Prigozhin’s body taken to medical examiner’s office as Kremlin remains silent
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on August 24, 2023
(LONDON) — The bodies of those killed in the plane crash near Kuzhenkino, Russia, including Yevgeny Prigozhin and the commander of the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin, have been moved to the Tver Regional Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination, ABC News has learned.
There has still been no comment from the Kremlin or the Russian Ministry of Defense on Wednesday’s crash.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, spoke on Thursday morning as he addressed the BRICS summit of leaders meeting in Johannesburg remotely, but made no mention of the crash in his remarks.
Meanwhile, in St Petersburg — Prigozhin’s home town — dozens of people have been arriving to light candles and drop flowers at a pop-up memorial.
The jet manufacturer that Prigozhun and Utkin were reportedly on has an impeccable record and it was the first recorded crash in the history of the Embraer Legacy 600.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made remarks commemorating Ukrainian Independence Day and handed out medals to Ukrainian solders.
Among the 10 dead were three crew members and seven passengers. The seven passengers were identified as Sergey Propustin, Evgeniy Makaryan, Aleksandr Totmin, Valeriy Chekalov, Dmitriy Utkin, Nikolay Matuseev and Prigozhin. The crew was identified as Cmdr. Aleksei Levshin, co-pilot Rustam Karimov and flight attendant Kristina Raspopova.
The Federal Air Transport Agency said the plane was en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it went down near Kuzhenkino.
White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement on Wednesday that officials were watching the reports of the plane crash.
“If confirmed, no one should be surprised. The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now — it would seem — to this,” she said.
Prigozhin was the head of the private paramilitary organization Wagner Group, which played a key role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before briefly launching an insurrection against the Russian military in June. Forces loyal to Prigozhin marched toward Moscow, before turning back after several days.
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