Wagner group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly died in private jet crash – if confirmed, it wouldn’t be first time someone who crossed Putin met a suspicious demise
The ConversationAug 21, 2023
Putin Breaks Silence on Wagner Boss Yevgeny Prigozhin
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Image copyright: Kremlin Press Office [via Wikimedia Commons]
The Facts
Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin on Thursday made his first comments concerning the plane crash that is believed to have killed Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin a day earlier, describing him as a "talented man," but one that "made serious mistakes in life."
"I've known Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 1990s," Putin said. "He was a man of a no easy fate. He made some serious mistakes in his life, but he also achieved the needed results — both for himself and, when I asked him, for the common cause."
The Spin
Pro-Russia narrative
Prigozhin is a complicated character who made some mistakes, but also one who valiantly served Russia's interests. The cause of this tragic crash will be investigated to the fullest extent possible.
Anti-Russia narrative
After Prigozhin humiliated the dictatorial Putin by launching his failed mutiny, and then proceeded to roam around freely without prosecution, the question shouldn't be how he was killed, but how he survived so long in the first place.
