President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is not going to attend the funeral for Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the mercenary chief who launched a failed mutiny in opposition to Russia’s army management and died in a airplane crash final week, the Kremlin spokesman stated on Tuesday, in line with Russian state media.
The spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, added that the Kremlin had no additional data on the funeral, the RIA Novosti information company reported. Particulars concerning the occasion, together with the date and whether or not the general public could be allowed to attend, had been unclear.
A non-public airplane carrying Mr. Prigozhin and 9 different folks crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, killing everybody aboard, however his dying was not formally confirmed till Sunday, when Russian investigators stated that genetic testing confirmed that the victims of the crash matched the names on the jet’s manifest. The affirmation got here after days of hypothesis about whether or not Mr. Prigozhin was actually on the airplane.
The reason for the crash stays unclear, however U.S. and Western officers consider it was prompted by an explosion on board. Many Western officers have stated they suppose it’s possible that Mr. Putin might have performed a job in having Mr. Prigozhin killed as retribution for the mercenary chief’s short-lived mutiny in June.
The day after the crash, Mr. Putin spoke obliquely of Mr. Prigozhin’s dying, saying: “He made some severe errors in life, however he additionally achieved mandatory outcomes.”
Valeriya Safronova contributed reporting.
