Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary chief who died in a aircraft crash final week, has been buried in a non-public ceremony in St. Petersburg, his press service mentioned on Tuesday, ending days of hypothesis over how he could be laid to relaxation.
The announcement on the Telegram messaging app got here as a shock. Hours earlier, the Kremlin mentioned it had no details about Mr. Prigozhin’s funeral besides that President Vladimir V. Putin wouldn’t attend.
Mr. Prigozhin’s funeral “took place in a private format,” his press service mentioned. “Those wishing to say goodbye can visit the Porokhovskoye cemetery” in St. Petersburg.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Porokhovskoye cemetery was being closely guarded by Russian police, riot police, and nationwide guardsmen, who didn’t enable individuals to enter, suggesting the lengths the state has gone to to maintain the general public mourning for Mr. Prigozhin at a minimal.
Details about Mr. Prigozhin’s funeral, together with the date and whether or not members of the general public could be allowed to attend, had been unclear for days. Rumors had swirled about ceremonies at different cemeteries, although Porokhovskoye had not been talked about, and police had cordoned off a few of them and arrange metallic detectors on the Serafimovsky Cemetery, the place Mr. Putin’s mother and father are buried.
The secrecy mirrored the sensitivities surrounding Mr. Prigozhin, a longtime ally of Mr. Putin who launched a failed mutiny in opposition to Moscow’s army management in June. He was killed together with 9 others, together with high leaders of his Wagner personal army firm, within the crash of a non-public jet northwest of Moscow final Wednesday.
Mr. Prigozhin had obtained the Hero of Russia designation, one of many Russian army’s high honors, which typically accords particular burials, together with an honor guard and a army band.
The confusion was in step with the murky particulars concerning the crash. Its trigger stays unclear, however U.S. and Western officers imagine it was prompted by an explosion on board. Many Western officers have mentioned they suppose it’s doubtless that Mr. Putin might have performed a job in having Mr. Prigozhin killed as retribution for the mercenary chief’s short-lived mutiny in June.
After the crash, Russian authorities launched the aircraft’s flight manifest, displaying the names of the ten individuals who had been purported to be on board, and mentioned that every one aboard had been killed. That left room for days of hypothesis about whether or not Mr. Prigozhin was actually on the aircraft.
The deaths weren’t formally confirmed till Sunday, when Russian investigators mentioned that genetic testing confirmed that the victims of the crash matched the names on the manifest.
Wagner’s logistics chief, Valery Chekalov, who was additionally on the aircraft, was buried Tuesday morning in Northern Cemetery in St. Petersburg, in a ceremony that was not publicized prematurely. Several hundred individuals got here to pay their respects.
Some analysts speculated that the Russian authorities had been searching for to keep away from a public outpouring of assist for Mr. Prigozhin and his high lieutenants.
“It seems that the authorities, as expected, want to avoid a spontaneous rally in memory of the top leadership of Wagner and to do so, have imposed a fog around the burial place,” Farida Rustamova, an impartial journalist, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Valeriya Safronova, Nanna Heitmann and Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting.
Source: www.nytimes.com