Prigozhin knew he was ‘doomed’ after failed rebellion, says mother

Yevgeny Prigozhin won a good deal of support for his blunt, anti-establishment rhetoric before his death in 2023. Photograph: Evgenia Novozhenina/Reuters

The Russian warlord and businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin looked “doomed” after his failed mutiny and told his mother he expected to die in the days before his private plane crash.

Prigozhin, the founder of the notorious Wagner mercenary group, died when his business jet went down in the summer of 2023, two months after his fighters briefly seized control of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and advanced towards Moscow in a short-lived rebellion against Russia’s military leadership.