Charred wreckage, burning questions after Putin calls Prigozhin a ‘man of complicated fate’
LA TimesRussian service members inspect a part of a crashed private jet near the village of Kuzhenkino on Thursday. Throughout the Ukraine invasion, Prigozhin had occupied the role of enfant terrible, regularly lambasting Russia’s military leadership — but never Putin himself — for what he said was incompetence in prosecuting the war. “Utkin was responsible for all combat training and operations planning and had extremely high authority, while Chekalov was in charge of all logistics and supply routes for Wagner, from Syria to Venezuela, in addition to the security service,” said Anton Mardasov, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute and the Russian International Affairs Council focusing on Wagner’s work in Syria. World & Nation Russian mercenaries are Putin’s ‘coercive tool’ in Africa Russia has engaged in under-the-radar military operations in at least half a dozen countries in Africa in the last five years using a shadowy mercenary force analysts say is loyal to President Vladimir Putin Prigozhin’s last video appearance, which was presumably taken this week, showed him in what appeared to be somewhere in Africa, kitted out in military fatigues and an assault rifle. “We’re working in over 122-degree temperatures here; it’s just how we like it,” he said, adding that Wagner was making “Russia greater in all the continents.” Meanwhile, among Russia’s constellation of pro-war military bloggers, the apparent loss of Prigozhin was seen as a major blow.