And The Mystery Perpetrator?
"Putin has been suspected of murdering people since 2000.""After the arrest of [exiled tycoon Mikhail] Khordokovksy, the assassination of [ex-FSB officer Alexander] Litvinenko, the use of Novichok against [double agent] Sergei Skripal — only idiots would think that they're safe. [The taking down of a private jet will bring the Russian elite even closer to heel].""They have nowhere to go. They're terribly afraid for their own lives, their families, fortunes, and so on."Kirill Shamiev, political scientist, visiting fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations
If
any event was predictable, this was, given the astonishing number of
Russians falling out of favour with Russian President Vladimir Putin;
those who criticize him, those uncertain whether he is worthy of their
loyalty, those who look elsewhere for the authority they can believe in
and retain their self-respect. Businessmen, oligarchs, heads of
government institutions, academics, opposition politicians, critical
journalists, erstwhile friends and supporters have been given ample
rewards for straying from the fold. 'Suicides', sharpshooter-headshots,
poisoning, strangulation, hanging, falling out of windows, all and any
methods of assigning penalties of a final nature to the deserving.
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| Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. Lev Borodin / TASS |
"Multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels.""Let's not be surprised if he pops up shortly in a new video from Africa."Keir Giles, Russia expert, Chatham House think-tank"Of course it's Putin.""Putin as a leaddr cannot afford to be humiliated in the way that he was. Putin functions on two things: Loyalty above talent ... and the consequences of betrayal.""The FSB remains loyal to Putin."Unnamed Russian interior intelligence source"[News of Prigozhin's death was] unsurprising.""Most people will jump to the conclusion that this isn't an accident."Sir Richard Dearlove, former head, MI-6, Britain
 |
| Ukrainska Pravda |
Russian
mercenary leader of the Wagner Group, the most 'successful' fighting
force out of Russia, with its international presence in African war
scenes and it's more recent militia action in Ukraine including its very
public incendiary disagreements with the leaders of the Russian
military is no more. That was a forgone conclusion from the moment back
in June when he suddenly brought his troops back over the border into
Russia to begin a march on the Kremlin, determined for a showdown with
the Russian military elite.
The
founder of the private military company known as Wagner -- a longtime
personal friend of President Vladimir Putin who admitted in the tense
days of the approach of the militia to Moscow that he had orchestrated
the funding through state funds of the group -- stated that his
complaints of military ineptitude in the prosecution of the war against
Ukraine, and the criminal neglect of support at critical times of his
group by the military that withheld badly needed weaponry was never
against his friend Putin.
But
of course, it was Vladimir Putin's dirty little war, and his decisions
and orders that were being played out in Ukraine, and any criticism of
his elite military commanders implicated the president fundamentally. So
that betrayal of Putin's trust in the frangible psyche of a man given
to urgent outbursts and irrational decision-making was unforgivable,
consequences outstanding and just biding time. That Prigozhin was given
leeway to absent himself to Belarus from whence he could have decamped
to safety, yet chose instead to return to Russia bespeaks an astonishing
lack of awareness.
That
brief, surprising, embarrassing armed rebellion spelled the
instigator's death knell, and he was a dead man walking for months while
those around him wondered when and how the issue would play out,
knowing it was inevitable, while he remained seemingly oblivious. Until a
plane carrying three pilots and seven passengers en route from Moscow
to St.Petersburg mysteriously corkscrewed out of the sky missing a
wing.
A
succession of events, one the dismissal of the Russian General who was
head of the Russian Airforce, a colleague of Prigozhin's and possibly a
co-conspirator as well, unable to deflect suspicion which led to his
disappearance from public view. His penalty is not yet finalized, but
300 kilometres distant from Moscow the crash that killed all aboard
spelled the final chapter in the Wagner Group chief's story. Russia's
civil aviation regulator reported his name on the manifest, and in the
Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, Wagner commanders confirmed their chief
had been aboard the plane along with his top associate, Dmitry Utkin.
"We have seen the reports. If confirmed, no one should be surprised", commented Adrienne Watson, U.S. National Security Council spokeswoman. The Associated Press
flight tracking data indicated a private jet previously used by
Prigozhin took off from Moscow Wednesday evening and minutes later its
transponder signal went silent while the plane was at altitude and
travelling at speed. An image posted by a social media account linked to
Wagner showed burning wreckage, a partial tail number identifying the
jet.
 |
Other
videos shared by the pro-Wagner Telegram channel Grey Zone show a plane
dropping from a large cloud of smoke, wildly twisting as it falls. A
frame-by-frame analysis by the Associated Press
of two videos are consistent with an explosion of some kind in
mid-flight. The images also indicate a missing wing on the plane. The
Russian investigation is in good hands; Russia's Investigative Committee
is investigating the crash on the charges of 'violation of air safety
rules'.
British
security sources on the other hand, believe the private jet had been
shot down by the FSB intelligence agency, Vladimir Putin's old Alma
Mater -- and, of course on orders of President Putin. "All the mood music, all the habits, all the history point to the FSB",
commented one Russian inside source. Just incidentally this very week
Prigozhin had posted his first recruitment video since the mutiny, that
Wagner is conducting reconnaissance and search activities, "Making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even more free".
"[Prigozhin was a] talented businessman [who had significant achievements in his professional life].""He was a man with a difficult fate. He made some serious mistakes in his life.""… He achieved the needed results both for himself and for a joint effort that I had asked him about during the last months [Prigozhin’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut earlier this year]."Russian President Vladimir Putin
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Labels: Russian FSB Secret Intelligence, Vladimir Putin, Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin
posted by Pieface @ Friday, August 25, 2023
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