The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Putin ally ‘behind bomb’ that killed Prigozhin
Security council chief and ex-KGB colleague said to have planned plane blast that killed Wagner boss
YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN’S plane was brought down by a bomb planted under its wing in a plot orchestrated by Vladimir Putin’s oldest ally, according to a new report.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB officer who is now the powerful head of the country’s security council, personally oversaw the planning of the operation, the reported, citing Western intelligence sources and a former Russian intelligence officer.
Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary boss, died when his private jet crashed over Russia’s Tver region on Aug 23, about two months after he led an armed rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, in the biggest threat to Putin’s two-decade rule.
The Kremlin has previously rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion by critics and Western countries that Putin had ordered the assassination in revenge for the short-lived mutiny.
Putin had claimed Prigozhin’s jet was destroyed when a grenade was accidentally set off on board, while he or his companions were possibly drunk or high on cocaine.
But now it has been claimed that a small bomb was planted under the wing of the Embraer Legacy 600 plane, while Prigozhin and nine others waited on the tarmac of a Moscow airport for a preflight check to be carried out.
No one inside the cabin appeared to notice the device being attached before the take-off for St Petersburg.
The jet climbed for about 30 minutes to 28,000 feet before the bomb was detonated.
All 10 people on board were killed, including, his four bodyguards, three crew members and two other top Wagner figures.
“He had to be removed,” a Kremlin official told a European intelligence officer with back channels of communication to the Russian regime after the incident.
Reports of the involvement of Patrushev offer yet more evidence that the assassination plot was co-ordinated by the Kremlin and had Putin’s blessing.
Patrushev, 72, is considered one of the most influential hardliners in the president’s inner circle. The pair have known each other since working in the KGB in Leningrad – now St Petersburg – in the Seventies.
When Putin was made prime minister in 1999, Patrushev took over Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Putin’s close confidant had repeatedly warned that Moscow’s reliance on
Wagner in Ukraine had handed Prigozhin too much influence.
“Everyone told Putin it was a mistake to have a parallel army,” said one exKremlin official. “When he spits in the face of the military leadership every day, you have yourself a problem.”
Patrushev’s warnings, which started in the summer months of 2022, largely fell on deaf ears, while Wagner was making progress on the battlefield, in the brutal battle for Bakhmut.
Before his death, Prigozhin had been at loggerheads with Russia’s military leadership over supplies of weapons. Patrushev the row to put distance between his boss and the Wagner mercenary group.
Tensions eventually boiled over in late June when the mercenary chief marched some of his 25,000 fighters and tanks towards Moscow.
It was Patrushev that stepped in to prevent the challenge to Putin’s leadership from spiralling out of control, while the Russian president was at his villa outside the capital.
Patrushev resorted to getting in touch with the leaders of Kazakhstan and Belarus.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko agreed to step in as a middleman and mediator between Prigozhin and Moscow. A deal was eventually struck - the mutiny was called off and Prigozhin agreed to move his operation to Belarus in exchange for immunity.
chancellor, critics still question why the tax payment demand was dropped.
“Christian Olearius was very well connected in Hamburg, acted as a benefactor and had political influence,” said Gerhard Schick, head of the anti-corruption NGO Finanzwende.
It remains unclear what exactly Mr Scholz would have stood to gain from helping the embattled banker. But donations made by MM Warburg to Mr Scholz’s Social Democrats at the time have raised questions over whether a form of quid pro quo could have taken place.
However, few people expect the trial of Mr Olearius to produce any “smoking gun”.
A corruption hearing in Hamburg’s state parliament released its initial finding in the autumn and said it didn’t have proof that Mr Scholz or his deputies influenced the tax authority’s decision. But there is a chance that the prosecution could call the chancellor as a witness. Questions could be raised why he met with the head of a firm under investigation on fraud charges.
Any potential revelations from the trial of Mr Olearius, who has denied guilt on all charges, will come at a time when Mr Scholz’s political authority and poll ratings are slipping. ‘You can see Putin’s plan – keep a dead man walking so they could continue to find out what happened’
From the end of the mutiny, the Wagner boss was closely monitored by the Kremlin.
“You can see what Putin’s plan was – to keep the dead man walking so they could continue to find out what happened,” Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a CIA station chief, told the
In August, Patrushev ordered his assistant to start shaping an operation to dispose of Prigozhin. Putin was shown the plans and did not object, reported, citing Western intelligence agencies.
After the crash, the president described Prigozhin as a man who had made “serious mistakes in his life but achieved the right results”.
The Kremlin yesterday poured scorn on American newspaper following its report.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the story, adding: “Lately, unfortunately, the
has been very fond of producing pulp fiction.”