Aircraft carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin may have been downed on purpose: Kremlin
File photo.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday (August 30) that investigators were considering the possibility that the aircraft carrying Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was downed on purpose. Speaking to reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, "It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including the version - you know what we are talking about – let's say, a deliberate atrocity."
"Let's wait for the results of our Russian investigation," Peskov said. On being asked if the International Civil Aviation Organisation would probe the crash, the Kremlin spokesperson said the circumstances made it different, though he cautioned that investigators had made no formal conclusions yet about what exactly took place.
On August 23, the aircraft on which Prigozhin was travelling to St. Petersburg from Moscow crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board including the Wagner chief, the mercenary group's top commanders, his bodyguards and crew of three. The cause of the crash is unclear, but villagers near the crash site told Reuters they heard a bang and then saw the jet plummet to the ground.
Prigozhin supporters mourn his death: A fearless warrior
On Wednesday, followers of Prigozhin laid flowers, messages and poetry at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in his home town of St. Petersburg, hailing him as a fearless warrior.
"It's a huge loss for Russia. But I think we will realise the extent of loss late, as it usually happens. I think we all will feel it later. I think that nobody’s better now that he is here," former Russian Duma member Sergei Abeltsev said.
"It's difficult to talk, difficult to compose myself. The country is losing its patriots. This man could have done a lot for our great country," a Wagner supporter, who chose to remain anonymous, told the news agency.
A photograph of Prigozhin and the text of Joseph Brodsky's "Nature Morte" lay on the freshly dug ground of his grave. "You are nailed to the cross. How will I go home?" an excerpt from the poem read.
(With inputs from agencies)
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