The Wagner founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is presumed dead in a plane crash – a turn of events that appears to leave his Wagner Group fighters rudderless and facing a highly uncertain future.
Prigozhin, a convict, turned gourmet restaurateur, turned warlord, is thought to have been on an Embraer private jet flying from Moscow to St Petersburg when it came down over the Tver region, killing everyone on board, according to Russia’s Civil Aviation Authority and several Wagner affiliated-Telegram channels. Two other senior commanders, Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalov, were also reportedly on the passenger list.
