Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner leader who defied Putin finally announced dead

The purported demise of Prigozhin has garnered significant media attention. Yet it’s good to realize there has been only hearsay and no actual footage that proved the man was alive after his car drove of into the sunset in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in June. Prigozhin was notoriously loud-mouthed and unlikely to be shut up while surrounded by his own mercenary army.

It’s more likely the man has long been dead, but that his death was kept silent to avoid poking his Wagner troops at a perilous time for the Moscow regime.

Last public appearance of Prigozhin
Rostov-on-Don, 24 June 2023

Revoking a ghost

This is reminiscent of Mao Zedong’s death in September 1976. The Chinese government managed to keep his death a secret while they implemented strategies to control information and maintain an appearance of stability.

This is why hostage victims used to be filmed holding a current issue of a newspaper: to prove they were alive on a certain date. As yet, there is no such evidence in the case of Prigozhin.