Former Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died when a private plane carrying ten other passengers crashed 30 miles north of Moscow in August.
The death came two months after the former Wagner leader staged a brief armed uprising in Moscow. Many observers assumed that Putin and the Russian regime were behind the incident, something the Kremlin denies.
Now The Moscow Times reports, citing the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), that it was Putin’s right-hand man Nikolai Patrushev who was the mastermind behind Prigozhin’s death.
Adviser for the invasion of Ukraine
He is described as belonging to Putin’s inner circle, and has worked closely with the Russian president since they served as KGB officers together. He is said to have also been one of Putin’s closest advisers before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Citing intelligence from the West, the newspaper writes that Nikolai Patrushev drew up a plan to get rid of Prigozhin in August.
The intelligence service believes that a small bomb was placed under the private plane’s right wing before departure from Moscow airport.
According to the WSJ, footage shows a small plane missing one wing falling from the sky shortly after 5:00 p.m. local time on August 23.
Realized that Prigozhin posed a threat
Patrushev is said to have previously warned Putin about Prigozhin, whose statements about the actions of the Russian military leadership in the war became increasingly outspoken. At first, Putin did not act because the Wagner soldiers were important to the fighting in Ukraine.
Putin realized that the Wagner leader was becoming a problem when Prigozhin called Putin to complain that they did not have enough resources, writes the WSJ.
A person who previously worked for the Russian intelligence service told the newspaper that Patrushev was present during the phone call, and used it as an argument to get rid of Prigozhin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says in a statement on Friday that he does not want to comment on the WSJ’s information and calls it all “pulp fiction”.