New Delhi: Yevgeny Prigozhin the leader of the Wagner mercenary group who led the rebellion against Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly dead in a plane crash. According to the Russian Civil Aviation Authority Rosaviatsia, Yevgeny Prigozhin was one of the passengers on the plane which got crashed.
The flight was going from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and all 10 people including three crew members died in the crash. Russian Emergency Ministry said that a man named Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the passengers in the flight that crashed. The head of the notorious war world Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a failed coup against President Vladimir Putin in June this year.
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin
Yevgeny Prigozhin belongs to St Petersberg. He was convicted of theft at the age of 18 and was sentenced to two and half years of jail for that. Two years later he was again sentenced to 13 years of Jail for theft and robbery, out of which he spent nine years behind bars. After his release Prigozhin opened a stall of hotdogs and the Business went well, within a few years of that he was able to open his own restaurant in St Petersburg. One of his restaurants called New Island in St Petersburg was a boat sailing up and down the Neva River was so much liked by Vladimir Putin that after becoming the President he use to take his foreign guest there and this is how they met. Putin trusted Prigozhin so much that he celebrated his birthday on New Island in 2003. Like this his company started supplying food to the kremlin and earned the new nickname of Putin’s chef.
But in 2014 when Russia invaded Ukraine that was sign of emergence of Prigozhin as a leader of the military company fighting with the Ukrainian forces in Donbas region commonly known as Wagner. Initailly Progozhin denied to have any connection with such group but later in 2022 he accepted that he formed a group in 2014. Putin took help of Wagner for the Kremlin agenda and they got expanded, the were not only active in Ukraine but also in parts of Africa, Syria and Mali.
The US, UK and UK put sanction on the Wagner group but they were allowed to operate in Russia. Again in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukrainre, there was the much need of Wagner by Putin. But his relarion from the defence Ministry of Russia worsened when he was barred from recruiting more prisoners in his group by the ministry.
Later in 2023, Prigozhin accused Russian troops of attackingWagner base in base in Ukraine which Moscow denied. All this thing made Wagner chief Prigozhin stand against Putin.