Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in plane crash: Russian agencies

Prigozhin is the Russian mercenary leader at the heart of a mutiny against Moscow’s top brass this year

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has died in a plane crash in Russia.

“The plane that crashed in the Tver Region listed Yevgeny Prigozhin among its passengers, [the Russia’s aviation agency] Rosaviatsia said,” Tass news agency reported. RIA Novosti and Interfax published similar reports.

Nine other people were on board the private jet and also died in the crash near Tver, 180km north-west of Moscow.

All three pilots and seven passengers aboard the plane that was travelling from Moscow to St. Petersburg are dead, the state news agency Tass reported earlier.

Prigozhin, 62, is the Russian mercenary leader at the heart of a mutiny against Moscow’s top brass earlier this year. He is a former Kremlin confidant and restaurant tycoon who was once nicknamed “Putin’s chef”.

Wagner’s troops were brought in by Moscow’s as extra firepower in Ukraine after Russian plans for a swift Russian capture of Kyiv went awry.

Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin have a long history. They both born in Leningrad in what was then the Soviet Union, and had close associations to each other over many years.

Mr Putin used to take foreign leaders to the restaurants that Prigozhin owned after he built up a prominent catering business from a hot dog business.

The US sanctioned Prigozhin, targeting his private aircraft and a yacht, for his links to the shadowy group known as the Internet Research Agency.

The group was accused of spreading misinformation and adopting fake social media personas in an attempt to influence American politics.

Breaking news story. More to come