Prigozhin's death is confirmed
Russian investigators said genetic tests showed that the Wagner chief, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who led a brief mutiny against Moscow’s military leadership, was among the victims of a plane crash last week.
The Russian authorities have officially confirmed the death of the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, with investigators saying on Sunday that genetic testing showed that the victims of a plane crash last week matched all the names on the jet’s manifest.
Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia’s investigative committee, said in a statement that “the identities of all 10 victims have been established” and that “they correspond to the list stated in the flight manifest.”
Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary chief who died in a plane crash last week, has been buried in a private ceremony in St. Petersburg, his press service said on Tuesday, ending days of speculation over how he would be laid to rest.
Hours earlier, the Kremlin said it had no information about Mr. Prigozhin’s funeral except that President Vladimir V. Putin would not attend.
Mr. Prigozhin’s funeral “took place in a private format,” his press service said. “Those wishing to say goodbye can visit the Porokhovskoye cemetery” in St. Petersburg.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Porokhovskoye cemetery was being heavily guarded by Russian police, riot police, and national guardsmen, who did not allow people to enter.
The deaths were not officially confirmed until Sunday, when Russian investigators said that genetic testing showed that the victims of the crash matched the names on the manifest.
Wagner’s logistics chief, Valery Chekalov, who was also on the plane, was buried Tuesday morning in Northern Cemetery in St. Petersburg, in a ceremony that was not publicized in advance. Several hundred people came to pay their respects.
Some analysts speculated that the Russian authorities were seeking to avoid a public outpouring of support for Mr. Prigozhin and his top lieutenants.
It was not only Prigozhin who perished in the incident. With him on the flight was Dmitry Utkin, one of his closest allies another key figure in Wagner. A former GRU officer and a mercenary who had been active in Syria guarding oilfields, he had been implicated in organising the Wagner convoy that tried to drive to Moscow.
