Despite the viscerally shocking nature of images of a tumbling aircraft, and of the conflagration that followed, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s reported death in a plane crash on Wednesday was one of the least surprising developments of the last 18 months. Russian aviation officials listed the Wagner group chief and senior commander, Dmitry Utkin, among the 10 onboard the jet, all of whom died.
Ever since he led the mutiny by his Wagner group of mercenaries two months ago, Prigozhin’s death was assumed by many to be imminent. Though he denounced military leaders rather than his patron, the challenge to Vladimir Putin was unprecedented, and the Russian president called him a traitor. That the mutiny was not decisively suppressed but ended with a deal looked more humiliating. William Burns, the CIA chief, suggested last month that for Russians used to seeing their president in control, “the question was ‘Does the emperor have no clothes?’ or at least ‘Why is it taking him so long for him to get dressed?’”.
