Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors, the Russian authorities said.
There was no confirmation that Prigozhin was on board and Reuters could not confirm that he was on the aircraft, which crashed north of Moscow.
“An investigation has been launched into an Embraer plane crash that occurred tonight in the Tver region. According to the passenger list, the name and surname of Yevgeny Prigozhin is among them,” Rosaviatsia, Russia’s aviation agency, was cited as saying.
Russia’s emergency situations ministry said that a private Embraer Legacy aircraft travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg had crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region.
It said that 10 people had been on board, including three crew members. According to preliminary information, everyone on board had been killed, it said.
Prigozhin, 62, spearheaded a mutiny against Russia’s top army brass on June 23-24 which President Vladimir Putin said could have tipped Russia into civil war.
The mutiny was ended by negotiations and an apparent Kremlin deal which saw Prigozhin agree to relocate to neighbouring Belarus. But he had appeared to move freely inside Russia after the deal.
Prigozhin, who had sought to topple defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff, on Monday posted a video address which he suggested was shot in Africa.
In June, Prigozhin had sent his fighters march-ing onto Moscow to unseat Russia’s top generals in a dramatic 48 hours that shook Putin’s authority.
Prigozhin had for months complained about the way Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine was being led, where his fighters were often spearheading battles.
In Ukraine, some people rejoiced at the apparent death of a man whose fighters were known for exceptionally cruel efforts.
“I feel really happy that this person died, if it is true,” government worker Iryna Kuchina told AFP in central Kyiv.
Russia’s aviation authority published a list of names that were onboard the Embraer Legacy plane late on Wednesday.
It included Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin — a shadowy figure who managed Wagner’s operations and allegedly served in Rus-sian military intelligence.
Three crew members were among the dead, including the only woman onboard: a stewardess identified as Kristina Raspopova.
Little is known about the rest of the passengers, with Russian media saying most were Wagner mercenaries.—AFP
