Russia’s Kremlin has denied speculations that President, Vladimir Putin ordered a hit on Wagner’s group leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was among the ten passengers killed in a plan crash in the Tver region, Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Putin had nothing to do with the plane crash as many viewed the incident as a revenge assassination for the mercenary chief’s aborted mutiny two months earlier.
According to Peskoy, the allegation that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a hit on Prigozhin is “an absolute lie.”
Forensic tests are still needed to establish Prigozhin’s death, Peskov told reporters in a regular briefing call, according to the state news agency Tass.
The formal results of the investigation will be published, he added, according to the RIA news agency.
There has been no official confirmation that Prigozhin’s body was found or identified, and it remains unknown what brought the plane down.
It would be recalled that Putin yesterday, broke his silence about the crash late Thursday, calling Prigozhin “a man with a complicated fate, who has made many serious mistakes in his life.”
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said at a briefing Thursday that the Defense Department’s initial assessment is that Prigozhin was likely killed. He added that there is no information to indicate a surface-to-air missile hit the aircraft, pushing back at reports suggesting it as the cause of the crash.
Two U.S. officials told NBC News that intelligence gathered so far points to sabotage. One of the officials said a leading theory is that the aircraft was downed by an explosive on board, but they do not have enough information to say that with certainty.
Prigozhin led a short-lived mutiny against the country’s military leadership in June, but stood down in a deal with the Kremlin that saw him exiled to neighboring Belarus. He later said he never intended to topple Putin, but went against the top military brass to preserve his mercenary force.
Peskov said it’s unclear yet if Putin will attend Prigozhin’s funeral if he in fact perished in the crash, because the president has “a busy schedule.”
