Kremlin Acknowledges Prigozhin Plane Crash Assassination Theory

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the 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

Russian officials said on Aug. 30 that the plane crash that reportedly killed mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin may have been brought down deliberately, the first hint by the Kremlin that Mr. Prigozhin’s death may have been an assassination.

The jet that plunged 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 much speculation about what happened, including rumors of a surface-to-air missile or explosives planted on board the plane, all suggesting that it was a Kremlin-led assassination in revenge for Mr. Prigozhin’s apparent failed coup attempt two months ago.

Asked by reporters in Moscow on Aug. 30 about the investigation into Mr. Prigozhin’s death, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russian investigators are considering the hypothesis that it was an assassination.

“It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version—you know what we are talking about—let’s say, a deliberate atrocity,” Mr. Peskov said.

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

Mr. Peskov was asked whether the International Civil Aviation Organization would be involved in the crash probe, to which he replied, “Let’s wait for the results of our Russian investigation.”

While the cause of the crash remains under investigation, Mr. Peskov earlier dismissed any suggestions of Kremlin involvement.

“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 told reporters during a conference call on Aug. 25.

“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 that the cause of the crash and whether he was assassinated aren’t clear.

Villagers near the scene told Reuters they heard a bang and then saw the Brazilian-made Embraer jet plummet to the ground.

President Joe Biden told reporters on Aug. 23: “I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised. 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

‘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 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, according to BelTA.

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

However, the Belarusian president, who’s a close ally of Mr. Putin, said he doesn’t believe that the Russian president had anything to do with the 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.”

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.

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,” Mr. Putin said.