Sergei Markov,a pro-Kremlin political analyst,noted that Prigozhin has become a legendary figure for his supporters who are increasingly critical of the authorities.
“Prigozhin’s funeral raises an issue of communication between the bureaucratic Russian government system that doesn’t have much political potential and politically active patriotic segment of the Russian public,” Markov said.
Russian Rosguardia (National Guard) servicemen guard the Porokhovskoye cemetery after a memorial service for mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin,who was killed in a plane crash last week,in St. Petersburg.Credit:AP
The secretive service “became the final stage of a special operation to eliminate him,” said Tatiana Stanovaya,a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.
“Everything was as closed as possible,under full control of the security forces,with distracting manoeuvres,” she said in a commentary on her Telegram channel.
Russia informed Brazil’s aviation authority that it will not open an investigation into the plane crash that killed Prigozhin under international rules “at the moment”,the Brazilian agency told Reuters on Tuesday.
The country’s top criminal investigation agency,the Investigative Committee,officially confirmed Prigozhin’s death on Sunday.
The committee didn’t say what might have caused Prigozhin’s business jet to plummet from the sky on August 23,minutes after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg. Just before the crash,Prigozhin had reportedly returned from a trip to Africa,where he sought to expand Wagner Group’s activities.
Also on Tuesday,a funeral was held at St Petersburg’s Northern Cemetery for Wagner’s logistics chief Valery Chekalov,who was among the 10 people killed in the crash. Prigozhin’s second-in-command,Dmitry Utkin,a retired military intelligence officer who gave the mercenary group its name based on his own nom de guerre,was also killed.
A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to crash,and Western officials have pointed to a long list of Putin’s foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin rejected Western allegations the president was behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”
Although both were from St. Petersburg,Prigozhin and Putin were not known to be particularly close.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was the owner of the Wagner Group military company.Credit:AP
Prigozhin,an ex-convict who earned millions and his nickname “Putin’s chef” from lucrative government catering contracts,served Kremlin political interests and helped expand Russia’s clout by sending his mercenaries to Syria,Libya,the Central African Republic and other countries. Wagner,one of the most capable elements of Moscow’s forces,played a key role in Ukraine where it captured the Ukrainian eastern stronghold of Bakhmut in late May.
The crash came exactly two months after the brutal and profane mercenary boss launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. Prigozhin ordered his mercenaries to take over the military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then began a march on Moscow. They downed several military aircraft,killing more than a dozen pilots.
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Putin had vowed to punish the participants but hours later struck a deal that saw Prigozhin ending the mutiny in exchange for amnesty and permission for him and his troops to move to Belarus.
The fate of Wagner,which until recently played a prominent role in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries,is uncertain.
Putin said Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Russian military,move to Belarus or retire from service. Several thousand went to Belarus,where they are in a camp southeast of the capital,Minsk.