* Nikolai Patrushev is believed to be the mastermind behind death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin.
* Prigozhin died in a fiery plane crash on his way to Moscow on August 22nd.
* The Kremlin strongly denies getting involved in any act that ended the life of the paramilitary leader.
A new report alleges that the dramatic assasination of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was orchestrated by Putin's right hand man. Russia's security chief Nikolai Patrushev who is also Putin's oldest ally ordered for Prigozhin's death in a fiery plane crash. Prigozhin who was flying to St. Petersburg with nine other passengers on board was sent spiralling to the ground when a small explosive device placed under the plane's wing exploded. The incident came two months after the warlord staged a mutiny that nearly ended Putin's two decade stronghold but the Kremlin repeatedly denies any role in the incident.
Patrushev, a former spy who had known Putin since their KGB days had warned Putin about Prigozhin's consolidation of too much political clout due to Russia's increasing dependence on the Wagner Group to prop up its military operations in Ukraine. However the warnings went unnoticed because of Wagner's relative success on the battlefield. The issue was only gradually realised by Putin,71 in October 2022 through a phone call that Prigozhin made to Putin to complain about the paramilitary's lack of ammunition. Patrushev,72 was present during the call and used this opportunity to encourage Putin to freeze out Prigozhin a move that prompted a months long feud that erupted into the June 23-24 mutiny.
While Putin luxuriated in a villa away from Moscow, Patrushev engaged Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko to negotiate a deal that forced Prigozhin to stand down. In the eight tense weeks that followed, Prigozhin travelled to Africa while Patrushev allegedly worked out a plan to eliminate him. A few hours after the fiery plane crash on August 23, a Kremlin official without hesitation told a European intelligence gatherer that Prigozhin had to be eliminated. However the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed all these allegations as pulp fiction.
