Wagner warlord’s reported death is straight out of Putin’s blood-spilling playbook

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The most Googled name on Wednesday night in America — other than the 38-year-old GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy — was Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian warlord who commanded the murderous mercenary squad called The Wagner Group. 

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s reported sudden death in a plane crash near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia’s Tver Region briefly hijacked the U.S. news cycle, which was supposed to be focused on the GOP debates. 

Preliminary intelligence analysis indicates that the deadly crash of the Embraer Legacy 600 executive jet that carried Prigozhin and nine other passengers was not accidental. Rather, the aircraft was brought down by a surface-to-air missile strike originating from inside Russia, by a bomb-explosion on the aircraft or via another form of sabotage, according to U.S. government officials.

Regardless of a specific method, as a Russia watcher who spent my intelligence career investigating Russian intelligence tradecraft and analyzing President Vladimir Putin, my assessment is that Prigozhin’s death was likely a hit job orchestrated by the Russian state. It was probably authorized by Putin himself. 

PENTAGON SAYS WAGNER CHIEF YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN LIKELY KILLED IN PLANE CRASH, NO EVIDENCE OF MISSILE ATTACK

A split image shows Wagner

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