Suchomimus has been pretty good with the updates, here is his initial take.
Wagner has two jets, RA02795 and RA02748. RA02795 is the one that crashed and the passenger manifest includes not only Prigozhin, but also Dmitry Utkin, who was a founder of Wagner.
There are reports 748 was also airborne but turned back. So it is possible one or both weren’t on the destroyed airplane. If Putin claims they are dead, but no bodies, there’ll be a lot of conspiracy theories that they faked their deaths and headed to more friendly Africa.
As the former head of the CIA said in July: "In my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback. So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution for this. If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster,” Burns said.
Ukraine and Africa are safer today. Prigozhin was very good at recruiting and building the Wagner group. It will probably continue to be a threat but that will diminish over time. They won’t have Prigozhin leadership.
Another interesting piece of news, made even more interesting in light of the most recent news:
Surovikin has long been suspected of being an ally of Prigozhin in the Russian military. He vanished from public view in the immediate aftermath of the Wagner mutiny. And now he’s been fired.
I wonder if an open window or a tasty cup of tea awaits him in his retirement ?
Don’t jump to conclusions. It seems entirely plausible that he was pushed out of a window during flight, and then the plane brought down on top of him as part of the coverup.
Now ain’t that a pisser. You start falling, pull your parachute’s ripcord, and instead of a nice safe parachute or a collection of pots & pans a la Bugs Bunny, a darn airplane pops out. Unluckily, it’s a crippled one.
That’s almost as useful as a life preserver made of anvils.
Just in case anyone wasn’t clear why this photo of Utkin is notorious, it’s not just because he looks a bit scary, it’s because he has Nazi eagle and Schutzstaffel (SS) tattoos. So, after today’s events, there’s now some actual denazification Putin’s accomplished with this war.
