Biden points finger at Putin as Prigozhin’s reported death seen as a warning to ‘elites’

Flowers and Wagner patches laid in front of the organisation’s offices in St Petersburg, Russia, following the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Joe Biden has strongly suggested Vladimir Putin’s involvement in the apparent death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash, as Ukrainian officials interpreted the incident as a warning to Russian “elites” and flowers were laid for the Wagner chief outside the organisation’s St Petersburg headquarters.

“I don’t know for a fact what happened, but I’m not surprised,” the US president said after a briefing after the crash of Prigozhin’s private jet between Moscow and St Petersburg. “There’s not much that happens in Russia that Putin’s not behind. But I don’t know enough to know the answer.”