By Anthony Marcus, correspondent for Eurasia Business News, August 23, 2023

In the Tver region, near Moscow, the Embraer Legacy business jet with tail number RA-02795, owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, crashed, Interfax, TASS and RIA Novosti reported.

The Embraer Legacy business jet, which flew from Moscow to St. Petersburg, crashed in the Tver region on Wednesday evening. According to the airline that owned the plane, the founder of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its commander, Dmitry Utkin, were on board. Presumably, all the 10 people on board were killed.

What We Know

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the plane crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Bologovsky district. This is the north-west of the Tver region, halfway from Tver to Veliky Novgorod. The distance to Moscow is about 300 km.

There were 10 people on board, including 3 crew members. According to preliminary information, all those on board were killed, the Ministry of Emergency Situations noted.

Shortly after the incident, the Federal Air Transport Agency Rossaviatsya reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the list of passengers.

At about 11:00 pm Moscow time, the agency confirmed that, according to the airline, the businessman was indeed on board. Also there was the commander of the Wagner PMC Dmitry Utkin.

In addition to Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, the operator of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the logistician of the Wagner PMC and personal security were supposed to fly.

According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, the crashed plane belonged to MNT-Aero, a company specializing in business transportation. A special commission of the department began an investigation into the crash.

Versions of what happened

The Federal Investigative Committee reported that it had opened a criminal case under Article 263 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of traffic safety rules and the operation of air transport).

The investigation is considering various versions of the crash of the Embraer Legacy business jet, in the list of passengers of which was Yevgeny Prigozhin, including “external influence” and pilot error. This was reported to RBC by a source in law enforcement agencies. “All versions of what happened are being considered, including piloting error, technical problems and external influence,” the source said.

According to Mash, Baza and SHOT, the special services are checking, among other things, the version of the terrorist attack.

The source of RIA Novosti in the emergency services reports that the bodies of 8 victims have already been found at the crash site.

The Russian TV journalist Ksenia Sobchak, citing her sources, as well as the Baza telegram channel, write that the tail number of the crashed plane is RA-02795 and that the ship belongs to Yevgeny Prigozhin. In 2019, three aircraft that, according to the US Treasury, belonged to Prigozhin, fell under US sanctions: Hawker 800 XP, British Aerospace 125 and Embraer ERJ-135. Then they were registered outside of Russia.

Since early July Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner forces had opened their main base in Belarus, after they staged an armed rebellion on June 23-24, that threatened to reach Moscow. Prigozhin’s goal was to prevent the forced breakup of the Wagner Group, which he said had been decided upon. However, his insurrection failed through a combination of hot-headed ambition and his inability to read President Putin’s inner circle, of which he was a member, properly.

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