Putin did not attend as private funerals began Tuesday for Prigozhin and other mercenary leaders killed in a suspicious plane crash last week. Some supporters had called for military honors.
RIGA, Latvia — Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin was buried in an unusually secret ceremony in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, with his press service announcing that the event was closed to outsiders, after a series of hearses and funeral cortèges laid false trails at several local cemeteries and other locations tracked throughout the day by local journalists.
Putin’s snub of the funeral risked further angering Prigozhin’s hawkish supporters who saw him as a war hero and demanded that he be buried with military honors, despite the rebellion he led in June aimed at toppling the nation’s military leadership. Local media outlet MSK1 reported that Prigozhin was buried at about 4 p.m. quoting a representative of the cemetery stating that the family wished the arrangements to be kept secret. Russian Telegram channels also reported that he had been buried in the afternoon at an event carefully concealed from local media.Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, responded to questions about the funeral by saying that Putin’s schedule was busy.
Putin called the rebellion a “stab in the back” to the Motherland, and described Prigozhin as a traitor, before agreeing to drop insurgency charges and allow Wagner fighters to relocate to Belarus, sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense or return home to their families. Most of the convicts were let go after being pardoned by Putin following six months of front-line service.
Wagner’s future operations are now in doubt, with analysts predicting its remaining lucrative operations in Africa and the Middle East will be gobbled up by pro-Kremlin groups, likely close to the defense ministry.
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