Putin Speculates That Hand Grenades Were Used to Destroy the Prigozhin Plane
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin opined that hand grenades inside the jet instead of a missile assault may have been to blame for the August plane disaster that claimed the life of Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin.
On August 23, the private Embraer plane carrying Prigozhin to St. Petersburg crashed north of Moscow, killing all ten individuals on board, including Prigozhin’s four bodyguards, two other prominent Wagner figures, and a crew of three.
Putin said that the chairman of Russia’s inquiry committee had informed him a few days before that the airliner had been blown up from inside. At a gathering of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said that hand grenade fragments had been discovered in the corpses of those killed in the accident.
Putin seemed to refute claims made by unnamed U.S. officials who stated they thought the jet had been shot down quickly after the accident. “There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact,” he added.
Putin said he believed investigators were incorrect to not have performed alcohol and drug tests on the corpses of those who perished in the disaster, but he did not provide any further information regarding how a grenade or grenades may have been detonated on board. According to me, such an assessment should have been conducted, but it wasn’t, stated Putin.
He said that the FSB security force had discovered 10 billion roubles ($100 million) in cash and 5 kg (11 pounds) of cocaine during searches of Wagner’s offices in St. Petersburg.
