Moscow: Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Chief of the Wagner mercenary group, who in June attempted to topple Russia's military leadership, was on board a private plane that crashed on Wednesday, with all passengers killed, Russian officials said.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry confirmed that the jet plunged to the ground in Tver Region, and that all three crew and seven passengers on board were killed.
The ministry said that the jet, an Embraer 135BJ Legacy 600, was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg at the time of the incident, according to Russia Today.
The crash comes two months after Yevgeny Prigozhin led a short-lived rebellion seen as the biggest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority since he came to power.
Rosaviatsiya, the Russian federal air transport agency, said that Prighozhin was on board, along with several high-ranking Wagner commanders.
In addition to Prigozhin, Rosaviatsiya said Dmitry Utkin – a former Russian special forces operator and alleged co-founder of the PMC – was also traveling on the jet, as was Valery Chekalov, whom the US considers to be the deputy head of Wagner.
The remaining passengers listed were Sergey Propustin, Evgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, and Nikolay Matuseev, identified by Russian news outlets as Wagner.
US President Joe Biden meanwhile said he was "not surprised" at news that Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, may have died in a plane crash in Russia.
"I don't know for a fact what happened, but I'm not surprised," Biden said. "There's not much that happens in Russia that (President Vladimir) Putin is not behind," Biden told reporters after taking an exercise class with his family near Lake Tahoe.
"I don't know for a fact what happened, but I'm not surprised," Biden said.
"There's not much that happens in Russia that (President Vladimir) Putin is not behind," Biden told reporters after taking an exercise class with his family near Lake Tahoe.
"But I don't know enough to know the answer" of what may have happened to the powerful former Putin henchman, he said.
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