Yevgeny Prigozhin was believed to be buried at the Porokhovskoye cemetery
Moscow:
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash two months after staging a short-lived mutiny, was buried Tuesday in a secret ceremony in his native St Petersburg.
It was believed that he was buried under heightened security at the Porokhovskoye cemetery, after his firm said a private ceremony for the warlord had taken place “in a private environment”.
The cemetery was cordoned off and access restricted, but an AFP photographer spotted the back of what appeared to be Prigozhin’s new grave, marked by a wooden cross.
At the cemetery, mourners left behind a framed excerpt from “Nature Morte,” a poem by Soviet poet and Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky, which contains the words “dead or alive?” contains.
Prigozhin’s press office said only that a private ceremony had been held for Prigozhin — who bore the title of Hero of Russia, the country’s highest honor — at the cemetery on the northeastern outskirts of St Petersburg.
“The farewell of Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed environment. Those who want to say goodbye can visit the Porokhovskoye cemetery,” said his firm.
Ukrainian officials pointed to the secrecy surrounding the ceremony, suggesting the Kremlin feared possible protests.
“The secret burial of Wagner ex-chief Prigozhin as an absolute symbol of Putin’s sincere anguish,” Mychailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
The funeral seems to draw the curtain on an extraordinary chapter in recent Russian history, in which Prigozhin helped lead Moscow’s attacks on cities and towns in eastern Ukraine and challenged Moscow’s leadership.
– ‘Shrouded in secrecy’ –
“Prigozhin’s funeral marked the culmination of a covert operation aimed at his elimination,” wrote political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya.
“The entire process, which was carried out under the strict supervision of the security services, was shrouded in secrecy and involved deceptive tactics.”
Russian authorities said Prigozhin was killed in a private jet crash last week along with nine other people.
The spectacular plane crash in the Tver region came two months after Prigozhin ordered his troops to overthrow Russia’s military leadership, marking the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s authority since he came to power in 2000.
Many military analysts said the downing of Prigozhin’s plane appeared deliberate, with some suggesting it could have been blown out of the sky by a missile and others pointing to a possible bomb.
The Kremlin has rejected suggestions that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.
But political commentators said that with next year’s presidential elections in Russia fast approaching, Prigozhin had become a huge burden on the Kremlin.
Russian officials have opened an investigation into air traffic violations after the crash, but have not released details of a possible cause.
– Questions about death –
After the mutiny, Putin accused Prigozhin of treason, but after the crash, the Russian president said he had known Prigozhin since the early 1990s, describing him as a man who made mistakes but “got results”.
Putin’s comments did little to quell mounting questions about Prigozhin’s death, as makeshift shrines to the Wagner chief sprang up all over Russia’s cities.
The Kremlin said earlier Tuesday that Putin would not attend Prigozhin’s funeral.
“The presence of the president is not foreseen,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The Wagner unit had played a major role in Putin’s offensive in Ukraine, taking on some of the most dangerous work on the front line while the regular army seemed to falter, suffering what Western sources have described as massive casualties.
Unlike the Russian generals, who have been criticized for evading battles, the stocky and bald Prigozhin regularly posed for photos alongside mercenaries who were reportedly on the front lines.
Prigozhin was openly allowed to recruit new members in Russian prison camps and devastated Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Prigozhin is described as a billionaire with a huge fortune built on government contracts, though the extent of his wealth is unknown.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is published through a syndicated feed.)
