BREAKING: After Genetic Tests Of Plane Crash Victims, #Wagner Boss #Prigozhin Confirmed Dead—-Yevgeny Prigozhin, the firebrand head of the mutinous mercenary group Wagner, died after a plane crashed in Russia, investigators said.
The Investigative Committee of Russia said on Telegram today it has completed genetic tests on the 10 dead passengers.
‘As part of the investigation of the plane crash in the Tver region, molecular genetic examinations have been completed,’ the agency said.
‘Based on their results, the identities of all 10 dead have been established, they correspond to the list stated in the flight sheet.’
Russia’s aviation authority said Wednesday that Prigozhin’s name was on a passenger manifest for a flight that plummeted that evening.
Who was aboard the doomed flight?
According to the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, those on board included:
Yevgeny Prigozhin
Dmitry Utkin, the Wagner head’s right-hand man
Valeriy Chekalov, Wagner’s logistics mastermind
Yevgeny Makaryan, a Wagner commander and former fighter
Sergey Propustin, once pictured with Prigozhin
Alexander Totmin, a Wagner mercenary
Nikolai Matuseev, reportedly a Wagner member
Aleksei Levshin, the senior pilot
Rustam Karimov, the co-pilot
Kristina Raspopova, the flight attendant.
The aircraft left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport at about 6pm local time, bound for St. Petersburg.
But it crashed about 100 miles to the northeast, just by the city of Tver.
Unconfirmed video shared by RIA Novosti purported to show the plane, an Embraer Legacy 600 business jet that matched one ridden by Prigozhin, tumbling from the sky as smoke spewed.
Local news outlets said 10 bodies were recovered from the crash site, including three crew members and seven riders.
This is the first official confirmation of Prigozhin’s demise since initial reports set off a wave of frenzied speculation over whether the renegade leader had been on the plane at all, let alone died.
