Mining The Mercenaries

"I told him: 'Yevgeny, do you understand that you will doom your people and will perish yourself?'"

" He had just come back from the front. On an impulse he said: 'I will die then, damn it!'" 

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko  

"[If a surface-to-air missile hit the plane], you would see that sort of vapour trail in the final stages of its approach."

"Therefore, either that could be an explosion, or it could be a surface-to-air missile system. This is almost certainly not smoke [and is probably] fuel venting. It's a large quantity, that is a massive damage to the aircraft that's caused that."

"Now, you put all of that together... there's lots of reasons why that might have occurred, but that is not a natural accident."

"[Footage of the plane closer to the ground appears to show it without its wing or its tailplane, which could explain why it came down] vertically, not unlike a falling leaf."

"[Other pictures from the crash site show the tailplane] some distance [from the main part of the aircraft]. That is a catastrophe that's happened in the air... there were rumours that a case of wine [containing a bomb] was put on the aircraft at the last minute."

"The trouble with that theory is that generally speaking, [an explosion] inside an aircraft blows it out... whereas a surface-to-air missile system or an air-to-air missile system generally tries to seek out the juiciest, meatiest part of an aircraft."

"That would explain why it potentially could rip a wing off. And as soon as it did that, the fate of the aircraft was sealed."

Military analyst, former pilot Sean Bell 

 

The Kremlin has rejected allegations of its involvement in the plane crash that killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. They have also announced discovery of the black box, to aid in the investigation of the crash. An investigation that will thoroughly examine the cause of the crash which will most certainly negate all the unfounded rumours circulating wildly both within Russia among the many admirers of the former Wagner boss, and abroad in elite intelligence services.

Prigozhin and his dedicated fighting men, feared for their military skills and brutality in Ukraine, Africa and Syria was honoured by a eulogy delivered by his old friend Vladimir Putin a day after the plane carrying him and six other members of the Wagner executive team crashed mysteriously soon after takeoff from Moscow, in a routine flight en route to St.Petersburg. 

 According to a preliminary American intelligence assessment the plane crashed as a result of an intentional explosion. It was determined that Yevgeny Prigozhin was "very likely" the target of the crash that resulted in the death of the three air crew and high-ranking Wagner members. The clumsiness and obvious conclusion held by many that the bloodless 'punishment'-driven Putin agenda was responsible for the drama that wiped out yet another Putin-authority critic is not untypical of the Russian leader's modus operandi.

The mission succeeded in removing another irritation, an erstwhile friend and supporter who had become tediously irrepressible in his aggravating claims and behaviour. An event whose success and purpose lay in delivering a message to any others who might harbour thoughts of challenging the primacy of President Putin and his decision-making on such issues as 'special military operations' that have so far proven inadequate to his goal of tucking Ukraine securely under his wing again as a Russian appendage.

"Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie."

"He [Vladimir Putin] said that right now all the necessary forensic analyses, including genetic testing, will be carried out. Once some kind of official conclusions are ready to be released, they will be released."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov

According to Britain's Defence Ministry, the death of Prigozhin could serve to destabilize the Wagner Group. His "exceptional audacity" and "extreme brutality" permeated the organization "and are unlikely to be matched by any successor", they concluded. The fighting group's reputation and success in the battlefield is one that President Putin would like to harness and bring tightly under  his control, as part of the Russian military, as a national fighting force.

There was an earlier call from the Russian military elite for the Wagner militias to surrender their weapons to the military and allow themselves to be enrolled as a regular part of the military, though with their special skills and personal thuggery intact they could be deployed as special-events units to be mobilized when the need for ruthless deadly action was to be deployed. 

 

This was a recommendation by the Russian military which Mr. Prigozhin took exception to, and outright refused. On that occasion, the Russian President sided with the military, no doubt for the first time abandoning Prigozhin's confidence, which eventually led to his insubordination. Now, Prigozhin gone, Mr. Putin has signed a decree making it mandatory for the mercenaries to swear an oath of allegiance to the Russian State - to Putin.

"It is a concealed message to military intelligence to find and prosecute Wagner fighters."

"[And a clear message to the fighters]: Either take the oath and keep your arms or disarm yourself."

"You obey or you go to prison."

"They chose Wagner because Wagner gave them special treatment, without the bureaucracy of the huge Russian army. If they get special treatment under Putin's orders, I don't think they care about where, to whom and for whom they will fight."

 Petro Burkovskyi, head, Democratic Initiatives Foundation, Ukraine think tank

The Man  Reuters