A spokesperson of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denied speculations that the Kremlin was involved in the death of Wagner Group Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin. The spokesperson said facts regarding the death could be established only once the investigation into the crash concludes.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman of Russian President told presspersons, “Naturally, there are many speculations over this plane crash and the tragic death of the passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, the West is selling these speculations from a certain angle. All of them are absolute lies,” TASS news agency reported.
Peskov added that reportage on the crash should be based on facts and only very few were available at the moment. Peskov said that more facts would be established as the investigation progresses. The spokesman did not confirm whether Putin would attend Prigozhin's funeral and said, “President had a very full schedule.”
The Kremlin spokesperson claimed the mercenary group Wagner had no formal existence and said, “Wagner existed as a group that had made a big contribution to Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.”
A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that the plane was downed by an intentional explosion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence on Thursday on the aeroplane crash that killed Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and other top leaders of the mercenary group. “It is always a tragedy,” Putin said condoling the deaths. Putin remembered Prigozhin as a talented person and as a man with a difficult fate. “I had known Prigozhin for a very long time, since the start of the 90s. He was a man with a difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life. And he strove for the results he needed for himself, and when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months,” Reuters reported.
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and top officers of his private military were presumed dead in a plane crash that was widely seen as an assassination, two months after they staged a mutiny that dented Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority.
(With PTI inputs.)
