Top Kremlin officers on Friday angrily rejected recommendations that the loss of life of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was an assassination ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, regardless of widespread perception within the West that the Russian chief ordered successful in opposition to his strongest rival.

“All this is an absolute lie,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated. 

The denials from Mr. Peskov got here a day after U.S. officers informed The Associated Press that the main American idea is that an explosion on board introduced down the Embraer Legacy 600 enterprise jet carrying Mr. Prigozhin and 6 different passengers on Wednesday.

All seven passengers are presumed lifeless, together with three crew members. The jet was flying from Moscow to Saint Petersburg.

After the crash, suspicion instantly turned to Mr. Putin and his interior circle. Top Putin critics over the previous twenty years have a historical past of dying, or nearly dying, beneath mysterious circumstances. The loss of life of Mr. Prigozhin could have been payback for the short-lived Wagner Group riot earlier this summer season, throughout which Mr. Prigozhin mounted arguably probably the most critical problem to the Putin regime in its 23-year historical past.

But the Kremlin says these allegations are merely a part of the West’s agenda to demonize Mr. Putin.

SEE ALSO: Putin breaks silence on obvious Prigozhin loss of life; aircraft crash probably brought on by explosion

“Now, of course, there is a lot of speculation around this catastrophe and around the tragic death of the passengers of the plane, including Yevgeny Prigozhin. Of course, in the West, all these speculations are served from a certain angle. All this is an absolute lie,” Mr. Peskov stated.

Mr. Putin broke his silence on the crash Thursday afternoon and praised the Wagner Group’s contributions to Moscow’s warfare in Ukraine, however he additionally made it a degree to single out the “serious mistakes in life” made by Mr. Prigozhin.

After the Wagner Group’s mutiny in June, U.S. officers anticipated that Mr. Putin would finally search revenge in opposition to Mr. Prigozhin.

“In my experience, Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback,” CIA Director William Burns stated final month. “So I would be surprised if Prigozhin escapes further retribution for this.”

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