Russian president sends condolences to Prigozhin's family after plane crash

Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his "condolences" over a plane crash that killed Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others.

In televised comments on Thursday, President Putin praised Prigozhin as a talented businessman and said he wished to express sincere condolences to the families of those who died.

"As for the aviation tragedy, first of all I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It's always a tragedy."

He added that it was necessary to await the outcome of the official investigation into the crash, in which all 10 people on board were killed. The Russian president said the inquiry would take some time.

An investigation is currently underway into what caused Wednesday's crash, which came two months after Prigozhin led a short-lived armed mutiny against the Russian military leadership in June.

The mutiny, which lasted less than 24 hours, came to an end after the Wagner leader agreed to turn his troops back on their path to the Russian capital, following negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko aimed at de-escalating the situation.

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Following the deal, the Kremlin announced that Russia had dropped a criminal case previously filed against the head of the Wagner group.

Prigozhin ‘a talented person’ who made ‘mistakes’

The Russian president further said Prigozhin was a talented man who made “mistakes” and the Wagner crash victims made a “significant contribution” in Ukraine.

 Putin said, “I knew Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early ’90s.

“He was a man of complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results. He was a talented person, a talented businessman, he worked not only in our country, and worked with results, but also abroad, in Africa, in particular. He was involved there with oil, gas, precious metals and stones."

"Indeed, if employees of the Wagner company were there, and the preliminary data indicate they were, I would like to note that these people made a significant contribution to our common cause of combating the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, we remember this, we know it and we shall not forget," he added.

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Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin dies in plane crash in Russia: Reports

The investigators are now looking for “black boxes, the voice recordings, to piece together exactly what happened”.

“As far as I know, he just returned yesterday from Africa. He met some officials here. But what is quite definite – the head of the Investigative Committee reported to me this morning – is they have already begun a preliminary investigation into this event. And it will be carried out in full, and taken right to the end,” the president said.

Pentagon rejects missile strike theory 

The United States believes a surface-to-air missile originating from inside Russia likely shot down the plane presumed to be carrying Prigozhin, Reuters quoted two unnamed US officials as saying. 

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, stressed that the information was still preliminary and under review.

The Pentagon, however, said later there was currently no information to suggest that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane. 

Russian air authorities have said Prigozhin, his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin and eight other people were on the private plane that crashed with no survivors north of Moscow on Wednesday.

Russian authorities have yet to confirm via a DNA test that the 62-year-old’s body was among the charred and mangled remnants of the private jet that crashed 350km northwest of Moscow.

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