While international reaction to the reported death of the Wagner boss was swift, Russia’s president has yet to comment.
Putin was attending a publicly televised concert in honour of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk around the time that Prigozhin’s plane was reported to have crashed on Wednesday evening.
Putin did not mention the crash, which occurred exactly two months after Wagner mercenaries mounted an armed rebellion against the Russian military, shooting down several aircraft and killing at least 13 Russian service members as Prigozhin’s forces advanced on Moscow.
At the time of the mutiny Putin said Wagner had “betrayed Russia and will answer for it”, though he then allowed Prigozhin and his fighters to redeploy to Belarus.
“This is a stab in the back of our troops and the people of Russia,” Putin said at the time.
*AL JAZERA
