Putin political adversary Alexei Navalny was poisoned in 2020, likely at the Kremlin’s behest. In a display of inhuman bravery, Navalny voluntarily returned to Russia after recovering in a safe haven in Germany. That which didn’t kill him left him imprisoned, with a long sentence under harsh conditions, in the tradition of so many of Moscow’s foes.
While the death will bring many in line in Russia, it will also further weaken the worth of Putin’s guarantees. Prigozhin’s death will leave a vacuum in Warner’s operations, at a time when it is engaged in defending military juntas in the Sahel region of Africa.
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