Putin praises Wagner chief Prigozhin, a "man with a complex fate"

Vladimir Putin, president of the aggressor country, has spoken out for the first time since the crash of a plane which, according to Rosaviatsia, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, was carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC).

Source: Russian Kremlin-aligned media outlet RBC; Russian propagandists

Details: In a conversation with Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed head of the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, Putin expressed his condolences to all those who died in the crash and talked about Prigozhin’s talents.

"I have known Prigozhin for a long time, since the beginning of the 90s. He was a man with a complex fate; he made some serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the results he needed, both for himself and, when I asked him to, for a common cause, as in these last few months. He was a gifted man, a talented businessman," Putin said.

Putin also praised the Wagnerites for participating in the war against Ukraine. According to him, "these are people who have made a historic contribution to our common cause of fighting against the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine". He promised that he would not forget about this.

Background:

• On the evening of 23 August, a small plane crashed in the Bologovsky district of Tver Oblast, Russia. Rosaviatsiya, the Federal Air Transport Agency, said Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as having been on board.
• The Telegram channel Grey Zone, which is close to Wagner, states that Prigozhin’s plane had been shot down by the air defence. It was also reported that a terrorist attack on board was being considered as one of the possible causes of the disaster. 
• The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency posted a full list of the passengers on the plane. Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the list.
• The Russian media saw a certain symbolism in the fact that the plane crash occurred on 23 August, exactly two months after the Wagner rebellion (Prigozhin announced his "march for justice" on the evening of 23 June).
• Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin was taking revenge for the humiliation caused by the Wagner Group’s mutiny and had ordered the assassination of their leadership.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine had nothing to do with the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia.

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