The downing of Prigozhin’s plane has decisively bolstered Vladimir Putin’s position as a strongman leader.
LONDON — When the jet believed to be carrying Yevgeniy Prigozhin and several top commanders of the Wagner paramilitary group fell from the sky west of Moscow on Wednesday, its destruction sent a terrifying message to Russia’s elite, even though the cause of the crash may never be conclusively known.“Anyone who displays disloyalty will be seen by the state as an enemy that needs to be liquidated,” one well-connected Moscow businessman said.
“I don’t think anyone wants to speak out against the war after this,” said one Russian billionaire, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being targeted by the state. “Everyone should now understand what the risks are. They are gigantic,” he said, adding he was taking extra measures to boost his own security.Russia experts agreed that Prigozhin’s fate will stamp out any remaining impulse among Russia’s elite to challenge Putin.
, and on the eve of the mutiny, even challenged Putin’s rationale for launching the invasion, claiming the Russian president had been duped by greedy Defense Ministry officials and oligarchs.Prigozhin’s criticisms of the Russia’s Defense Ministry leadership had found support among Russia’s security and military establishment, according to European security officials, and reflected deepening fissures among the elite over the conduct of the war.
The spectacular manner in which Prigozhin apparently was killed appears to mark a ruthless escalation of Putin-era tradecraft, according to Western intelligence officials and Russia experts. Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service officer who defected to England and became a vocal critic of Putin, died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with radioactive poison in a plot that the British government concluded had “probably” been directly approved by Putin.
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