The Russian authorities announced this Friday the recovery of the bodies of the ten people who died in the crash of the plane carrying the leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, as well as the aircraft’s flight recorders.
“The bodies of ten victims have been recovered from the plane crash site. Molecular genetic testing is underway to establish their identities. Investigators have confiscated the flight recorders and a detailed examination of the scene is underway,” the Security Committee reported. Russo Investigation, on Telegram. social network account.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised a thorough investigation into the crash of a plane carrying several leaders of the Wagner mercenary group, including Prigozhin, which crashed on Wednesday while traveling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.
In the course of the operations, the Russian Investigative Committee states that “important objects and documentation have also been seized to determine all the circumstances of the accident”, promising that “the necessary forensic examinations” will be carried out.
The Committee also stated that, in the framework of the investigations led by the governor of the Tver region, Igor Rudenya, the emergency services began to collect genetic samples from the 10 corpses “in order to determine their identity”.
The Kremlin today denied any involvement in the plane crash.
“It’s an absolute lie,” said presidential spokesman Dimitri Peskov, referring to rumors about the Kremlin’s involvement in the crash of the plane in which the leader of the Wagner group was traveling.
The air disaster occurred two months after Prigozhin launched an armed rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership, which was stopped thanks to the mediation of Alexander Lukashenko, president of Belarus, where part of the Wagner group moved after the leader of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, will accuse the leader of the mercenaries and his former close associate of treason.
Russian authorities said Prigozhin was on the passenger list of the plane that crashed on Wednesday, for unknown reasons, during a flight between Moscow and St. Petersburg, where the Wagner group headquarters is located.
Prigozhin’s death remains a presumption as DNA tests to identify the bodies of the 10 people on board have not yet been completed.
Investigators did not comment on the clues they were examining, nor did they mention an accident theory or a bomb, surface-to-air missile or pilot error.
The crash of the plane associated with the Wagner group immediately raised suspicions of an assassination orchestrated at the highest level of Russian power by Prigozhin, who had led a rebellion against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in June.
US President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, said he believed Putin was likely behind the crash.
“I don’t really know what happened, but I’m not surprised. Not much happens in Russia that doesn’t involve Putin,” he said at the time.
Putin, who considered Prigozhin a traitor after the armed rebellion of June 23-24, paid tribute on Thursday night, after 24 hours of silence, to the memory of “a talented man who made some serious mistakes.”
Source: TSF
