Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 4 July 2017. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Sergei Ilnitsky / Pool) 
Wagner mercenary group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed among passengers on a private jet that crashed in Russia’s Tver region on Wednesday, Interfax reported, citing the nation’s aviation authority.
All three pilots and seven passengers aboard the plane that was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg are dead, state-run Tass news service reported late on Wednesday.
Putin Looks Past War and Mutiny to Fifth Term: Balance of Power
The crash occurred exactly two months after Prigozhin led a mutiny that posed the greatest threat to President Vladimir Putin’s nearly quarter-century rule. Putin had denounced the June rebellion as “treason”, but Prigozhin escaped any retaliation by the Kremlin under a deal brokered to end the revolt as his fighters came within 200km of Moscow.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-06-25-wagner-in-chief-who-is-yevgeny-prigozhin-putins-rebelling-bulldog-of-war/
Since then, Prigozhin had appeared to upstage Putin by appearing in St Petersburg last month meeting with African officials at the same time as the president was hosting a showcase Russia-Africa summit. His Wagner fighters also avoided punishment under the deal, even as about a dozen air force crew had died during the revolt.
Wagner was also allowed to keep some of its extensive operations on the continent, including in the Central African Republic, despite Prigozhin’s rebellion.
Russian authorities are investigating the circumstances of the jet crash, the press service of the Tver regional government said in a separate statement on its website that gave no details on the identity of the casualties.
US President Joe Biden told reporters, “I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised.”
US officials had speculated that Putin would seek to take revenge for the unprecedented rebellion that shattered his image as Russia’s invincible leader and left the US, Europe and China puzzling over the political fallout.
“Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback,” CIA Director William Burns said at the Aspen Security Forum last month.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov didn’t immediately respond to a request to comment on Wednesday.
Russian authorities are investigating the circumstances of the jet crash, the press service of the Tver regional government said in a separate statement on its website that gave no details on the identity of the casualties.
The jet, an Embraer SA Legacy 600, flew on what appeared to be a routine route to the northwest for about 12 minutes after departure, according to a preliminary flight track provided by Flightradar24.com.
Putin has been seeking to restore his shaken authority at home since the rebellion, amid rising nationalist anger over the Russian leader’s stalled invasion of Ukraine, now in its 18th month.
The Russian president is already making preparations for his bid to secure a fifth term in the March 2024 elections, even as anxiety spreads among senior officials and business tycoons.
The plunge in the rouble to above 100 per dollar last week has also jangled nerves among officials and prompted the central bank to make an emergency rate hike, amid concerns the currency’s weakness will stoke inflation and erode Russians’ incomes in the run-up to the election. DM