27 August 2023 , 11:01
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Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been confirmed dead after genetic tests were carried out on bodies found in Wednesday's plane crash near Moscow.
In a statement, Russia's investigate committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said that all 10 bodies recovered at the site of the crash were identified, and the findings "conform to the manifest" of the plane. The statement did not offer any details as to what might have caused the crash.
The country's civil aviation authority earlier this week said Prigozhin, along with some of his top lieutenants, were on the list of those 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.
Witnesses had described hearing a loud bang before watching the aircraft tumble from the sky and crash into a burning fireball in a nearby field. Two months ago, Prigozhin, 62, mounted a daylong mutiny against Russia's military that Vladimir Putin decried as "treason" and vowed punishment for those involved.
Prigozhin recording a video address in Rostov-on-Don, Russia (AP)Instead, the Kremlin quickly cut a deal with Prigozhin to end the armed revolt, saying he would be allowed to walk free without facing any charges and to resettle in Belarus. Questions have remained, however, about whether Prigozhin eventually would face a comeuppance for the brief uprising that posed the biggest challenge to Putin's authority of his 23-year rule.
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A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to go down. As suspicions grew that the Russian president was the architect of an assassination, the Kremlin rejected them as a "complete lie". One of the Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was "very likely" targeted and that an explosion would be in line with Putin's "long history of trying to silence his critics".
Prigozhin's second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, as well as Wagner logistics mastermind Valery Chekalov, were also killed in the crash. Mr Utkin was long believed to have founded Wagner and baptised the group with his nom de guerre. The fate of Wagner, which until recently played a prominent role in Russia's military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries, has remained uncertain.
Smoke and flames rise from the crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkin (AP)After the mutiny, the Kremlin said Mr Prigozhin would be exiled in Belarus, and his fighters were offered three options: to follow him there, retire or enlist in Russia's regular army and return to Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries had fought alongside Russian troops. Several thousand Wagner mercenaries opted to move to Belarus, where a camp was erected for them south-east of the capital, Minsk.
Prigozhin had kept a low-profile after the botched mutiny, but was spotted in a number of locations - most recently in Africa. In an August 21 Telegram video, Prigozhin was seen wearing military fatigues and wielding an assault rifle. As he spoke into the camera, he said that Wagner was at the undisclosed location to recruit "heroic warriors".
These "warriors" would make Russia "even greater", he said. The setting of the video suggested he may have been recruiting in Africa, and he hinted as much in the video. According to All Eyes on Wagner, which monitors the mercenary mob's activities, the video was recorded in Mali.
Prigozhin speaking during his armed revolt against Russia's military leadership (AP)Before the video, Prigozhin was last spotted in St Petersburg on July 27, when he was photographed shaking hands with a presidential adviser from the war-torn Central African Republic. Earlier this week, Putin broke his silence on the plane crash, calling Prigozhin a "talented businessman" who he'd known since the 1990s.
In a televised address from his offices, Putin said his ex-pal was a "man of difficult fate" and that he "made serious mistakes in life". He went on to detail how Prigozhin worked in Russia and Africa, claiming that he was "engaged in oil, gas, precious metals and stones there", but without mentioning how his shadow army was accused of atrocities on the continent.
He added that Prigozhin "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". Putin also confirmed and paid tribute to the Wagner company as a whole, saying they had made a "significant contribution" to the war in Ukraine. "We remember and know it, and we will not forget it," he said.
Prigozhin, left, serves food to Putin during dinner at his restaurant in 2011 (AP)Prigozhin was born in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, and experienced a troubled childhood after losing his father at a young age. He carried out many thefts during his teenage years, and was convicted of robbery and fraud at the age of 20 in 1981.
He served time in prison - 10 years by his own admission, although he does not say what this was for. After his release, Prigozhin owned a hot dog stand and then restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French president Jacques Chirac to dine at one of these restaurants.
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His businesses expanded significantly to catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin's factory, which was built thanks to generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals for schools.
He also organised catering for Kremlin events for several years - earning him the nickname "Putin's chef" - and provided catering and utility services to the Russian military.