Putin Won’t Attend Wagner Chief’s Funeral, Kremlin Says

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is not going to attend the funeral for Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the mercenary chief who launched a failed mutiny in opposition to Russia’s navy management and died in a airplane crash final week, the Kremlin spokesman stated on Tuesday, in response to Russian state media.

The spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, added that the Kremlin had no additional info on the funeral, the RIA Novosti news company reported. Details in regards to the occasion, together with the date and whether or not the general public can be allowed to attend, had been unclear.

A non-public airplane carrying Mr. Prigozhin and 9 different individuals crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, killing everybody aboard, however his demise was not formally confirmed till Sunday, when Russian investigators stated that genetic testing confirmed that the victims of the crash matched the names on the jet’s manifest. The affirmation got here after days of hypothesis about whether or not Mr. Prigozhin was actually on the airplane.

The reason behind the crash stays unclear, however U.S. and Western officers imagine it was prompted by an explosion on board. Many Western officers have stated they suppose it’s seemingly that Mr. Putin could have performed a task in having Mr. Prigozhin killed as retribution for the mercenary chief’s short-lived mutiny in June.

The day after the crash, Mr. Putin spoke obliquely of Mr. Prigozhin’s demise, saying: “He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results.”

Valeriya Safronova contributed reporting.