Prigozhin’s murder took place with Putin’s consent; Claim in the report- Considered his power as a threat; A bomb was placed in the wing of a plane and blown up

Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the private army Wagner, who rebelled against the President of Russia, was killed by his own close friend with Putin’s consent. American newspaper Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has revealed this in its report.

According to the report, Nikolai Patrushev, close to Putin and Secretary of the Security Council of Russia (like NSA i.e. National Security Advisor in India) was the mastermind of this murder. WSJ has reported that Patrushev had repeatedly expressed concern to Putin about Prigozhin’s growing influence.

In fact, Prigozhin had many times openly criticized Russia’s Defense Minister and military leader, which Patrushev did not like. He felt that Prigozhin had been given too much power. When the Wagner Chief tried to stage a coup, Patrushev proposed to Putin to punish him. The Russian President did not deny this.

Prigozhin feared danger
Western intelligence officials told the WSJ that Prigozhin feared his life was in danger. However, he was fulfilling all the conditions of the agreement to end the rebellion.

After Prigozhin’s talk of rebellion was quelled, in August Patrushev ordered his assistant to plan the assassination of the Wagner Chief. When the plan was put before Putin, he did not raise questions on it. After this, on August 23, questions were raised on a plane named Prigozhin Embraer Legacy 600. He was returning from Moscow to his city St. Petersburg.

During this time, security checking was also done in his plane. Meanwhile, a bomb was placed under a wing of the plane. The checking ended and nine people boarded the plane with Putin. Within 30 minutes the plane reached a height of 28 thousand feet. After this there was a blast near the wing and the plane fell on the ground.

10 people died in plane crash
According to WSJ, all 10 people present on the plane died in this planned murder. DNA test of the dead bodies was done in Russia and the death of Wagner Chief was confirmed. Putin’s statement also came just a day after Prigozhin’s death. He expressed grief over the death of Wagner Chief.

Putin had said- Prigozhin was a talented businessman. I regret his death in the plane crash. He made some big mistakes, but also did a lot of good things. I knew him for a long time. Met him for the first time around 1990.

Putin had further said – There were definitely some problems regarding him. As far as I know, Prigozhin returned to Moscow from Africa only on Wednesday. We cannot forget what Wagner did in Ukraine. The investigation of this plane crash will take some time.

Who is Nikolai Patrushev
Nikolai Patrushev is the Secretary of the Russian Security Council. They have been trying to keep western countries away from the Russian border for many years. He is one of Putin’s three loyalists. In 1999, when Boris Yeltsin chose Putin for the post of Prime Minister, he was the head of the FSB, the new form of KGB.

Putin had suggested Patrushev’s name for his post. Patrushev started working for Russia’s intelligence agency in the 1970s. Like Putin, he remained associated with the KGB during the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Patrushev, 72, believes that Russia is locked in a conflict with America. In one of his statements he had said that America wants to steal Russia’s oil and minerals. He also said in an interview that America is plotting to capture Russia.