Putin's right-hand Patrushev behind Prigozhin's murder – WSJ

The assassination of the Wagner group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in Moscow was prepared for two months; it was approved by Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, writes The Wall Street Journal.

Source: The WSJ, citing representatives of Western and Russian special services and former Kremlin officials

Quote from WSJ: "The assassination of the warlord was two months in the making and approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oldest ally and confidant, an ex-spy named Nikolai Patrushev, according to Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer. The role of Patrushev as the driver of the plan to kill Prigozhin hasn’t been previously reported (…).

In the beginning of August, as most of Moscow went on vacation, Patrushev, in his office in central Moscow, gave orders to his assistant to proceed in shaping an operation to dispose of Prigozhin, said the former Russian intelligence officer. Putin was later shown the plans and didn’t object, Western intelligence agencies said.

Several weeks later, following his tour through Africa, Prigozhin was waiting at a Moscow airport while safety inspectors finished a check on the plane. It was during this delay that a small bomb was placed under the wing, said Western intelligence officials."

Details: The Wall Street Journal revealed new details about Prigozhin's mutiny and murder, as well as Patrushev's role in Putin's restoration of power over an increasingly volatile Russia, by speaking with Western intelligence agencies, former US and Russian security and intelligence officials, and former Kremlin officials.

The publication reports that at the end of August 2023, on the runway of Moscow's airport, Prigozhin waited for his Embraer Legacy 600 to complete a safety check before takeoff. He was heading home to St. Petersburg with 9 other people on board. Due to the delay, no one in the plane's cabin noticed a small explosive device under the wing. When the plane finally took off, it climbed to an altitude of about 28,000 feet for approximately 30 minutes before the wing exploded, and the plane spiralled down to the ground. All 10 people on board died.

A few hours after the incident, a European involved in gathering intelligence and maintaining a secret communication channel with the Kremlin, upon seeing the news of the crash, asked a local official about what had happened.

"He had to be removed," the Kremlin official responded without hesitation.

Having tens of thousands of military personnel and engaging in lucrative operations involving extracting gold, timber, and diamonds in Africa, Prigozhin managed a multibillion-dollar empire overseas. However, in Russia and on the battlefield in Ukraine, his public confrontation with the higher military leadership over weapons and supplies put him on a collision course with the Kremlin.

When this erupted into an open rebellion against the Russian military command with an armed campaign on Moscow by 25,000 fighters and tanks from Wagner at the end of June, Patrushev intervened, seeing an opportunity to remove Prigozhin permanently. 

The WSJ says that Patrushev had long warned Putin that Moscow's dependence on Wagner in Ukraine gave Prigozhin excessive political and military influence that threatened the Kremlin.

The newspaper reported that Patrushev warned Putin about Prigozhin in the summer months of 2022, but they fell on deaf ears as Wagner made progress on the battlefield.

The situation took a turn when Prigozhin reached out to Putin and bluntly lamented the lack of supplies, revealed a former Russian intelligence officer who maintains ties to people close to Putin and Patrushev.

The former intelligence officer said the conversation took place in October involving other office staff, including Patrushev, who heard the former catering operator (Prigozhin) berating the Russian president. Patrushev later seized on the call as a reason for Putin to distance himself from the Wagner PMC chief: "The warlord had become dangerous, with no respect for the Kremlin’s authority".

As December loomed, it was clear that Patrushev had won. Putin ignored Prigozhin even when he publicly criticised the Russian military and complained of the lack of supplies. His calls went unanswered.

The Kremlin effectively announced plans to remove Wagner PMC as a fighting force in Ukraine in early June, ordering its men to register and thus align with the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Prigozhin staged a mutiny on 23 June, sending Wagner mercenaries to attack the Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Moscow. As Putin was away at his villa, Patrushev took the lead, organising a flurry of phone calls to persuade Prigozhin to back down, based on Western intelligence assessments and according to a former Russian intelligence officer.

Patrushev asked officers sympathetic to Prigozhin to attempt to reach him. Five calls to Prigozhin from the Kremlin went unanswered.

Patrushev also sought intermediaries, contacting the Kazakh and Belarusian governments. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko promised to help: he called Prigozhin several times for over 6 hours and relayed messages between the warlord and Moscow. Lukashenko passed on the offer made by Patrushev: if Prigozhin turned his forces around, his men would be allowed to retreat to Belarus.

Prigozhin's rebellion died within 24 hours, yet the Kremlin got even with him, although doing little publicly to limit Prigozhin's life.

The Wagner PMC chief travelled to Africa and could carry on working in St Petersburg and across Russia but was being cautious, said Maksim Shugaley, who worked for Prigozhin at a think tank.

"He knew he had enemies and that something could happen to him, but as far as he was concerned he was abiding by the deal," Shugaley stressed.

Former CIA officer Rolf Mowatt-Larssen believes Putin's plan was to "keep the dead man walking so they could continue to find out what happened," seeking Prigozhin's accomplices.

Prigozhin's plane crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino. Eyewitness videos revealed that the aircraft fell from the sky after the explosion with its wing torn off. Several days later, the Russian media reported that DNA tests had confirmed that Prigozhin and the Wagner group military commander Dmitry Utkin had been killed in the crash. Two pilots and a flight attendant were also among the dead.

The WSJ notes that Patrushev, 72, helped Putin take control of the government ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and "his role in some of the darker chapters of Putin’s presidency underscore the often deadly consequences for anyone who falls afoul of the Kremlin."

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