Prigozhin plane crash: Putin critics and ex-allies who are believed to have been assassinated
Eden Villalovas
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The number of high-profile Russians who have died under unusual circumstances over the years has led the world to speculate that Russian President Vladimir Putin might have been involved in at least some of them. The Russian president has turned multiple allies into enemies, including Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was reportedly killed on Wednesday as a passenger on a private jet that crashed north of Moscow.
Here are past allies Putin has been suspected of eliminating.
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Yevgeny Prigozhin
Prigozhin was on a plane belonging to Russia’s Wagner Group mercenary force when it crashed near Moscow, killing a total of 10 people. Prigozhin launched a large-scale uprising against Putin’s regime in June that lasted 24 hours before the Kremlin announced Prigozhin would be exiled to Belarus.
He grew up in the same St. Petersburg neighborhoods as Putin, and he was close with the Russian chief, earning the nickname “Putin’s chef” for his hefty contracts with the military. Prigozhin built the group that would come to be known as Wagner, helping Putin expand Russia’s global interests and acquisitions. However, tensions began to rise between the two after Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine, which was backed heavily by Wagner troops. Prigozhin became a threat to Putin’s power, ordering his troops to march toward Moscow after accusing Russia’s military leadership of killing his forces.
Boris Berezovsky
Boris Berezovsky, a once well-known businessman and government official, died at his home in Ascot in 2013. Berezovsky’s death was reportedly a suicide, and police claimed there was no third-party involvement in the 67-year-old’s demise.
Berezovsky and Putin had a falling out after the Russian oligarch experienced heavy financial difficulties through a divorce and lawsuit, and he dramatically fled to London in 2000, further cutting ties with Putin. Britain gave Berezovsky political asylum in 2003 because his life might have been in danger if he returned to Russia.
Berezovsky regained political influence within the Kremlin and backed Putin for president in the earlier 2000s. However, he was convicted of fraud in a Russian court in 2007, where he launched claims that the Russian government was attempting to kill him.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Berezovsky sought to return to Russia before his death, according to CNN.
Ravil Maganov
Lukoil chairman Ravil Maganov fell out of a window at the Central Clinical Hospital to his death in September 2022. His company confirmed his death but said he “passed away following a severe illness.”
Russia’s second-largest oil producer was critical of the war in Ukraine, arguing for the “soonest termination of the armed conflict, we express our sincere empathy for all victims, who are affected by this tragedy. We strongly support a lasting ceasefire and a settlement of problems through serious negotiations and diplomacy,” according to a March 2022 press release.
In 2019, Maganov received a merit order from the Russian Federation, called the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and was appointed chairman of the board of directors in 2020.
Natalia Estemirova
Natalia Estemirova, human rights advocate and journalist in the Russian republic of Chechnya, was killed after being abducted from her home in Grozny in 2009. She was shot several times, and her body was left in nearby woods.
In 2021, the European Court for Human Rights ruled that Russian authorities failed to properly investigate the death of Estemirova but did not directly link them with her kidnapping and killing.
Her daughter, Lana Estemirova, blamed Putin and Russia’s system of silence for her mother’s death when she was 15 years old.
“I’ll just say that everything is to blame for this: Putin, Kadyrov, and the whole system that they have built over the past 20 years are to blame,” Lana Estemirova said in an interview with the Current Time, referring to Putin-backed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, who remains in power there.
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer, died after drinking radioactive poison in November 2006. On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his assassination. He was once an officer with the Federal Security Service that succeeded the KGB before moving to Britain and becoming a sharp critic of the Kremlin.
A mere two weeks before his death, Litvinenko claimed Putin ordered the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights advocate.
In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights found the Kremlin was responsible for the murder of Litvinenko, naming two Russian intelligence agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, as the men responsible. The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the murder of Litvinenko.