The White House says it is 'increasingly confident' that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary forces, died in last week's plane crash in Russia.
The deadly crash came two months after Prigozhin, 62, spearheaded a daylong mutiny against Russia's military, leading his Wagner mercenary troops from Ukraine toward Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin decried the act as"treason" and vowed punishment for those involved.
Instead, the Kremlin – much to the world’s surprise – cut a deal with Prigozhin to end the armed revolt, saying he would be allowed to walk free without facing any charges and to resettle in Belarus. Questions remained about whether the former ally of Russia's leader would face a comeuppance for the brief uprising that posed the biggest challenge to Putin's authority during his 23-year rule.
A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane to go down, fueling suspicions that Putin was the chief architect.
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