Russian President Vladimir Putin is not planning to attend the funeral for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin said, following reports that the mercenary chief who challenged the🔯 Russian lead🔜er's authority would be buried Tuesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't say where or when the chief of the Wagner Group military company would be buried🉐, adding that he couldn'tꦍ comment on a private family ceremony.
St. Petersburg's Fontanka news outlet and some other media said the 62-ye🍷ar-old Prigozhin could be laid to rest as early as Tuesday at the city's Serafimovskoye cemetery, which has been used for hig💙h-profile military burials.
Heavy police cordons encircled the cemetery, where Putin's parents are also buried, but no service was immediately held and increased police pat𝓀rols also were seen at some other city cemeteries.
Later in the day, a funeral was held at St. Peters🙈burg's Northern Cemetery for Wagner's logistics chief Valery Chekalov, who died in the August 23 crash alongside Prigozin. Several hearses were seen driving from a central hall used for memorial ceremonies to Beloostrovskoye cemetery o💃n the city's outskirts, but they later drove away.
The tight secrecy and confusion surrounding the funeral of Prigozhin and his top lieutenan♛ts reflected a dilemma faced by the Kremlin amid swirling specul🎀ation that the crash was likely a vendetta for his mutiny.
While i🧸t tried to avoid any pomp-filled ceremony for the man branded by Putin as a traitor for his rebellion, the Kremlin couldn't afford to denigrate Prigozhin, who was given Russia's highest ꦍaward for leading Wagner forces in Ukraine and was idolized by many of the country's hawks.
Putin's comments on Prigozhin's death reflected that careful stand. He noted last week that Wagner le🔜aders “made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine and described Prigozhin as a ”talented businessman" and “a man of difficult fate” who had “made serious mistakes in life" but “achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months.”
🌜Al✱though both were from St. Petersburg, Prigozhin and the Russian leader were not known to be particularly close.
Prigozhin, an ex-convict who earned millions and his 🌟nicknꦇame “Putin's chef” from lucrative government catering contracts, served Kremlin political interests and helped expand Russia's clout by sending his mercenaries to Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and other countries.
Wagner, one of the most capable elements of Moscow's forces, played a key role i♊n Ukraine where it captured the Ukrainian eastern stronghold of Bakhmut in late May.
Sergei Markov, a pro-Kremlin political analyst, noted that Prigozhin has become a legendary figure for his suppo🐽rters who are increasingly critical of the authorities.
“Prigozhin's funeral raises ꦿan issue of communication between the bureaucratic Russian government system that doesn't have much political 💟potential and politically active patriotic segment of the Russian public,” Markov said.
The country's top criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, oꩵfficially confirmed Prigozhin's death on Sunday.
The committee didn't say what might have caus🌊ed Prigozhin's business jet to plummet from the sky minutes after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg. Just before the crash, Prigozhin had returned from a trip to Africa, where he sought to expand Wagner Group's activities.
Prigozh൩in's second-in-command, Dmitry Utkin, a retired military intelligence officer who gave the mercenary group its name based on his own nom de guerre, was also among the 10 people who died in the crash.
A preliminary US intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to crash, and Western officials have pointed to a long l🌳ist of Putin's foes who have been assassinated. The Kremlin rejected Western allegations the president wa♊s behind the crash as an “absolute lie.”
The crash came exactly two months after Prigozhin launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. The brutal and profane leader ordered his mercenaries to take over the milita💯ry headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and then began a march on Moscow. They downed several military aircraft, killing more than a doze☂n pilots.
Putin denounced the revolt as “treason” and vowed to punish its perpetrators but hours later struck a deal that saw Prigozhin ending the mutiny in exchange for amnesty and permissio𝐆nꦿ for him and his troops to move to Belarus.
The fate of Wagner, which until recently played a𓆏 prominent role in Russia's military campaign in Ukraine and was involved in a number of African and Middle Eastern countr👍ies, is uncertain.
Putin said Wagner fighters could sign a contract with the Russian military, move to Belarus or retire from service. Several thousand have deploye🃏d to Belarus, where they are in a camp so♓utheast of the capital, Minsk.
