The Kremlin approved the plans – bomb placed under the wing: this man would be behind the attack on Prigozhin

class=”sc-cffd1e67-0 fmXrkB”>

The death of Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (†62) was not an accident. The secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev (72), had a hand in it. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) comes to this conclusion after conversations with representatives of Western secret services, a former employee of the Russian secret service and a former Kremlin official.

According to the report, the former spy and close confidante of Vladimir Putin (71) allegedly ordered the murder. Patrushev is said to have warned the president about Prigozhin’s growing influence as early as the summer of 2022. At the time, however, Putin is said to have ignored the warnings, especially since the Wagner group achieved numerous successes in the war in Ukraine.

Wagner’s rise is dangerous for the Kremlin

According to the Russian ex-secret service agent, the tide turned in October 2022 after Prigozhin “roughly” complained to Putin about the lack of ammunition at the front for the first time. This conversation was overheard by Patrushev, who then used it to convince Putin to distance himself from Prigozhin. His reasoning: The Wagner boss is becoming dangerous given his rapid rise and no longer respects the Kremlin’s authority.

According to the “WSJ”, by the end of 2022 it was clear that Patrushev had won. Because Putin publicly ignored Prigozhin’s attacks and requests.

Prigozhin’s mutiny was his death knell

In the spring of 2023, Prigozhin’s demands and hostilities against the leadership of the Russian military became increasingly aggressive.

After the Russian government announced in early June 2023 that it wanted to disband Wagner as a fighting force in Ukraine so that the fighters could join the regular Ministry of Defense, Prigozhin’s patience broke.

The famous mutiny took place on June 23, 2023, when Prigozhin and his troops moved from Rostov-on-Don towards Moscow. Prigozhin stopped 38 hours later about 200 kilometers from the Russian capital. An agreement was reached with the government with the help of Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko, 69, it was said.

The man who took command in the background: Nikolai Patrushev. The Secretary of the Security Council had organized a series of telephone calls to convince Prigozhin to end his ‘March of Justice’. It was also his idea to bring Lukashenko on board as a mediator. The goal: to overcome Putin’s biggest challenge yet in his more than two decades in power. Successfully.

For Prigozhin, however, the mutiny would not remain without consequences. When the criminal trial was halted a few days later and he was allowed to travel to Belarus, the Wagner boss may have still thought he was safe. But his fate was probably already sealed.

Putin approves the assassination plans

At the beginning of August, Patrushev is said to have ordered his followers to prepare for the operation ‘Eliminate Prigozhin’. According to Western intelligence sources, similar plans were also presented to Putin. According to the report, he would not have had any objections.

On August 23, Prigozhin waited at a Moscow airport for his flight’s security check to complete. At this precise moment a small explosive device would have been placed under the wing.

Prigozhin never arrived in St. Petersburg. About half an hour after departure from Moscow, the private Embraer Legacy 600 plane crashed in the Tver region. All ten people on board, including Prigozhin and Wagner founder Dmitri Utkin (1970 – 2023), were killed.

“It had to be removed”

A few hours after the incident, a European intelligence official contacted a Kremlin official and asked about the crash. “It had to be removed,” the WSJ said.

The Kremlin has always publicly denied any involvement in Prigozhin’s death. His spokesman Dmitry Peskov, 56, described reports that Putin had ordered the killing of the mercenary boss as “absolute lies.”

«WSJ produces Pulp Fiction»

In October, Putin spoke about Prigozhin’s death during an appearance at the Valdai discussion forum. Fragments of shrapnel were discovered in the remains of the crash victims, he said. The head of the investigative committee informed him a few days ago that “fragments of hand grenades” had been found in the bodies of the crash victims.

At the same time, he assured: “There was no external impact on the aircraft.” Putin claimed that the Wagner members on board were drunk during the flight and were handling live grenades. The explosives eventually detonated and caused the plane to crash.

Even after the Wall Street Journal report, the Kremlin is sticking to its version. “We have seen this article but do not wish to comment on it. These types of reports are hardly worth commenting on. “Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal likes to produce pulp fiction,” Peskov said. (man)

Source: Blick