Prigozhin’s death will weaken Putin – Georgian opposition MP

Roman Gotsiridze, a Georgian opposition MP, on Thursday responded to the presumed death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private mercenary group who led an armed insurrection against Vladimir Putin two months ago, and claimed “no matter what happened, no matter who blew him up”, Putin would be blamed for his death and the incident would “definitely weaken” him. 

 

The Russian aviation authorities on Wednesday claimed Prigozhin was on board a plane that crashed with no survivors in Russia, killing all 10 people onboard, following the reports Prigozhin was in Africa. 

 

“For him [Putin], this will have the most severe political and not only political consequences. If he is not fired before then, he will definitely not have a peaceful life as a pensioner somewhere in the ‘Podmoskovye’ countryhouse”, Gotsiridze said in his social media post. 

 

He noted conspiracy theories would present about Prigozhin’s presence somewhere in Africa “or in the jungle”, with the latter having undergone a plastic surgery. 

 

Senior Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin – who founded the group in 2014 – was allegedly onboard the jet.