ST PETERSBURG: Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried privately at a cemetery on the outskirts of St Petersburg on Tuesday, six days after his loss of life in an unexplained aircraft crash.
The funeral passed off away from the glare of the media and in stark distinction to the brazen, self-publicising fashion with which Prigozhin had fanned his repute far past Russia for ruthlessness and ambition.
“The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich passed off in a closed format. Those that want to say goodbye might go to Porokhovskoye cemetery,” his press service stated in a brief submit on Telegram.
Footage revealed on social media confirmed Prigozhin’s darkish granite tombstone surrounded by a sea of flowers, largely crimson roses, within the cemetery on the northeast fringe of his hometown.
Secrecy had surrounded the funeral preparations for the Wagner mercenary boss who was killed in a aircraft crash on Aug. 23, two months to the day since staging a mutiny within the greatest problem to President Vladimir Putin‘s rule since he rose to energy in 1999.
It meant the occasion couldn’t be became a large-scale public present of assist for Prigozhin, a brutal determine who was nonetheless admired by some in Russia for throwing his fighters into the fiercest battles of the battle in Ukraine and talking brazenly in regards to the shortcomings of the Russian navy and its management.
In current days admirers had heaped flowers on makeshift shrines to Prigozhin in Moscow, St Petersburg and elsewhere.
The Kremlin has rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion that Putin ordered his loss of life in revenge for the June mutiny. It stated earlier on Tuesday that the president wouldn’t attend the funeral.
Two different prime Wagner figures, 4 Prigozhin bodyguards and three crew members have been additionally killed when his Embraer Legacy 600 personal jet crashed north of Moscow.
It’s nonetheless unclear what triggered the aircraft to crash however villagers close to the scene instructed Reuters they heard a bang after which noticed the jet plummet to the bottom.
MUTINOUS MERCENARY
After months of insulting Putin‘s prime brass with quite a lot of crude expletives and jail slang over their perceived failure to struggle the Ukraine battle correctly, Prigozhin took management of the southern metropolis of Rostov in late June.
He then marched in direction of Moscow earlier than turning again 200 km (125 miles) from the capital. Putin initially solid Prigozhin as a traitor whose mutiny might have tipped Russia into civil battle, although he later did a take care of him to defuse the disaster.
The day after the crash, Putin despatched his condolences to the households of these killed and stated he had identified Prigozhin for a really very long time, because the chaotic years of the early Nineties.
“He was a person with a tough destiny, and he made critical errors in life,” Putin stated, whereas describing him as a gifted businessman.
Earlier than the mutiny, Prigozhin had quipped that his nickname ought to have been “Putin’s butcher” moderately than “Putin’s chef” – a moniker acquired after his catering firm gained Kremlin contracts. He all the time professed loyalty to Putin, although he stated his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, was so incompetent he ought to executed for his treachery.
After Prigozhin’s loss of life, Putin ordered Wagner fighters to signal an oath of allegiance to the Russian state – a step that Prigozhin had opposed resulting from his anger on the defence ministry that he stated risked dropping the Ukraine battle.
Investigators stated on Sunday that genetic assessments had confirmed the identities of all 10 individuals killed within the crash, who additionally included two pilots and a flight attendant.
Earlier on Tuesday, Valery Chekalov, the pinnacle of Wagner logistics, was buried at one other St Petersburg cemetery. His household was joined by dozens of individuals, a few of whom Reuters recognized as Wagner mercenaries and staff from Prigozhin’s enterprise empire.
A Russian Orthodox priest stated prayers and swung a censer earlier than Chekalov’s coffin as household, buddies and former colleagues, some holding bunches of flowers, bade farewell, Reuters video confirmed.
Some, together with girls and youngsters in sun shades, got here ahead to kiss his coffin. Unidentified mourners on the funeral ordered a Reuters videographer and photographer to cease filming.
The funeral passed off away from the glare of the media and in stark distinction to the brazen, self-publicising fashion with which Prigozhin had fanned his repute far past Russia for ruthlessness and ambition.
“The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich passed off in a closed format. Those that want to say goodbye might go to Porokhovskoye cemetery,” his press service stated in a brief submit on Telegram.
Footage revealed on social media confirmed Prigozhin’s darkish granite tombstone surrounded by a sea of flowers, largely crimson roses, within the cemetery on the northeast fringe of his hometown.
Secrecy had surrounded the funeral preparations for the Wagner mercenary boss who was killed in a aircraft crash on Aug. 23, two months to the day since staging a mutiny within the greatest problem to President Vladimir Putin‘s rule since he rose to energy in 1999.
It meant the occasion couldn’t be became a large-scale public present of assist for Prigozhin, a brutal determine who was nonetheless admired by some in Russia for throwing his fighters into the fiercest battles of the battle in Ukraine and talking brazenly in regards to the shortcomings of the Russian navy and its management.
In current days admirers had heaped flowers on makeshift shrines to Prigozhin in Moscow, St Petersburg and elsewhere.
The Kremlin has rejected as an “absolute lie” the suggestion that Putin ordered his loss of life in revenge for the June mutiny. It stated earlier on Tuesday that the president wouldn’t attend the funeral.
Two different prime Wagner figures, 4 Prigozhin bodyguards and three crew members have been additionally killed when his Embraer Legacy 600 personal jet crashed north of Moscow.
It’s nonetheless unclear what triggered the aircraft to crash however villagers close to the scene instructed Reuters they heard a bang after which noticed the jet plummet to the bottom.
MUTINOUS MERCENARY
After months of insulting Putin‘s prime brass with quite a lot of crude expletives and jail slang over their perceived failure to struggle the Ukraine battle correctly, Prigozhin took management of the southern metropolis of Rostov in late June.
He then marched in direction of Moscow earlier than turning again 200 km (125 miles) from the capital. Putin initially solid Prigozhin as a traitor whose mutiny might have tipped Russia into civil battle, although he later did a take care of him to defuse the disaster.
The day after the crash, Putin despatched his condolences to the households of these killed and stated he had identified Prigozhin for a really very long time, because the chaotic years of the early Nineties.
“He was a person with a tough destiny, and he made critical errors in life,” Putin stated, whereas describing him as a gifted businessman.
Earlier than the mutiny, Prigozhin had quipped that his nickname ought to have been “Putin’s butcher” moderately than “Putin’s chef” – a moniker acquired after his catering firm gained Kremlin contracts. He all the time professed loyalty to Putin, although he stated his defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, was so incompetent he ought to executed for his treachery.
After Prigozhin’s loss of life, Putin ordered Wagner fighters to signal an oath of allegiance to the Russian state – a step that Prigozhin had opposed resulting from his anger on the defence ministry that he stated risked dropping the Ukraine battle.
Investigators stated on Sunday that genetic assessments had confirmed the identities of all 10 individuals killed within the crash, who additionally included two pilots and a flight attendant.
Earlier on Tuesday, Valery Chekalov, the pinnacle of Wagner logistics, was buried at one other St Petersburg cemetery. His household was joined by dozens of individuals, a few of whom Reuters recognized as Wagner mercenaries and staff from Prigozhin’s enterprise empire.
A Russian Orthodox priest stated prayers and swung a censer earlier than Chekalov’s coffin as household, buddies and former colleagues, some holding bunches of flowers, bade farewell, Reuters video confirmed.
Some, together with girls and youngsters in sun shades, got here ahead to kiss his coffin. Unidentified mourners on the funeral ordered a Reuters videographer and photographer to cease filming.
