Kremlin Breaks Silence on Wagner Chief’s Assassination Rumors

A truck carries a part of a private jet that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, Russia, on Aug. 25, 2023. AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

The Kremlin has broken its silence on allegations that it was behind a plane crash that presumably killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin amid reports of a preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment that the aircraft was downed by an internal explosion.

The jet that plummeted to earth on Aug. 23 soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg was carrying Mr. Prigozhin, six other members of the Wagner paramilitary group, and three crew members, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority.

Since the fiery crash, there has been feverish speculation about what happened, including rumors of a surface-to-air missile or explosives planted on board the plane, all steeped in suggestions that it was a Kremlin-led assassination in revenge for Mr. Prigozhin’s apparent failed coup attempt two months ago.

In this image taken from video, smoke and flames rise from a crashed private jet reportedly carrying Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, near the village of Kuzhenkino, Russia, on Aug. 23, 2023. AP Photo

U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on Aug. 23 that he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the deadly crash.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” President Biden said. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov objected to President Biden’s remarks.

“It is not for the U.S. president, in my opinion, to talk about certain tragic events of this nature,” Mr. Ryabkov said on Aug. 25.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary force, speaks in Paraskoviivka, Ukraine, in this still image from an undated video released on March 3, 2023. Concord Press Service/via Reuters

Amid rumors that the Kremlin was behind the crash, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call on Aug. 25 that any such suggestions were false.

“Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Mr. Peskov said.

“Of course, in the West, those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie.”

The Pentagon has said that Mr. Prigozhin was likely killed in the crash, but it’s unclear whether he was assassinated or what caused the plane to plunge to the ground.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a joint press conference of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow on Feb. 18, 2022. Sergey Guneev/Sputnik/Kremlin via Reuters

‘Watch Out’

Mr. Prigozhin headed the Wagner paramilitary group, a formidable fighting force with links to the Kremlin as an off-the-books private army that advanced Russia’s interests in places such as Africa, Syria, and, most recently, Ukraine.

Wagner shocked many observers two months ago when, frustrated over the conduct of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, it set out on a raid on Moscow in what Mr. Prigozhin said was a protest against Russia’s military leadership but that many others described as an attempted coup.

Mr. Putin initially vowed to crush Mr. Prigozhin’s apparent rebellion attempt before a deal was reached, reportedly brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, under which Mr. Prigozhin and some of his mercenaries would go into exile in neighboring Belarus.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko walks before a press conference in Minsk, Belarus, on July 6, 2023. Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Mr. Lukashenko said on Aug. 25 that he warned Mr. Prigozhin to watch out for possible threats to their lives, according to state news agency BelTA.

According to the Belarusian president, Mr. Prigozhin twice dismissed concerns raised about possible threats to his life, including during the Wagner march on Moscow.

Mr. Lukashenko said on Aug. 25 that he told Mr. Prigozhin during the apparent mutiny that he would die if he continued to march on Moscow.

“To hell with it, I will die,” Mr. Prigozhin said, per Mr. Lukashenko’s remarks, as cited by BelTA.

Later, when Mr. Prigozhin came to see him, Mr. Lukashenko said he told Mr. Prigozhin to “watch out.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Wagner Group military company, speaks to a camera at an unknown location in an image released on Aug. 21, 2023. Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram channel via AP

At the same time, the Belarusian president, who’s a close ally of Mr. Putin, said he doesn’t believe the Russian president had anything to do with the fiery plane crash that apparently killed Mr. Prigozhin and nine others.

“I know Putin: he is calculating, very calm, even tardy,” Mr. Lukashenko said, according to BelTA. “I cannot imagine that Putin did it, that Putin is to blame. It’s just too rough and unprofessional a job.”

‘A Man of Difficult Fate’

On Aug. 25, Russian investigators said they had recovered flight recorders and 10 bodies from the scene of the plane crash.

“In the course of initial investigative work, the bodies of 10 victims were found at the site of the plane crash,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on social media.

“Molecular genetic analyses are being carried out to establish their identities,” it said, noting that “flight recorders” were also recovered from the scene.

Mr. Putin, in his first public comments on the crash, said the passengers had “made a significant contribution” to the Kremlin’s military operation in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference following the Russia–Africa summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on July 29, 2023. Sergei Bobylyov/TASS Host Photo Agency via Reuters

Wagner forces were deeply involved and took heavy casualties in the fight for the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, one of the bloodiest campaigns during the war.

The Russian president, who said he had known Mr. Prigozhin since the early 1990s, described him as “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life“ but who nevertheless managed to achieve ”the results he needed—both for himself and ... for the common cause.”

“He was a talented man, a talented businessman,” Mr. Putin said.