"Putin, the architect of the assassination" / The discovery of the Americans about the downing of the plane of Wagner's boss

2023-08-26 14:30:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"Putin, the architect of the assassination" / The discovery of the

A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that a deliberate explosion caused the downing of the plane, which Russian authorities said was carrying mercenary group leader Wagner, who was praised on Thursday by Vladimir Putin, although suspicions have grown that the Russian president was the architect of the assassination.

One of the US officials said preliminary assessments show Yevgeny Prigozhin was "very likely" targeted and that the blast fits Putin's "long history of silencing his critics".

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not provide any details on what caused the explosion, which is widely believed to be revenge for the Wagner group's rebellion in June, the biggest challenge to the rule. 23 years of the Russian leader. Several of Mr. Prigozhin's top aides were on the downed plane.

Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile downed the plane were incorrect. He declined to say whether the United States suspected a bomb or believed the crash was an assassination attempt.

Details of the US intelligence assessment were released as President Putin offered his condolences to the families of those reported to be on board the plane and referred to Prigozhin's "serious mistakes".

The plane carrying the founder of the military company Wagner and six other passengers crashed on Wednesday shortly after taking off from Moscow with a crew of three, according to Russia's civil aviation authority. Rescuers recovered 10 bodies, and Russian media quoted anonymous sources within the Wagner group as saying Prigozhin was dead. But there is no official confirmation.

President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said he believed President Putin had a hand in the downing of the plane, though he acknowledged he had no information to verify his assessment.

The Kremlin calls the accusations that he killed the head of Wagner, Prigozhin, false

The Kremlin said Western suggestions that Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on his orders were an "absolute lie", while refusing to definitively confirm the death of the head of the Wagner group, citing the need to wait for test results.

Russia's aviation authority said Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, was aboard a private plane that crashed on Wednesday night northwest of Moscow. There were no survivors from the plane crash.

President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to the families of those killed on Thursday and used the past tense when referring to Wagner's boss, breaking his silence on the incident which came exactly two months after the mercenary group's leader led a brief rebellion. towards Moscow.

Mr Putin cited some "preliminary information" that Prigozhin and his top associates in the Wagner mercenary group had all been killed, and while he praised it, he also said the Wagner leader had made some "serious mistakes".

Western politicians and analysts have suggested that it may have been former President Putin who ordered the assassination of Prigozhin in order to punish him for launching the June 23-34 uprising against the army leadership, which also represented the biggest challenge to the rule of Putin since he came to power in 1999.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that these accusations and many others like them were false. / Voice of America