Daily Times

On Wednesday, a private jet crashed, killing all ten aboard, including Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

Moscow has launched a high-level investigation into the crash’s cause amid widespread rumors about Prigozhin’s shocking passing because he dared to oppose Russian President Putin.

Wagner blamed the Kremlin for the incident, but international media reported that a former close Putin aide was traveling on the Embraer 135 (EBM-135BJ) with Dmitry Utkin, Prigozhin’s right-hand man who oversaw the group’s operations.

Initial reports indicate that the incident took place close to the village of Kuzhenkino in Tver while the plane was flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

Unexpectedly, the crashed jet had only one accident on record in more than 20 years, and it had nothing to do with a mechanical issue.

Critics claimed that the plane crash was not a tragic accident because Wagner’s chief had grown powerful for Moscow and was a major inconvenience, linking it to a failed mutiny.

Prigozhin had previously kept a low profile since June, but a video of him appearing in Africa recently surfaced.

The Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian group that has been charged with conducting disinformation campaigns and disseminating propaganda on social media platforms to sway political events in a number of countries, including the 2016 US presidential election, is where businessman Prigozhin, 62, first came to the attention of the world.