Wagner mercenary group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed amongst passengers on a personal jet that crashed in Russia’s Tver area on Wednesday, Interfax reported, citing the nation’s aviation authority.
All three pilots and 7 passengers aboard the airplane that was touring from Moscow to St. Petersburg are lifeless, state-run Tass information service reported late Wednesday.
The crash occurred precisely two months after Prigozhin led a mutiny that posed the best risk to President Vladimir Putin’s almost quarter-century rule. Putin had denounced the June rebel as “treason” however Prigozhin escaped any retaliation by the Kremlin underneath a deal brokered to finish the revolt as his fighters got here inside 200 kilometers (124 miles) of Moscow.
Since then, Prigozhin had appeared to upstage Putin by showing in St. Petersburg final month assembly with African officers concurrently the president was internet hosting a showcase Russia-Africa summit. His Wagner fighters additionally averted punishment underneath the deal, at the same time as a couple of dozen air power crew had died in the course of the revolt.
Wagner was additionally allowed to maintain a few of its intensive operations on the continent, together with within the Central African Republic, regardless of Prigozhin’s rebel.
Russian authorities are investigating the circumstances of the jet crash, the press service of the Tver regional authorities stated in a separate assertion on its web site that gave no particulars on the id of the casualties.