What was Vladimir Putin doing as Wagner chief rival ‘killed’ in plane crash?
Vladimir Putin was at a concert hailing the “heroes” of Russia’s Ukraine invasion and marking a Second World War battle as a plane thought to be carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin crashed, killing all those on board.
The Russian president was filmed making a speech at the concert commemorating the victory of Soviet troops in the 1943 Battle of Kursk on the 80th anniversary.
Video footage suggested he handed out military honours at the event in Kursk, not far from the Ukrainian border in southwest Russia.
He received applause and cheers from the audience as he took to the stage.
Mercenary leader Mr Prigozhin is presumed to be dead after a private jet crashed while on fire into a field in the Tver region near Moscow.
The 62-year-old Wagner founder in June incurred President Putin’s wrath by staging an abortive armed mutiny against the army’s top brass.
The rebellion was the most serious challenge to the Russian leader’s authority since he came to power in 1999, and Mr Putin said it could have tipped his country into civil war.
Mr Prigozhin, who once won the Kremlin’s patronage for his catering business, had been on the passenger list for the Embraer business jet flight, and there were no survivors.
Dmitry Utkin, a Wagner co-founder and former Russian military intelligence special forces officer, was also on board when the plane spiralled out of the sky, according to civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia.
They were among the seven passengers and three crew flying from Moscow to St Petersburg. Eight bodies were found at the crash site, state news agency RIA reported.
If confirmed, Mr Prigozhin’s death would leave the Wagner Group leaderless and raise questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere.
Mikhail Podolyak, chief adviser to Ukraine’s president Vlodymyr Zelensky, said Mr Prigozhin’s reported death showed it was “obvious that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own bestial terror”.
At the concert held for a new Battle of Kursk memorial complex, Mr Putin praised Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Earlier, the Russian leader congratulated India on one of its spacecraft landing on the unexplored south pole of the moon.
