Yevgeny Prigozhin died on 23 August while travelling on private jet from Moscow to St Petersburg
Vladimir Putin has claimed that the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin was caused by hand grenades detonating inside the aircraft, and suggested the Wagner boss may have been on drugs.
Prigozhin died when his business jet crashed on 23 August, two months after he staged an aborted mutiny against Russian military commanders in which his Wagner mercenary troops briefly took control of the southern city of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow. Two other top Wagner commanders, Prigozhin’s four bodyguards and a crew of three were also killed.
Making his first comments on the cause of the crash, Putin claimed the plane was blown up from inside, saying that the head of Russia’s investigative committee had reported to him a few days ago.
“Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash,” Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club thinktank in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
