“What is absolutely certain, and the head of the committee of inquiry informed me today, is this.” They have started the preliminary investigation into this event and it will be carried out exhaustively and to the end,” Putin said at a meeting with the interim leader of Ukraine’s Russia-annexed Donetsk region. Denis Puschilinaccording to local authorities.
Putin what met with Prigozhin at the Kremlin in late June after the latter led a failed armed uprising Exactly two months ago, he stressed that the technical and genetic tests that the specialists will carry out will take “some time”.
“It’s always a tragedy. If they were actually there, and the first data say that the members of the Wagner company were there, I would like to emphasize that these people made a significant contribution to the common cause of the fight against the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine. ” he said.
Putin, back then had denied any relationship with PrigozhinHe admitted he’s known him “since the early ’90s.” “He was a man with a complicated fate. He has made serious mistakes throughout his life, but he has achieved the necessary results for himself and, when I asked him, for the common cause, like in these last few months,” he said.
He stressed that Prigozhin “He was a talented man, an able businessman, and not only in our country.”Working with results in Africa, he devoted himself to oil, gas, gems and metals. As far as I know, he had just returned from Africa yesterday. He met with various officials here,” he said.
Putin expresses his support for the families affected by the accident
In return, Putin offered his condolences to the relatives of the 10 inmates who died in the Tver region on Wednesday when Prigozhin’s Embraer flew from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Although The Rosaviatsia Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that Prigozhin was traveling on the crashed planethe ten bodies were recovered They have not yet been identified because they were charred.
Putin made the statements as many analysts and independent media suspected he was behind the death of Prigozhin, who last appeared in video allegedly taken from Africa on Monday.
The Russian leader accused him of treason when Wagner’s boss rose up and he arrived with his troops about 200 kilometers from Moscow, but later received him at the Kremlin and agreed that he would transfer his mercenaries to Belarus.