A day after a plane crash that presumably killed Russia's infamous mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and all other nine people on board, Russian President Vladimir was still silent on the incident on Thursday.
The crash on Wednesday evening took place exactly two months after Prigozhin led a rebellion against Moscow's top military brass, in the biggest threat to Putin's long rule.
Moscow opened a probe into violations of air traffic rules but investigators have been mute since, and speculation of a possible assassination is rife.
Ukraine denied involvement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying: "We have nothing to do with this situation, that's for sure."
"I think everyone knows who this concerns," Zelensky said, in an apparent reference to Putin.
The Flightradar24 tracker website said the plane flying from Moscow to Saint Peterburg appeared on their radar until the last 30 seconds and descended "dramatically" at around 15:20 GMT. PHOTO: AFP
Moscow had still not officially confirmed the death of the 62-year-old warlord, saying only that he was listed as a passenger on the flight.
During the Wagner rebellion on June 23-24, Putin gave an address to Russians in which he called Prigozhin -- once his ally -- a "traitor", and warned against "civil war".
Prigozhin had spent months launching scathing attacks on the way Moscow led its Ukraine offensive before his 48-hour mutiny shook Putin's rule.
Many were surprised when Moscow then dropped charges against Prigozhin and allowed him to go into exile in Belarus.
Some Western leaders questioned if the crash was an accident.
Read also: Wagner boss Prigozhin listed as passenger on plane which crashed with no survivors: authorities
US President Joe Biden said he did not know what happened but added: "There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin's not behind."
France saw "reasonable doubts" about the crash and Germany said it followed a pattern of "unclarified" fatalities in Russia.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock appeared to say it was suspicious that "a disgraced former confidant of Putin suddenly, literally falls from the sky two months after he attempted a mutiny".
Even influential pro-Kremlin figures, such as state television personality and Putin ally Margarita Simonyan, seemed to suggest that it could have been an assassination.
"Among the versions that are being discussed (about the crash) is that it was staged. But personally, I'm leaning towards the more obvious one," she said on social media.
A handout photograph taken and released by Russian Investigative Committee on August 23, 2023, shows rescuers working at the site of a plane crash near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region. PHOTO: AFP
During his long rule, opponents of Putin have disappeared in mysterious circumstances.
Russia's aviation authority published the names of the people on board the Embraer private jet late on Wednesday.
It included Prigozhin and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner's operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence.
Russian police patrolled the crash site near the village of Kuzhenkino, some 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of Moscow in the Tver region. Some masked men carried rifles.
A woman living near Kuzhenkino said her neighbour heard a roar and saw "sparkling from the plane", accompanied by fire.
This photograph posted on a Wagner linked Telegram channel @grey_zone on August 23, 2023 , reportedly shows a the wreckage of burning plane near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver region. PHOTO: AFP
"A neighbour ran up to me with shaking hands and when we went to the window I saw only one mushroom (a cloud from the explosion), a black cloud," she said in video published by state-run agency RIA Novosti.
Video verified by AFP from the scene appeared to show the Embraer Legacy plane engulfed in a plume-like column of white smoke as it fell from the sky.
The Flightradar24 tracker website said the plane flying from Moscow to Saint Peterburg appeared on their radar until the last 30 seconds and descended "dramatically" at around 15:20 GMT.
Some Wagner-linked Telegram channels had initially suggested that the plane was shot down by Russian air defence, on a day when Kyiv struck Russia with more drone attacks.
While he publicly challenged Moscow's authority, Prigozhin appeared to enjoy some popularity in Russia.
Wreckage of presumed Prigozhin plane crash in Russia. PHOTO: AFP
He appealed to nationalist-leaning Russians -- also suspicious of the army leadership during the Ukraine offensive -- who embraced his tough-guy speak.
Some even speculated that he would take part in the 2024 presidential election, which is expected to extend Putin's rule until at least 2030.
"He was one of the few real patriots in our country," Pavel Zakharov said as he laid flowers at Wagner's headquarters in Saint Petersburg.
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