MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin and his mercenaries staged a failed mutiny against Putin’s top military commanders in which they took control of the southern city of Rostov and advanced toward Moscow before turning back 200 km (125 miles) from the capital.
“The presence of the president is not envisaged,” Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, told reporters when asked if Putin would attend. He said the Kremlin had no specific information about the funeral, and the arrangements were up to the family.
Investigators said Sunday that genetic tests had confirmed that Prigozhin was among the 10 people killed in the plane crash.
The Kremlin has dismissed as an “absolute lie” the remarks by some Western politicians and commentators that President Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed in revenge.
