British intelligence believes that the crash of the Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plane was the result of actions by Russian intelligence services directly under the supervision of Vladimir Putin.
Włodzimierz Sokołowski, better known as spy novel author Vincent V. Severski, is a former Polish intelligence officer who worked in Eastern Europe. He is convinced that only Putin could have been behind the crash. He would not have to order it directly, just let it be known he wanted it to happen. Severski says he foresaw this outcome once Prigozhin had carried out his attempted coup two months ago.
“It was only a matter of time. Putin had to take into account that the Wagner Group was a real force, so certain steps needed to be put in place before the denouement,” he said.
According to Severski, Putin had to factor in the respect Prigozhin enjoyed in certain circles, such as from his mercenaries, as well as parts of the Russian military. “This is why Prigozhin could not be tried or poisoned and a full operation by the secret services was required,” said Severski.
The former intelligence officer is convinced that the crash will never be fully explained. Whatever the truth, conspiracy theories will circulate. Severski feels that the Wagner problem could have been solved two months ago by disbanding the mercenary group there and then.
But in the end, the matter was handled in the old Kremlin manner, dating back to the tsars and the USSR: The plane “malfunctioned and crashed.”
“When I saw how it fell vertically the circumstances became clear. It had been shot down”, concluded Severski.
An Embraer plane with Yevgeny Prigozhin and 9 others on board crashed on Wednesday in the Russian Tver region. There were no survivors and the whole world began to speculate how this happened. According to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the aircraft was brought down by an S-300 missile.
