Aug 23 (Reuters) – Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet that crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors, the Russian authorities said.
Reuters could not immediately confirm that he was on the aircraft. The following is reaction:
*U.S. President Joe Biden:
“I don’t know for a fact what happened. But I’m not surprised… There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
*Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukrainian presidential adviser, on social media platform X:
“…It is obvious that Putin does not forgive anyone for his own bestial terror…. The demonstrative elimination of Prigozhin and the Wagner command two months after the coup attempt is a signal from Putin to Russia’s elites ahead of the 2024 elections. ‘Beware! Disloyalty equals death’.”
*Kaja Kallas, prime minister of Estonia, to CNN:
“If true, it shows (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will eliminate opponents and that scares anyone who is thinking of expressing opinion different than his.”
*British lawmaker Alicia Kearns, chair of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, on social media platform X:
“The speed at which the Russian Govt has confirmed Yevgeny Prigozhin was on a plane that crashed on a flight from Moscow to St Petersburg should tell us everything we need to know. Reports Russian Air Defence shot down the plane suggests Putin is sending a very loud message.”
*Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau on state news channel TVP Info
“… We would have great trouble naming anyone who would intuitively think this was a coincidence. It so happens that political opponents whom Vladimir Putin considers a threat to his power do not die naturally.”
*Pavel Luzin, an expert with the Center for European Policy Analysis, a U.S. thinktank
“Despite any presumptions whether or not Prigozhin was killed by Putin according to his order or his plane was destroyed due to an inter-agency clash within the Russian elite, this event demonstrates that the Russian elite is not united, that the contradictions within the Kremlin are growing, that the coordination between different branches within the Russian leadership is really bad. In the end, if Vladimir Putin is so powerful, why didn’t he arrest Prigozhin?” (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
