Embraer jet crashes in Tver Region, Wagner PMC boss Yevgeny Prigozhin listed among passengers, reports Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency

In October 2019, a military An-72 transport plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), carrying several Russians. Around that time, online propaganda outlet Readovka claimed Yevgeny Prigozhin was onboard. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner Private Military Company, remained out of the public eye for some time after the incident.

On June 25, 2023, Prigozhin declared a military mutiny against the Russian authorities. During the mutiny, the PMC’s mercenaries shot down a Russian army airplane and six helicopters. Although the official count of casualties was not disclosed, reports suggest at least 13 military personnel were killed. The surprise mutiny caught Russian military and security forces off guard — not only did they fail to intercept the group, but they also actively resisted supporting Putin, essentially defying orders from higher-ups.

After the Wagner leader abandoned the plan to advance towards Moscow and agreed to “go to Belarus” following a conversation with Alexander Lukashenko, a source within Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, informed The Insider that the threat to Prigozhin still persisted.

“During the rebellion, it was difficult for Putin to kill Prigozhin simply because he didn’t have enough political capital to easily deal with a man who had gained a certain level of popularity due to his rhetoric as a ‘truth-seeker.’ [as confirmed by sociological data — The Insider] But after some time has passed, Putin may well punish Prigozhin in order to send a signal to the rest. So if I were him, I would not go out onto the balcony in the near future, lest I accidentally fall off.”