Russia’s President Putin Won’t Attend Prigozhin’s Funeral – Kremlin

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would be absent at the funeral of Wagner Group mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Kremlin spokesperson told journalists on Tuesday.

Naija News recalls that Prigozhin was reported dead last week.

A private plane reportedly carrying Prigozhin and nine other people crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, killing everyone aboard.

Prigozhin’s death was, however, confirmed officially late Sunday when Russian investigators said that genetic testing showed that the victims of the crash matched the names on the jet’s manifest.

The Wagner group boss died not long after he launched a failed mutiny against Russia’s military leadership.

Russian state media, however, quoted the spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, as saying that the Kremlin had no further information on the funeral of Prigozhin.

Details about the event, including the date and whether the public would be allowed to attend, were unclear as of reporting time.

“The president’s presence is not envisaged,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday when asked whether Putin would attend the funeral.

He said there have been no public announcements of when or where Prigozhin, who was 62, will be buried.

“We have no information specifically about the funeral. The decision in this regard is made by family and friends,” Peskov added.

Putin last week described Prigozhin as a man who had made “serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results.”

The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.