{"id":4561,"date":"2023-08-26T18:27:35","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T18:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/?p=4561"},"modified":"2023-08-26T18:27:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T18:27:35","slug":"yevgeny-prigozhin-wagner-group-boss-joins-long-list-of-those-who-challenged-vladimir-putin-and-paid-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mpelembe.net\/index.php\/yevgeny-prigozhin-wagner-group-boss-joins-long-list-of-those-who-challenged-vladimir-putin-and-paid-the-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner Group boss joins long list of those who challenged Vladimir Putin and paid the\u00a0price"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stefan Wolff<\/a>, University of Birmingham<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Two months after challenging Vladimir Putin\u2019s leadership in an apparent but abortive \u201cmutiny\u201d, Yevgeny Prigozhin \u2013 the former owner of the mercenary private military company Wagner Group \u2013 has joined a long list<\/a> of prominent Russians to die in mysterious circumstances. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Prigozhin\u2019s private jet apparently crashed<\/a> on a routine flight from Moscow to St Petersburg just after 3pm local time. Confirmation of Prigozhin\u2019s likely demise came in the form of announcements<\/a> by Russia\u2019s authorities and a Telegram channel linked to the Wagner group. Conveniently, there was also video<\/a> footage of the plane falling out of the sky and burning on the ground.<\/p>\n

With him on the aircraft was Dmitry Utkin, widely considered<\/a> to be his second in command at the Wagner Group. Other passengers are reported to have included<\/a> Valery Chekalov, the head of Wagner security, Yevgeny Makaryan, who has been described as Prigozhin\u2019s bodyguard and other Wagner Group personnel.<\/p>\n

While it is unlikely that we will ever know for sure how, why and on whose orders Prigozhin might have been killed, it is far less difficult to imagine that he finally paid the price for his march on Moscow at the head of a column of his Wagner Group troops at the end of June 2023. The deaths of other top Wagner personnel in the crash spell the likely end of the group in its current form.<\/p>\n

At the time, Prigozhin went to great lengths to paint his mutiny as directed against the top brass in the Russian ministry of defence and not as a direct challenge to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Yet the brief episode exposed cracks in the regime<\/a>. Unopposed by local and regional security forces, Prigozhin\u2019s troops were able to take Rostov-on-Don and the headquarters of Russia\u2019s southern military district and command centre of the war in Ukraine. They also marched to within 200km (125 miles) of the Russian capital, again mostly unopposed.<\/p>\n

Following a deal brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin called off his rebellion, agreeing to relocate his men and himself to Belarus and Wagner\u2019s overseas bases \u2013 mostly in Africa.<\/p>\n

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