The secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev, who was called by the media one of the main ideologues of the war against Ukraine, is probably responsible for the liquidation of the head of the PMC “Wagner” Yevgeniy Prigozhin.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) writes about this with reference to sources in Western intelligence and a former Russian intelligence officer.
According to the newspaper, Patrushev warned Putin as early as the summer of 2022 that betting on Prigozhin and his mercenaries in the war with Ukraine would give him a lot of influence and pose a threat to the Kremlin. The President of the Russian Federation did not listen to Patrushev at first, because the PMC "Wagner" was successful on the battlefield. Everything changed in October 2022 — Prigozhin called Putin and allegedly rudely complained about the shortage of ammunition, showing that he had become dangerous and no longer respected the Kremlinʼs authority.
After Prigozhinʼs mutiny, Patrushev "took leadership upon himself." He allegedly called officers who sympathized with Prigozhin and asked them to convince the head of the PMC "Wagner" to stop the mutiny. Patrushev also looked for mediators to resolve the conflict in neighboring countries — among the leaders of Belarus and Kazakhstan. Oleksandr Lukashenko responded, but Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev refused. Patrushev wanted that in the event of Prigozhinʼs success on his way to Moscow, the Kazakh army would come to his aid under the collective security agreement.
After the mutiny ended, Patrushev began developing a plan to assassinate Prigozhin. According to sources in Western special services, Putin was shown these plans and he was not against it. On August 23, 2023, a bomb was planted under the wing of Prigozhinʼs plane with the number RA-02795 before takeoff at the Sheremetyevo airport. It exploded when the plane was at an altitude of 8 500 meters. Ten people on board, including Prigozhin and the co-founder of the PMC “Wagner” Dmitriy Utkin, died. The Kremlin officially denies its involvement.
- During the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin, on June 23-24, 2023, the mercenaries of the PMC "Wagner" captured the headquarters of the Southern Military District, and another group of fighters marched to Moscow through the Voronezh and Lipetsk regions. When Prigozhin announced the end of the rebellion on June 24, the "Wagnerians" were about 200 kilometers from the capital of the Russian Federation.
- In the evening of August 23, it became known that a business-class plane, owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, crashed in the Bologovsky district of the Tver region. The head of the PMC “Wagner” was on the list of passengers. Authorities said seven passengers and three crew members of the plane were killed. On August 27, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation officially confirmed the death of Prigozhin and one of the main commanders of the Wagnerians Dmitriy Utkin, who was also on board.