Russian state media outlets, citing alleged sources close to the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), reported that the head of that organization Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried in a small, private service in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, preventing hoards of supporters from organizing a mass gathering.
Prigozhin, a former hot dog vendor who rose to become one of the most influential people in strongman Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, reportedly died in a plane crash along with other senior Wagner members, including reported founder Dmitry Utkin, in a region north of Moscow. The Russian government claimed to confirm via DNA analysis that Prigozhin was onboard the plane on Sunday.
The crash occurred exactly two months after Prigozhin led a march of thousands of his mercenaries out of Ukraine, where they were fighting in support of the ongoing Russian invasion, towards Moscow, demanding “justice” for an alleged attack on them by the Russian Defense Ministry. The Russian government charged Prigozhin with an attempted “armed uprising” but dropped the charges when Prigozhin abruptly began retreating as a result of an intervention by Belarusian communist dictator Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko claimed to broker a deal in which Prigozhin would cease his attack on the Russian capital and flee to Belarus in exchange for being absolved of criminal charges. The mutiny lasted about 24 hours.
While a longtime confidante of Putin’s, Prigozhin regularly clashed with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s senior military leadership after becoming involved in the Ukraine invasion. He claimed in messages after the aborted mutiny that his “march for justice” to invade Moscow was never meant to overthrow, or even challenge, Putin, but rather to defy his top military officers. He called his breezy capture of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on the way to Moscow a “master class” on how the invasion of Kyiv should have gone.
Wagner is a large paramilitary organization deeply entrenched in central Africa and the Sahel, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Makeshift memorials for Prigozhin began surfacing throughout Russia last week in response to the news of his alleged demise.
Despite the visible demand for a public memorial, Prigozhin reportedly received a small, private ceremony on Tuesday.
“The funeral ceremony was held behind closed doors, with only close relatives and friends of Prigozhin in attendance. The exact location of the Wagner chief’s tomb has yet to be confirmed, but his media team said everyone was welcome to visit it at the graveyard,” the Russian state propaganda outlet RT reported, citing Prigozhin’s “media team.”
Tass, another Russian outlet, confirmed later on Tuesday that Prigozhin had been buried at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, citing an unnamed source.
The Moscow Times, claiming to have obtained information from anonymous “acting Russian officials,” reported on Wednesday that Putin had deliberately moved to prevent a major memorial gathering for Prigozhin as a result of the mutiny attempt. Beyond failing to publicize it, Russian news outlets reported several incorrect locations for potential funerals and other memorial events, none of which happened, in an apparent attempt to prevent supporters from gathering.
On Wednesday, the Moscow Times reported, a line of cars over a mile long convened outside the Porokhovskoye cemetery to honor the warlord shortly after Russian outlets revealed his alleged final resting place.
The newspaper claimed Kremlin officials held “several consultations” on how to handle Prigozhin’s burial, and decided to minimal exposure because the impromptu displays of respect of Prigozhin last week “had deeply unsettled the Russian leadership.”
“Prigozhin, with his demand for justice, sharp and often truthful statements, caused emotion among Russians and as a formal Hero of Russia, and as a ‘people’s hero.’ Do we need heroes who marched on Moscow? No,” one of the anonymous alleged Russian officials was quoted as telling the Moscow Times.
Another such alleged official claimed that honoring Prigozhin was “a question of humiliation” for Putin.
The private ceremony was a deviation from traditional mass funeral services for individuals of Prigozhin’s influence and experience alongside the Russian government. Prigozhin was a recipient of the “Hero of Russia” title and was honored as a patriot by Putin shortly after news broke of his death.
“He’d made serious mistakes in his life, but also got results — for himself as well as our common cause, when I asked it of him in these last months,” Putin said last week. Putin described Prigozhin and the other Wagner members on the plane as “people who have made a significant contribution to our common cause of fighting the neo-Nazi regime in Ukraine,” using the epithet he regularly employs against the administration of democratically elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Russian government has not provided any details on the circumstances surrounding the plane crash. On Wednesday, top Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had not dismissed the possibility of sabotage or an attack taking down the aircraft.
“Since there are no conclusions from the investigators yet, I cannot word it with precision, but it is obvious that there are different lines of inquiry, with — you know what we are talking about — let’s say, a premeditated villainous act being among them,” Peskov speculated in remarks to reporters.
“The investigation is underway. The Investigative Committee is in charge. This is an entirely Russian investigation. No international aspect is on the agenda,” Peskov insisted.
The plane that crashed was an Embraer Legacy 600, a Brazilian jet. The government of Brazil offered to help with the investigation into what happened to the aircraft, but Russian authorities rejected the offer on Wednesday.
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