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Tag: Kremlin

  • No date set yet for funeral of Wagner boss Prigozhin – Kremlin

    No date set yet for funeral of Wagner boss Prigozhin – Kremlin

    No date has been set yet for the funeral of Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who died in a plane crash last week, the Kremlin said on Monday.

    “I don’t have any information about the funeral yet,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

    He asked about the burial of the total of 10 victims of last Wednesday’s plane crash, according to the Interfax agency.

    “As soon as a decision is made, it will probably be made public,” Peskov added.

    The plane, with Prigozhin on board, crashed about halfway between Moscow and St Petersburg, in the Tver region.

    Officially, the cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but Western observers and many in Russia suspect Progozhin’s private jet was deliberately brought down.

    The Kremlin has denied playing a role in the crash.

    Prigozhin, long a close confidant of Russian President Vladimr Putin, led a brief mutiny by his mercenary army in June.

    Prigozhin’s troops, who had fought alongside the regular Russian army against Ukraine for months, occupied the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and marched toward Moscow before agreeing to turn around.

    The rebellion followed Progozhin’s repeated criticism of the Russian military leadership over supply shortages and other issues.

    Putin called Prigozhin a traitor in a televised speech during the uprising.

    After the crash, Putin described Prigozhin as a talented person who had made “serious mistakes.”

    Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenaries initially agreed to leave for Belarus as part of a deal to end the insurrection.

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    But Prigozhin later made public appearances in Russia.

    Kremlin spokesman Peskov did not answer the question of whether Putin would attend the funeral.

    There are also rumours about the size of the funeral, which, according to Russian Orthodox tradition, should have been held days after his death.

    There is also speculation about where it would be held, and whether Prigozhin will be accorded honours as he was once awarded the “Hero of Russia” medal.

    (dpa/NAN) 

  • It’s absolute lie, Kremlin slams accusations it killed Wagner chief

    It’s absolute lie, Kremlin slams accusations it killed Wagner chief

    • US intelligence: How  intentional explosion brought down Prigozhin’s plane

    The Kremlin yesterday fiercely dismissed as ‘absolute lie’ accusations that it killed Wagner chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin.

    Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said insinuations in the West that the plane was downed on Putin’s orders were false.

    “There is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the plane’s passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov said at a press conference.

    She added: “Of course, in the West, all this speculation is presented from a well-known angle.”

    “All of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to base yourself on facts,” he added. “There are not many facts yet. They need to be established in the course of investigative actions.”

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov expressed similar sentiments yesterday.

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    Citing US President Bide’s statement that he was not “surprised” that Prigozhin had been killed in a plane crash and that “there’s not much that happens in Russia that (Vladimir) Putin’s not behind,”Ryabkov said such remarks showed Washington’s disregard for diplomacy.

    TASS news agency  quoted him as saying:“It is not for the US president, in my opinion, to talk about such tragic events of this kind,” Ryabkov was quoted by the state TASS news agency as saying.

    US intelligence: How  intentional explosion brought down Prigozhin’s plane

     The  U.S. intelligence  in a preliminary assessment said that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash that  killed Prigozhin .

    Yahoo News quoted U.S. and Western officials as saying that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

    The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details about what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to be vengeance for the mutiny in June that posed the biggest challenge to the Russian leader’s 23-year rule. Several of Prigozhin’s lieutenants were also presumed dead.

    Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane were inaccurate. He declined to say whether the U.S. suspected a bomb or believed the crash was an assassination.

    Details of the intelligence assessment surfaced as Putin expressed his condolences to the families of those who were reported to be aboard the jet and referred to “serious mistakes” by Prigozhin.