Wagner boss Prigozhin killed in plane crash in Russia
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in plane crash in Russia, with nine other people on board also dead
Wow, I’ve been browsing Twitter, Reddit and Lemmy for the past few hours. I’m surprised to see such breaking news first in Lemmy instead of Twitter or Reddit.
Awesome! Hope the Fidiverse keeps on growing to become bigger than Reddit and Twitter.
Look at me
Lemmy is the frontpage of the internet now
Damn right it is!
Good point. Really good sign for users if we can get breaking news stories here like this.
literally the only reason i keep going to reddit to sort by rising every now and then.
Reddit hot sorts more by popular, so things take a long time to rise up.
Lemmy hot seems to be (too much) biased to new. Can be a bad thing because it looks like things don't get popular. They do but you don't see it by hot, you see it by top 12 hour.
Early 2010s Reddit was so addicting, if there was something in the world it was on the front page in 15 minutes. I remember being excited to check on Reddit after waking up to see that was the event of the day.
After 2016 the algo was screwed up and it became a cesspool of reposts and news were late to show up.
Yesterday i switched to active for a while, because hot was almost identical to new.
The Future is Federated.
old man
I saw it first on YouTube and got really mad about that
I think it's only a matter of time. The enshitification of reddit is guaranteed, it's really inevitable and it's going to keep getting worse. Long live the Fediverse!
Who would have expected this? Surprised pikachu
But the only one who opposed Putin (with any military power) being dead isn't necessary a good thing (imho)
Yeah, but he was stripped of all of his power. Wagner group is being rolled into the state military. The opportunity for Wagner to push back and or give Putin the boot has passed.
And, this dude was also an evil corrupt piece of shit. If he overthrew Putin, Russia would’ve still been an authoritarian disinformation state.
If he overthrew Putin, Russia would’ve still been an authoritarian disinformation state.
He would at least cause a schism between the putin fanatics and everyone else.
But the only one who opposed Putin (with any military power) being dead isn’t necessary a good thing (imho)
Replacing one dictator with another who has the support of something like the Wagner group would not have been good for anyone but the Wagner group.
The most surprising thing here is that nine people were willing to get on a plane with Prigozhin. That's arguably much closer to actual suicide than any of the convenient window deaths that keep happening.
Somehow I always thought they would poison him. More personal. But if he brought his own water, I suppose this saves everybody some time.
It's not too late for them to identify the body by the "Polonium-210 tracer" he got during check-in.
I honestly thought he’d go via the classic window fall, but this was far more original.
It's not like Putin and his closest cronies are in any way competent. They are removing anyone who dared to criticize. Before the coup Prigozhin, Girkin were allowed to say whatever they wanted as long as they did not undermine the general effort. Now Putin's inner circle will ultimately disconnect themselves from reality: govern the country and the war from a bunker filled with scared yes-sayers with no alternative voices.
I'm pretty sure Ukraine still opposes Putin so at least we got that.
Lotta windows in airplanes.
Tragically the plane crashed into a surface to air missile.
Edit: yeah, this is actually what happened, no subtlety here, damn.
So he fell out of a window created by a surface to air missile.
Damn, so he started the uprising again, beginning by brutally slamming a plane into a defenseless russian SAM? /s
Totally an accident of course
I didn't know airplanes couldn't handle their polonium.
more windows are reserved only for stauncher enemies.
I'm honestly surprised that he lasted this long
I feel like when the attempted coup fizzled out there was a Russia expert who predicted he's be dead within 90 days. Sounds like that guy was right.
Damn I was hoping he would be able to cause more chaos inside Russia before Putin had him killed.
That window of opportunity closed. Wagner got folded into the state military.
One of the cardinal rules of power struggles is "If you're gonna shoot for the king, don't miss."
Man didn't even miss, he just got scared halfway through
Furthermore,
Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies
Not to call out Putin's Russia for being amateur hour, but the Prince is probably the first thing to read for an aspiring dictator.
When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.
"When you play the game of thrones, you win, or you die. There is no middle ground."
The guy wasn't stupid. He knew going against Putin meant death if he failed. At some point during his attempted coup, he realised it wasn't going to work and was faced with a choice: die now, or "back down" to scheme his way out of an almost certain death later. Turns out he couldn't. ¯\_༼ •́ ͜ʖ •̀ ༽_/¯ Oh well, nothing of value was lost.
I have nothing to add to your comment other than the fact that your text person clearly has a large nose and I think that's a stylistic choice and I appreciate that as someone who also has a large nose.
Oh, and fuck Putin.
I also don't have anything to add other than that I really appreciate comments who pay respects to details of other comments. I don't know, just makes me happy, so thank you for that!
Oh, and fuck this fucking asshole named Putin, may he die a painful and slow death.
consider yourself rewarded for that comment ... thx for the smile
I'm not sure he couldn't have done it if he'd kept driving into Moscow. The defenses of the city were just in shambles. Almost as bad as Denmark in 1940.
However, having tucked tail he should have known better than to come back.
Now there are rumors that Wagner would stage a second coup attempt if the deaths were confirmed (which they are now).
That would be a complete suicide mission now. 2500%.
Still, interesting times.
Yeah, there's pretty much no chance with the leaders dead, their camp far from Moscow, no surprise factor, and the potential allies like Surovikin pushed from power. It seems like Putin has completely outplayed them.
At some point during his attempted coup, he realised it wasn’t going to work
When was that, exactly? Putin fled, reserve forces were standing by and not fighting Wagner, and he was a day out from an undefended Moscow. Worst case scenario was a protracted civil war, but he still would've lived longer than this.
Honestly, none of this makes sense. The fact that he aborted in the first place makes the idea that he was conspiring with Putin the whole time to flush out disloyal elements within the Russian armed forces seem credible... but then why kill him after? I'm not ruling out the possibility that either this was a genuine accident, or it was another false flag and he and his second in command just faked their own deaths.
Couldn’t he go hide in like Central America or something? Though I suppose Russian intelligence would still find him and get to him.
Maybe he could hide on the South Pole of the moon.
Who's to say he didn't?
Pretty sure Russians are the only ones investigating, and we all know how much they can be trusted.
reportedly he was going back from some african country that day. he also could stay in belarus, but he chose to go back to moscow
To think he avoided drinking polonium tea and falling out of a window and self inflicted gunshot wound to the head for all this time just to die in a freak tragic accident.
Kinda seems like they threw the whole plane out the window of the plane.
*self-inflicted gunshot to the back of his head
I love how anyone who is against Putin always gets into "accidents"
Right, definitely a total "accident" How very sad, comrade. If only the pilot had checked for leaking oil lines on the motors before takeoff.......
He also avoided Novice. Lucky him.
Hey Putin! I heard Trump talking shit about you.
The whole Western political apperatus has been saying Putin doesn't have the guts to release any of the compromat he holds on them and that he needs them more than they need him.
I wonder if there is a correlation between drop height and importance of the persons he's killing.
Oh that's why I fell over my kids' toys. I'm unimportant but it WAS Putin!
Here's hoping he had a dead man's switch that releases tons of kompromat.
Well, Navalny didn't fall, but Putin attemped to poison him
He didn't want to birth a martyr
Plane must have accidentally ran into a surface-to-air missile. Y'know, as you do.
Classic MH17'd
I heard the plane had marital issues and gambling debt, no surprise it tried to end things on its own. Its unfortunate all the passengers were innocent victims and in no way targeted. /s
World’s most expected accident victim.
Thank you for flying Prigozihn Airlines. We know you have a choice in airline, and today you chose the wrong one.
Epstein levels of expectation.
I’m so shocked right now. He didn’t fall out of a window?
I mean it's pretty similar to a really high window
The plane crashed after jumping out of a window.
They are getting more creative...
Everyone was seated next to a window
He survived the crash, and on the way to the hospital he fell out of a window.
Plot twist: the stewardess had a parachute, "fell" out window after hearing "red team go".
How do you know the plane didn't have a nice window on it?
Damn that's a high quality image
I think we all saw this coming.
Not me, I thought he was going to be overtaken with remorse and bludgeon himself to death from behind in a tragic suicide.
After shooting himself in the back of the head twice, then jumping out the window.
Hey what is the last thing that went thru his mind?
Metal.
Jetfuel
Kind of interesting to note how the United States deals with an attempted coup versus Russia.
He should have gone all the way when he started the mutiny against Putin. He would be dead either way but at least he had the chance to take Hitler's disciple with him to hell.
Somehow I doubt Russia would have been better off with Prighozhin in charge. I mean he was the one who did Putins dirty work for him.
Their MO is to threaten family members, threaten subordinates family members, etc.
His fate was sealed when he (very briefly) went up against Putin. Right then and there he had a target on his head.
Yep. This was always going to happen. There's no way he didn't know this was going to happen.
If you swing on the king, you'd better not miss. He missed.
Prigozhin allegedly had a massive influence on 2016 USA elections with his troll farms.
I don't think Kremlin gave up on the 2024 elections, it's just now they have Musk.
Yep Putin and Musk are clearly trying to weaponize the stupidity of a little less than half our nation. If Republicans fail to win, Russia and Putin's special snowflake operation will fail.
Why would Musk work for the Kremlin
Because they would make him feel important. Because they would make him feel cool and nonconformist. He would feel like he's really making decisions and choosing a path. He would feel in control and ontologically whole. Incidentally these are the same blinding motivations which guide the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, anti-education anti-healthcare, anti-student loan forgiveness, anti-free school lunch, anti-gun control, anti-immigration, anti-affirmative action, anti-environmental protection, anti-democracy crowd.
The problem with billionaires is the same as those who worship them, which I believe is what endears the latter to the former. They have a very profound hole in their self worth. If you're a billionaire you probably got to be one by compulsively looking for something to fill that hole, or alternatively you inherited your wealth from someone who has. If you don't recognize your worth, you don't recognize your power. If you don't recognize you power you feel powerless. If you feel powerless, your desperation to control makes you either easy to manipulate or antisocial, or both.
He doesn't need to work for them in any sense of the word, he just needs to be receptive to them enough to endorse some of their ideas and the people will follow
The airplane itself mysteriously fell out of a window.
It mysteriously acquired an additional window.
Selenskyj was right: Prigozhin will be dead after two months. And he isn't the only hardliner. I think within the last month six out of ten of the hardest hardliners fell out of the window. Or out of the sky.
Seems like Putin is currently liquidating the hardliners so there will be no negative feed back when he ends his "special operation" in a couple of weeks. Message at home will be: Wow, we did great, nobody objects and the world is in awe! And who disagrees will find an open window to jump through...
So he releases a video of himself in Africa. Then a plane with his name on the roster flies from Belarus to Moscow gets shot down. Anyone know if any planes belonging to Wagner flew from Africa to Belarus recently? This might be trick.
The likelihood he was anywhere near the location where he was filmed is slim to none. These guys are always moving after they record something, and are long gone by the time it is released.
Why he was dumb enough to re enter Russian airspace is a separate matter.
Yeah my wife is convinced he wasn't on the plane and this is subterfuge. I think Putin had him shot down to make a point, as he's done with pretty much every other real threat he's encountered.
We may never know...
How do you know when the video from Africa was filmed? Also, if it's really Africa?
I just heard on the news the plane was confirmed to have been in Africa just recently. Also please explain, why a trick since both the Russian government and the Wagner leftovers confirmed it? The guy signed his death certificate once he cancelled his little Moscow tour two months ago and we all know it.
Faking his own death is the only way to keep living after signing his own death certificate.
Some kind of… Belaruse
Don’t get up, I’ll see myself out.
Checklist to become an accident in Russia.
Took longer than I expected. Hopefully the same thing happens to Putin next.
One thing that can't happen to Putin is getting assassinated by Putin.
Remember the Onion?
Thoughts and prayers
"What could have possibly caused this crash killing a totally insignificant and unimportant person?!" -RT
Who put that surface-to-air missile there?
are they even going to report it? I want to see but I don't want to burn my eyes with RT's website
Taking down a private plane in civilian airspace with Russian air defense is a surprising escalation, even for Putin. Even Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed by surrogate forces offering a certain amount of deniability.
There’s no going back from this. This was a state sponsored killing (well deserved) but now the masks have been ripped away. There will NEVER be any official relationship from any democratic government with Russia under it’s current leadership. Any business should look at the smoldering wreckage and think twice
I’d like to think you were right but look how people and countries are cozying back up to Saudi Arabia now. There is a lot of people who would sell their soul for a little bit of money.
Even Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed by surrogate forces offering a certain amount of deniability.
Was that actually confirmed somewhere? It's not that easy to train people to use the AA system and IIRC they shot down plane within days of the system arrival in Ukraine, which would suggest that it was controlled by russian forces.
The Dutch investigation was pretty conclusive, with the call recordings and such. A lot of rebels were Russian vacationers, though.
No. You're right. I should have typed "surrogate forces" in quotations or 'supposed surrogate forces' or something. Point being, at the time and for a few news cycles after there was a story used to interject and/or some attempt to introduce uncertainty. That story was bullshit, it was even pretty obvious at the time, but they tried. This is much more cut and dry. That Putin wanted to send a message is obvious, but there was no concern this time about that message being too loud or it sending warning signals to unintended targets.
This could spook business from returning, as mentioned by another response below. This could have knock on effects. Putin didn't even try to act like he cared about any of that. That could mean a lot of things. I don't think any of them are good.
Of all the planes in the country he just happened to get on the one that lost a wing. Terrible luck!
The thing I find strange about this is, why was he in Russia to begin with? I thought he was last seen in Africa just a couple days ago. How'd he end up on a plane flying between Moscow and St. Petersburg?
I'm not sure but I think they might have some airports in Africa.
gasp but that's.... That's.... impossible! But I was told Africa was all mud huts and wooden spears!!!
Joking aside, I know Africa has airports, but since Wagner has been supposedly moving their operations to Africa to fight against groups like ISIS and al Qaeda I'm a bit surprised that he wasn't busy setting up operations there. I would think he'd want to be overseeing the operations there since it sounded like they were going to be making that their primary mission now.
Maybe daddy Putin got angy because the move was pulling soldiers out of Russia to fight in Africa. Then he called him for an in-person scolding, and when the scolding didn't get through to him, Putin had to make an example of him.
Another possibility is that it wasn't Putin, but instead another military leader who got pissy about Prigozhin being daddy's favorite, in which case we might see another person fall out a window.
Or maybe it's all a hoax because Prigozhin knows his life will probably end when his usefulness expires, so he faked his death to try and avoid Putin's wrath after the war is over.
That doesn't sound right. I'm pretty sure you can't get there by boat either. I can't really imagine him walking to Russia that fast so this sounds like fake news.
big;;;; if true
I'm not sure but maybe him being in Africa was a lie? Maybe to make Putin think he's not in Russia anymore?
he recorded a video yelling about something somewhere in sahel two days before incident, and next day he went to russia
why would he stage it up? wagner has known activities in africa
[Thick Russian accent]: Foolish man, should not have gotten on a private plane, bad reputation private planes have. Very unsafe in these parts. Oh well, accidents happen...
NICE! #SlavaUkraini 🇺🇦
🌻🌻🌻
Героям слава!
Yay! 🥳 So “denazifying” Ukraine while having SS/nazi tattoos says everything about Wagner, Russia, Putin and all of these fascist cowards. Rest in piss, nazi scum!
I don't even know how to react to this news: On one hand Wagner Prigozhin is a person who is ideologically much worse than Putin (basically full-blown fascist as opposed to imperialist), but on the other hand he could have helped with increasing unrest in Russia which could technically mean chaos on Russian side of the front and opportunity for Ukraine to make some gains, but of course that's long time due, due to giving up on march on Moscow.
This for real? Figured it was coming but haven't seen any mention of it elsewhere.
Just hitting bbc.
9 other people.... show me other coup members!
One of them is Utkin, the Nazi who coined the name Wagner.
Good riddance.
Friends and family.
Imagine living in Russia and pretending it's fine to just go about your day instead of marching on the Kreml with millions of others. Russians will have a very hard time in the world in the next couple of decades, similar to Germans after WW2.
I agree. Just like the Americans.
Hate to say it but geopolitical, America's got a brighter future than just about anyone else in the world right now. Something to say for lots of reserves of your own resources, your own continent containing only healthy, friendly trade allies and demography that isn't in the midst of collapse.
Knowing America we'll burn the place down to spite ourselves, but hey
Clearly he had a death sentence when he failed in his coup. Why he stayed though is beyond me. Did he think he was window-proof or he'd escape..
Maybe it would have been awkward if he fell out of a window immediately after the coup so they had to wait for him to take a plane.
He has family in Russia. If he doesn't get them out, they die painfully. Maybe Pringles had a heart in there somewhere after all.
"Yevgeny, It's Vladimir! Hey, no hard feelings buddy! Why don't you fly on over so we can put all of this behind us?"
I am going to wait a few weeks before I take this as confirmed
Exactly. He was on the list of passengers but no one found the body. It would be very convenient for him if everyone would presume he is dead..
These Russian characters sure are dramatic. When this is all over I hope we get some good documentaries and movies about this whole special military operation fiasco.
It may have taken 64 years but at least we got The Death of Stalin out of that one guy's enthusiastic genociding, it isn't all bad
Russia 2: Prigozhin Boogaloo
Team Fortress 2, Electric Boogaloo update
Putin will personally head the investigation.
Ok, I'll do it...
He's alive and well and this is a bit of theatre agreed upon between Putler and him to save face in all directions.
This is a conspiracy theory and not at all based on facts, don't quote me or take it too seriously
liveuamap.com reports there was a second plane owned by Prigozhin in the air, so my conspiracy theory is he got wind of the impending assassination, swapped the passenger lists, and will be announcing his "March of Justice" 2.0 shortly.
I think he will more likely be quietly arranging his plastic surgery and brushing off his new passport.
the plane collided with a passing-by missile, unfortunate accident
That missile? Smoking a cigarette.
Well, Putin rigging an airplane crash is a bit more creative than the usual "jumped out of a hotel window" scenario...
"No it was totally an accident, no way Putin would kill a whole plane full of people just to get this one guy!"
There were from 3 to 10 people on plane
Perhaps Prigozin always booked ground floor apartments
"She fell funny"
Now you could end the scene there, but if you keep the camera rolling...