Doubles, Fake Passports, and a Cunning Plan
There is more and more conspiracy around the crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Embraer Legacy plane. Yes, the head of Wagner PMC, together with Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekanov, were on the passenger lists, but there are still no results of the examination, some of the remains cannot be visually identified. President Putin also spoke about the death of the Wagner founder in a hypothetical way. Therefore, Western media continue to discuss the version «Prigozhin is alive.»
«Is the chief of Wagner still alive?» Prigogine? Will he rise AGAIN from the dead? – this is the title of an article by the British tabloid Daily Mail. The publication builds its assumptions on precedent. There was already a case when Prigozhin was declared dead in a plane crash, but he appeared alive and unharmed three days later.
In October 2019, an An-27 military aircraft with eight people on board crashed in the Congo. At the time, it was reported that Prigozhin was among the passengers; three days later it turned out that he was alive.
Specializing in Russia, an expert from the British analytical center Chatham House (has the status of an undesirable organization in Russia) Keir Giles, cited by the Daily Mail claims that several people have changed their name to «Evgeny Prigozhin»; as part of his covert efforts. «Let's not be surprised if he appears in a new video from Africa soon,» – said Giles.
The New York Times also speculated that Prigozhin may have used doubles to obfuscate his movements.
The Guardian recalls that after Prigozhin's June riot, «Russian investigators released documents from his home showing that he had additional passports for possible doppelgangers who were traveling on his behalf. There were also photographs of Prigozhin in various disguises, including a bushy beard, aviator sunglasses, and a foreign military uniform.
«It is known, – writes Daily Mail, – that he was very concerned about his safety, and, according to rumors, he was not on board the plane on the fateful day … Sources close to him said that although the plane belonged to him, he usually flew on another aircraft. Another plane, also allegedly related to Prigozhin, & nbsp; flew in zigzags over Moscow after the crash of the first side, this gave rise to assumptions: the boss & nbsp; Wagner may not have been on board after all.
The second plane, tail number RA02748, indeed, greatly intrigued conspiracy theorists. The next day after the disaster, he flew to Baku. Today, the Jetika company, which claims to own this aircraft, issued an appeal: neither this aircraft nor its passengers allegedly have any relation to PMCs «Wagner». However, the U-turn heading to St. Petersburg from "Vnukovo" board back to Moscow did not explain.
“According to conspiracy theorists, without the results of a forensic medical examination, it is impossible to say with certainty whether Prigozhin was really on the doomed plane,” – says the New York Post. The publication further gives an example of what the unsubstantiated versions are worth. In a mid-summer interview with ABC News, retired General Robert Abrams was asked if he thought Prigozhin was alive. He replied: “Personally, I don’t think so, and if he is alive, then he is somewhere in prison.” And he hit the sky with his finger.
“The main question is: was Prigogine really on that plane? We may never know, – said Jay Jay Green, a correspondent for US news radio station WTOP. – Reports of Prigozhin's death are of key interest to US officials. He among 13 Russians and three companies wanted in the US in connection with an extensive 2018 indictment. Court documents reveal a complex web designed to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election.»
«There is an extremely curious detail about the plane crash, – Green continues. – This is the alleged presence on board of several top leaders of Wagner, including Prigozhin … It turns out that the entire leadership of Wagner was on the same plane, although he knew that he could become a target. This is inexplicable.
“There is no clarity in the details, so the possibility remains that Prigogine – and possibly Utkin – were not on that ill-fated flight and survived, – Marina Miron, a research fellow at the Department of War Studies at King's College London, told Newsweek. – They will probably forever remain in the shadows, and we will only know the official story. According to the expert, the scenario is likely that Prigozhin and Utkin “survived, it was a large-scale plan to disappear or reappear with changed names and appearance.”