MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/ POOL/ AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences on Thursday to the household of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin after his presumed demise in a airplane crash and praised him as a “talented businessman”.
Crash investigators have nonetheless to conclusively establish the stays of the ten folks believed to have died in Wednesday’s crash northwest of Moscow, and Putin mentioned the examination would take time.
“As for the aviation tragedy, first of all I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It’s always a tragedy,” Putin mentioned in televised remarks made throughout a gathering within the Kremlin with the Moscow-installed chief of Donetsk area in jap Ukraine.
“Indeed, if employees of the Wagner company were there, and the preliminary data indicate they were, I would like to note that these people made a significant contribution to our common cause of combating the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine, we remember this, we know it and we shall not forget,” he added.
The crash occurred precisely two months after Prigozhin led a mutiny in opposition to Russia’s military management, an act of riot that Putin on the time condemned as a treacherous “stab in the back”.
Putin on Thursday recalled that he had identified Prigozhin – a convicted felony who went on to determine a profitable catering firm earlier than founding the Wagner mercenary group – because the early Nineteen Nineties, within the fast aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“He (Prigozhin) was a talented person, a talented businessman, he worked not only in our country, and achieved results, but also abroad, particularly in Africa. He was involved there with oil, gas, precious metals and stones.”
