A preliminary US intelligence assessment has concluded that an intentional explosion caused the plane crash presumed to have killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
One of the US and Western officials who described the initial assessment said it determined that Prigozhin was “very likely” targeted and that the explosion falls in line with Russian President Vladimir 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. Several of Prigozhin's lieutenants were also presumed dead.
Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder said press reports that a surface-to-air missile took down the plane were inaccurate. He declined to say whether the US suspected a bomb or believed the crash was an assassination, according to AP.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed his "condolences" over the plane crash, while denying that he was behind Prigozhin’s death.
"First of all I want to express words of sincere condolences to the families of all the victims," Putin said in a televised meeting, calling the incident a "tragedy".
"I knew Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 90s. He was a man of complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results," Putin added.
On the crash itself, the Russian President said an investigation was underway and "will take some time".
"It will be conducted in full and brought to a conclusion. There is no doubt about that," Putin stated.
On Wednesday, after the crash, US President Joe Biden said he was not surprised by the reports that Prigozhin had died.
Asked by reporters about the crash, Biden said he did not know for a fact what had happened.
"But I’m not surprised," Biden said, adding, "There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer."