It appears that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed aboard a plane bound from Moscow to St. Petersburg when it crashed in Tver Oblast approximately 60 miles north of Moscow. Also apparently killed was Wagner Group co-founder Dmitry Utkin.
Prigozhin's fate is not a surprise to many who considered him a "dead man walking" after his aborted march on Moscow back in June. As the old saying goes, "If you go after the king, you better not miss."
I thought it might be possible that Putin could have a rapprochement with Prigozhin and name him Minister of Defense as a means to "keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer." But evidently not. Prigozhin got too big for his britches where it concerned Ukraine and was too much of a threat to Putin to keep around.
The one reason I thought Putin might not kill Prigozhin was that doing so could turn him into a martyr. Now that he is presumed dead, we shall see if this comes to pass.
Of course, Prigozhin's death hasn't been confirmed. In the unlikely event it turns out that Prigozhin is still alive, he will become a folk hero along the lines of Rasputin. Mind you, I don't think Prigozhin had any more humanity than Putin, so I don't see him as a heroic figure. Nevertheless, he challenged Putin in a way no one has challenged him in over 20 years.
As for Putin, so long as the war against Ukraine continues then his vulnerability is bound to increase notwithstanding Prigozhin's apparent fate.
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