Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin’s funeral, which could be held today or tomorrow at Serafimovskoe Cemetery in St. Petersburgthe Kremlin reported. “The presence of the President is not planned,” Russian Presidency Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in his daily press conference call, in which he insisted that everything related to Prigozhin’s funeral would be settled by his family.
Peskov added that the Kremlin has no information on the date of the funerals The decision is made by “the family and friends” of Wagner’s boss, who died in a plane crash on the 23rd. Putin had been friends with Prigozhin for years, but the mercenary group leader’s critical stance on the war in Ukraine distanced them. Although the Kremlin has denied its involvement in Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash, many analysts and President Joe Biden himself believe that Putin was behind the accident that killed him on a flight to St. Petersburg last Wednesday.
Peskov said last week that Putin will not attend Prigozhin’s funeral and burial because He has a very busy schedule.
Meanwhile, Saint Petersburg authorities today stepped up security measures at the SerafÃmovskoe Cemetery, where famous figures of this country are buried, including soldiers, artists, scientists and politicians.
The remains of the Russian President’s parents are also found in this cemetery. Putin’s father was a World War II veteran and a survivor of the Siege of Leningrad.
At the entrance to the cemetery, guarded by police officers, a few today metal detectors, However, according to the EFE-EPA, visitors can enter the territory freely, although entry with cameras is prohibited.
The Russian medium Fontanka, citing its own sources, also points out that there will be no mass for the body that is present this Tuesday, which indicates that Prigozhin’s funeral would not take place today.
The Investigative Committee of Russia (CIR) confirmed on Sunday that the bodies of Prigozhin and the other nine people killed in the plane crash have been identified. According to the CIR, the identity of the occupants of the plane was confirmed by comparative DNA analysis.
Prigozhin’s Embraer Legacy 600, which for reasons still unknown crashed about 300 kilometers northwest of Moscow while flying from the Russian capital to Saint Petersburg, also contained the chief commander and co-founder of the mercenary company, Dmitry Utkin.
The investigations have not yet provided any information on the causes of the accident. An explosion on board, a technical defect or even pilot error are considered as possible causes.
Some media have raised the possibility that the plane could have been shot down, intentionally or accidentally, by missiles from anti-aircraft units protecting a residence of the Russian President located next to the plane’s flight path.
The Kremlin has firmly rejected allegations by the opposition and statements by Western politicians that Putin could be behind the Prigozhin plane crash.
With information from the agency Efe