Putin’s Right-Hand Man Plotted Prigozhin’s Murder

The assassination of Yevgeny Prigozhin was two months in the making and approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s oldest ally and confidant, an ex-spy named Nikolai Patrushev, Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer confirmed, Thomas Grove, Alan Cullison, and Bojan Pancevski reported exclusively for Wall Street Journal.

The Kremlin has denied involvement in Prigozhin’s death and Putin offered the closest thing to an official explanation for the fiery crash, suggesting a hand grenade had detonated onboard. I Photo: Okras Wikimedia Commons

The role of Patrushev as the driver of the plan to kill Prigozhin hasn’t been reported. 

The Kremlin has denied involvement in Prigozhin’s death and Putin offered the closest thing to an official explanation for the fiery crash, suggesting a hand grenade had detonated onboard. A European involved in intelligence gathering who saw news of the crash asked a Kremlin official what had happened. “

He had to be removed,” the Kremlin official responded. Patrushev had warned Putin for a long time that Moscow’s reliance on Wagner in Ukraine was giving Prigozhin too much political and military clout that was increasingly threatening the Kremlin.

Patrushev has climbed to the top by interpreting Putin’s policies and carrying out his orders. He has expanded Russia’s security services and terrorized its enemies with assassinations at home and abroad.

His son Dmitry, a former banker, has been appointed agriculture minister and is touted by some as a potential successor to Putin.

As to the plot, a delay in Prigozhin’s flight due to safety checks of his Embraer Legacy allowed the plotters to slip in a bomb on the jet’s wing. When it exploded, as seen by witnesses, the wing fell off the plane and Prigozhin made his appointment with death.

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