Russian Government Confirm The Death Of Yevgeny Prigozhin By DNA Testing, But Conspiracy Theorists Remain Unconvinced He’s Dead

Russian authorities have today confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin who was head of the Russian private military company known as the Wagner Group.

Prigozhin was involved in a plane crash on Wednesday which occurred in the Tver Region of Russia as his Embraer 135BJ Legacy 600 plane flew him from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Conspiracy theories immediately swirled around his purported death with some speculating he escaped from the crash and others that he was never actually on board.

The cause of the crash remains a mystery; whether it was a technical glitch, pilot error, or harsh weather conditions. Other theories include that there was an onboard bomb or that the plane was shut down by Russia’s military on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

All victims of the crash were burnt beyond recognition. But in a statement on Sunday, Svetlana Petrenko, chief spokesperson of Russia’s Investigative Committee said DNA testing of the bodies of those who were on board the crashed plane has been completed.

“The identities of all 10 of the deceased have been established, [and] they correspond to the flight list,” Petrenko said.

The list of identified victims included Dmitry Utkin – said to be the co-founder of the PMC and Prigozhin’s deputy – and Valery Chekalov, Wagner’s head of logistics, effectively wiping out top leadership of the Wagner Group.

Only on Friday, President Putin ordered all PMC fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to Russia, bringing the private military under the direct control of his armed forces.

The entire flight crew – two pilots and an air-hostess – were also killed in the crash.

Suspicion immediately swirled around President Putin for Progozhin’s death, who did not hide his angst against Prigozhin for staging a “‘march of justice” on Moscow in June this year. He was trying to lead a military operation to Moscow, as he claimed, to get rid of so called corrupt officials at the Russian defence ministry. He accused the ministry of ordering a bombing on his men and of inadequate supplies of fighting hardware.

Putin considered the act mutinous and a betrayal.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal between Russian government and Prigozhin. But Putin once in a televised interview, said the one thing he never forgives is “betrayal”’ however describing Prigozhin as a “talented” man of “complicated destiny”.

Analysts then considered Prigozhin to be living on borrowed time.

Prigozhin’s PMC group had been very effective in Russia’s military conflict with Ukraine in the Bakhmut area of Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, as well as in the Middle East and central Africa.

Just last week, Prigozhin released a video shot most likely somewhere in Africa announcing that his Wagner Group had recommenced recruitment, and was conducting “reconnaissance and search activities” against “ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other bandits”.

Notwithstanding, this official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death may not be enough to douse the conspiracy theories of whether Prigozhin is dead or alive.

Only time will tell for sure.

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