Russia’s Investigative Committee said Sunday that it confirmed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder and head of the mercenary force Wagner who led a short-lived armed rebellion against Russia’s military, was killed in a plane crash.
Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement that forensic and genetic testing identified all 10 bodies recovered at the site of Wednesday’s crash and the findings “conform to the manifest” of the plane. The statement didn’t offer any details about what might have caused the crash.
Russia’s civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, 62, and some of his top lieutenants were on the list of the passengers and crew members on board the plane. All seven passengers and three crew died when the plane plummeted from the sky halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Prigozhin’s hometown.
Two months ago, Prigozhin mounted a daylong mutiny against Russia’s military, leading his mercenaries from Ukraine toward Moscow. President Vladimir Putin decried the act as “treason” and vowed punishment for those involved.
source npr.org
