Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, will not attend the funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who passed away in an aircraft crash last week, the Kremlin announced on Tuesday.
In what some called the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority since he took office, Prigozhin, a former Putin confidant turned “traitor,” was executed last Wednesday. He had instructed his forces to overthrow Russia’s military leadership two months earlier.
“The president’s presence is not envisaged,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday when asked whether Putin would attend the funeral.
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There have been no public announcements of when or where Prigozhin, who was 62, will be buried.
“We have no information specifically about the funeral. The decision in this regard is made by family and friends,” Peskov added.
Putin last week described Prigozhin as a man who had made “serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results.”
The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow in June.
AFP