Who killed Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Yesterday I was one of a half dozen Russia and international affairs experts who were interviewed in live broadcasts of WION Indian television as part of the station’s extensive coverage of the death in a plane crash of Wagner Group owner Yevgeny Prigozhin. Many of those interviews have been posted on the internet. Perhaps mine will appear shortly and then I will attach the link below.
My point in writing now is to call attention to the line of reasoning that guided the WION reportage on Prigozhin, namely the assumption that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the assassination of Prigozhin. This follows from the logic (?) expressed briefly by U.S. President Joe Biden when he was asked by reporters for his response to the demise of Prigozhin. Said Joe, “There is not much that goes on in Russia without the involvement of Vladimir Putin.” It also follows from the logic of the WION news presenter that all those who have crossed Putin have come to miserable ends.
In this assumption of Putin’s responsibility for the assassination, WION was entirely in line with the overwhelming majority of mainstream media outlets in the West. Tabloids in the U.K., in Germany and elsewhere have carried lurid front page headlines pinning the murder on Putin.
Meanwhile, Russian media have a very different story to tell. The investigation which Russian criminal justice authorities have opened in the case is being taken seriously. The expressions of condolences offered by Putin to the families of those who died on the plane are taken as sincere. And as I saw on the Vladimir Solovyov talk show two days ago, the accusatory finger is being directed at the West, meaning in fact the United States, which is assumed to have plotted the assassination and carried it out either directly or via proxies.
So who is right about the authors of the assassination?
The Roman principle of cui bono to guide investigators is not particularly helpful in the Prigozhin case. The man was a swashbuckling self-promoter who made enemies wherever he operated. He publicly denounced Russia’s army leadership and held it up to ridicule. His mutiny two months ago and march on Moscow was not a parade: it cost the lives of 13 Russian servicemen whose planes and helicopters Prigozhin’s troops shot down. Whatever the disposition of the Russian President, these facts would ensure the emergence of Russian patriots set on eliminating the Wagner chief on their own initiative and to settle their personal scores with him.
And what about the enemies Prigozhin made abroad? He amassed a vast fortune in the Wagner Group operations in Africa, where he displaced the French presence in Mali, to the chagrin of the old colonial masters in Paris, and now he was expected to profit from the eviction of the French from Niger, and the expulsion possibly of the Americans as well. Remember that the United States has invested half a billion dollars in military installations and training in Niger, which may now be overturned at any moment by the anti-colonial new masters of the country.
To these considerations, I add here what I said on air to the WION interview host in answer to his listing the many Opposition figures in Russia who have come to nasty ends, including of course the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the politician Boris Nemtsov, the former FSB operative Alexander Litvinenko and more. Firstly, it is simplistic to think that one man, Vladimir Putin, is in full control of everything happening in a country of 145 million inhabitants who have their own interests, grudges, ambitions, etc. Secondly, the list of “victims” of Putin’s imagined revenge for crossing him does not take into account the fate of the many highly visible and active Putin-haters whom he has not touched in any way, because of the word of honor he gave to Boris Yeltsin when he was named as successor not to do any harm to the Yeltsin entourage. By way of example, I can name Yeltsin’s widow Naina and the viciously anti-Putin Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg, which she heads. Then there are the viciously anti-Putin daughter of former Petersburg mayor Sobchak and Sobchak’s widow, Lyudmila Narusova; both have been accused of criminal activities for which they should properly be serving prison terms, but neither has suffered in any way thanks to Putin’s protection. There are many other conspicuous wreckers, like the now self-exiled Anatoly Chubais, who were spared only thanks to Putin’s honoring his promises to his former boss. Why would Vladimir Putin now violate the pledge he gave to Belarus President Lukashenko not to touch Prigozhin when they concluded a peace deal to end the mutiny?
Then again, the list of “victims” of Putin’s alleged vengeful ways given by the WION host also demands to be challenged. I think in particular of the “victim,” oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was found hanged in his London mansion some years ago. The Western press pointed and points to Putin as ordering the “suicide.” However, it is far more likely that the crime was committed by MI6 since Berezovsky was known to be negotiating a safe return to Russia with the FSB when he was “suicided.”
I conclude with mention of one detail that has been carried by Western media without exploring what it means beyond the face value they give it: namely the fact that the only source so far for the explanation of how Prigozhin’s plane went down is…U.S. intelligence agencies in anonymous disclosures to the press. They tell us that the plane was not shot down by ground to air missiles and that very likely it was destroyed by a bomb on board or other sabotage. Curiously, no one has bothered to ask how U.S. intelligence would know this if it were not directly involved in plotting the assassination.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023