MOSCOW – Some six weeks after the death of the head of Russian mercenary group Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, which sparked suspicions over a potential involvement of the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented on the plane crash for the first time, reported German news agency (dpa).
“Hand grenade fragments have been found in the bodies of those killed in the plane crash,” Putin said at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Thursday, where he was attending a forum of the Valdai Discussion Club.
“There was no external influence on the aircraft, that is a fact that has already been established,” he said, citing investigators.
This claim could not be independently verified. So far, investigators have not commented on the cause of the crash.
International observers suspect that the Kremlin was behind the plane crash that killed Prigozhin on Aug 23, in retaliation for an armed uprising of Wagner forces.
The Kremlin has denied any involvement.
The brief Wagner insurrection came following rising tensions between Russian military commanders and Prigozhin, whose fighters battled alongside regular Russian units in Ukraine.
Wagner troops then pulled out of Ukraine, and Prigozhin led a short uprising in June. But he and several other top Wagner leaders were later killed in a mysterious plane crash outside of Moscow.
Russia has rejected an international investigation into the crash of Prigozhin’s private plane in Russia’s Tver region, in which 10 people were killed.
Unfortunately, Russian investigators had not examined the bodies for alcohol or other drugs in the blood, Putin said on Thursday, adding that five kilogrammes of cocaine had been seized earlier in a raid in Prigozhin’s hometown of St Petersburg.
Following the failed uprising in June, the Kremlin had offered Wagner fighters to join the regular Russian army. “A couple thousand fighters” have so far signed contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry, Putin said.
According to Putin’s earlier statements, the Wagner mercenaries are to be deployed again in new units in the war against Ukraine. – Bernama
