Wagner Group warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin is alive, well, and living in the Caribbean, according to one Russian analyst.
Professor Valery Solovey made the outrageous claim without evidence as he suggested Prigozhin somehow escaped his fiery death in a plane crash.
Solovey – a political scientist and former head of a leading institute in Moscow – claimed that the mercenary chief was hiding out in Venezuela.
Prigozhin is – apparently – reclining on the sunny island of Margarita – known for its beautiful beaches and stunning pearls.
“He is enjoying life at a very good resort,” said the so-called expert.
The 63-year-old – seen by some as a conspiracy theorist – was sacked from his prestigious job for “political reasons”. And he has been making outrageous claims regarding the inner workings of the Russian state since the start of the war in Ukraine.
He most famously claimed Putin is ill – something which appears to have been supported by leaked documents.
Mystery and intrigue surround the apparent death of Prigozhin when his private plane was shot down north of Moscow. With the highly secretive Russian state keeping much information about his death under wraps – it is fuelling the rumours.
Russia insists Prigozhin is dead, and UK intelligence has said he was “most likely” on the plane that went down. Solovey however tells a different story – insisting this week he is “alive and well”.
It comes after Ukrainian military intelligence this week raised the possibility that billionaire Prigozhin remained alive.
Kyiv’s spy agency said it could not confirm his death.
Solovoy said: “I promised to tell where [Yevgeny Prigozhin] is. He is in Venezuela. As far as I know, he is on an island called Margarita.”
Solovoy claimed his sources said that Prigozhin was warned of the impending plane crash, and given a route to avoid being on board.
“Yevgeny Prigozhin was warned about his assassination…that his plane would be destroyed,” he said.
He claimed that a deal was hatched involving Putin and his presidential security supremo Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Russian Security Council.
“They developed the ‘trick’ that we observed,” he said. “When Wagner’s key commanders died [in the plane crash], Yevgeny Prigozhin remained alive and well.”
Solovey claimed that Prigozhin has been ordered to lie low until Putin dies – and he will return to Russia with an army of 5,000 mercenaries.
He claimed that assets of Prigozhin including diamonds, gold, and cash were being split with one-seventh retained by Prigozhin, and the rest going to “structures controlled by the family of Vladimir Putin”.
The real Putin is sickly and may not survive the autumn, according to his doctors, he alleged.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said this week that it could confirm the deaths of Wagner commanders – but not Prigozhin.
The Wagner boss and his top lieutenants were killed when his Embraer Legacy 600 jet crashed north of Moscow.
A GUR spokesman said: “We must operate with confirmed facts; we still need to wait. I will simply focus on the fact that we can confirm the death of Utkin and several other associates of Prigozhin.”
Telegram channel Brief said that Russia has classified all details of the air crash in which the warlord is said to have died. After the air crash, the warlord’s remains were identified by DNA analysis, claimed the Russian authorities at the time.
A close Prigozhin associate Maxim Shugaley said he was sure Prigozhin – whose funeral was held in St Petersburg – was dead, assassinated either by elements in Russia or abroad.
“I was also silent for a long time, but now I want to write about what I feel,” he said. “My thoughts may seem controversial for some…. So, the first question that absolutely everyone raises is: Is he alive or not alive? The answer for me is unequivocal – [he] is no more.”
