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Last Updated: October 06, 2023, 10:10 IST
A private Embraer Legacy aircraft travelling from Moscow to Saint Petersburg crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver Region. (AP File Photo)
Russian President Putin suggests that the plane crash which killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was caused by hand grenades, not a missile attack
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday suggested that the plane crash which killed Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in August was caused by hand grenades detonating inside the aircraft, not by a missile attack.
The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on Aug. 23, including two other top Wagner figures, Prigozhin’s four bodyguards and a crew of three.
Putin suggested the plane was blown up from inside, saying that the head of Russia’s investigative committee had reported to him a few days ago. “Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash,” Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
“There was no external impact on the plane – this is already an established fact,” Putin said, seemingly rubbishing assertions by unidentified U.S. officials who said shortly after the crash that they believed it had been shot down.
Putin did not give any more details about how a grenade or grenades could have been detonated on board, but said he thought investigators were wrong to have not carried out alcohol and drug tests on the bodies of those who died in the crash. “In my opinion, such an examination should have been carried out but it was not,” Putin said.
He said that in searches of Wagner’s offices in St Petersburg, the FSB security service had found 10 billion roubles ($100 million) in cash and 5 kg (11 pounds) of cocaine.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Reuters)
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