Putin critic Yevgeny Prigozhin dead in Russian plane crash

The BBC has reported that 10 people were on board an aircraft that was flying in the Tver region, north west of Moscow.

According to the BBC, unconfirmed reports on social media have claimed the plane was shot down by Russian air defences.

Prigozhin was last seen in a video recording in Africa where Wagner has extensive activities paid for by local governments which also support Russia.

Wagner has played a key role in Russia’s war in Ukraine but Prigozhin has frequently clashed with military bosses.

According to Russian news agency TASS, the Embraer private jet had been heading from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo international airport to St Petersburg.

“There were three crew and seven passengers on board. They all died,” TASS said.

The jet was belied to have been owned by Prigozhin.

The Russian federal air transport agency said that Prighozhin’s name was on the passenger manifest, reported Kremlin backed news service RT.

An image on Russia state media shows a plume of black smoke rising from a potential crash.

Prigozhin led a short lived mutiny against the Russian government in June. That came after he ridiculed the tactics of the war in Ukraine on social media and claimed that the grounds for it beginning were false.

He never directly targeted Vladimir Putin but any criticism of the Kremlin is difficult to divide from the Russian President.

After a convoy led by Prigozhin turned back from Moscow, the Kremlin said that Wagner troops could head to Belarus and would be offered the opportunity of joining the regular army.

It had been expected that Prigozhin would be arrested, however it has extensively travelled since June.

More to come.