Outside a glass-fronted enterprise centre somewhat method out of central St Petersburg, the mourners saved coming.
Up till just some weeks in the past, this constructing was generally known as the Wagner Centre.
It had its grand opening final November, a mark of how a lot each Yevgeny Prigozhin and his personal army firm, typically known as ‘the musicians’ or ‘orchestra’ in Russia, had been on the ascendancy.
Today it felt as if each had been being laid to relaxation. What a distinction 10 months could make.
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A photograph of Yevgeny Prigozhin at a makeshift memorial subsequent to the previous PMC Wagner Centre in St Petersburg. Pic: AP
“It’s like losing a father, he was everything to us,” mentioned one Prigozhin fan. “Everyone was waiting to hear what Uncle Zhenya would say.”
“I lost my son in Artyomsk [Bakhmut],” one other mentioned. “It was important for me to come and pay tribute to Prigozhin as a hero of Russia.”
One lady was inconsolable, her fingers pressed to her face as she sobbed. We thought she had misplaced a liked one, however she mentioned she was crying for Russia’s future.
“I am in so much pain because [Prigozhin] didn’t have the chance to do everything he wanted to do,” she mentioned.
“These people wanted to bring order and now how can we talk about order? Our authorities are corrupt up to the very top. This was my last hope, for some change in the future and now I have no hope. Oligarchy and that’s all.”
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What now for the Wagner Group?
Five hours away on the crash website close to Tver, investigators had been nonetheless choosing their method via the stays.
“Now investigations are being carried out. This will take some time,” President Vladimir Putin mentioned sagely.
No doubt a report will ultimately be filed with explanations which can fulfill nobody besides these trying to conceal the reality.
Read extra:
Why Wagner boss’ ‘demise’ proves nobody is indispensable in Russia
Prigozhin airplane crash: What occurred?
Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin in September 2010. Pic: AP
Previous high-profile Russian targets
Thus it was with the lengthy inquiry into Boris Nemtsov’s assassination outdoors the Kremlin in 2015, or Russia’s token investigation into Alexei Navalny’s poisoning in August 2020.
Both Mr Nemtsov and Mr Navalny had been totally completely different males to Prigozhin, Kremlin critics talking out in defence of democracy and civil society versus a Kremlin lackey who obtained too huge for his boots.
But the precept stays the identical, it appears – cross the Kremlin, whoever you’re, and it will not finish effectively.
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‘We will all go to hell’
Circulating at this time on social media – an previous video, launched in February on pro-war Telegram channels. It is of Prigozhin and his deputy, Dmitry Utkin, who was additionally reportedly killed, in dialog with a Russian army blogger.
“Death is not the end, just the beginning of something else,” Utkin says, off-camera.
“We will all go to hell, but in hell we will be the best,” Prigozhin provides.
Content Source: information.sky.com