Putin denies killing mercenary chief Prigozhin

Spokesman of President Vladimir Putin on Friday rejected allegations Putin was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who conducted a brief but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.

“Right now, of course, there are lots of speculations around this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of President Putin told reporters during a conference call.

“Of course, in the West those speculations are put out under a certain angle, and all of it is a complete lie.”

Asked whether the Kremlin has received an official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov referenced Putin’s remarks from a day earlier.

“Right now all the necessary forensic analyses, including genetic testing, will be carried out.

“Once some kind of official conclusions are ready to be released, they will be released.”

Prigozhin was listed among those aboard the plane.

The jet crashed Wednesday soon after taking off from Moscow for St. Petersburg, carrying Prigozhin, six other Wagner members and a crew of three, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority.

Rescuers found 10 bodies, and Russian media cited anonymous sources in Wagner who said Prigozhin was dead. But there has been no official confirmation

Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Africa and Syria, was eulogized Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind the crash that many saw as an assassination.

A preliminary U.S. intelligence assessment concluded the plane was downed by an intentional explosion.

One of the U.S. and Western officials who described the assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Putin’s “long history of trying to silence his critics.”

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, did not offer any details on what caused the explosion, which was widely believed to be vengeance for the mutiny in June that posed the biggest challenge to Putin’s 23-year rule.