Putin Skips Prigozhin's Funeral as Russia Rushes to Bury Wagner Legacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin is skipping the funeral of ally turned foe Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin announced Tuesday.

As reports emerged that preparations for a secret funeral for the Wagner Group chief were underway in St. Petersburg, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the Kremlin is unaware of any funeral arrangements.

"There are no plans for the president to attend," Peskov said. "We don't have any information about the funeral. This is a decision for family and friends."

Newsweek contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for additional comment.

On Sunday, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that genetic tests confirm that Prigozhin was one of 10 people killed when a private jet he owned that had been flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia's Tver region on August 23.

The cause of the crash wasn't immediately clear, although some reports suggest the jet was downed by Russian air defenses. Ukraine, where Wagner mercenaries had been heavily involved in the war's fighting, has denied responsibility. The Kremlin said speculation that Prigozhin had been killed on Putin's orders was an "absolute lie."

Prigozhin's business jet crashed exactly two months after he led an uprising against Russia's military leadership. His mercenaries marched toward Moscow after taking control of the southern city of Rostov, then turned back less than 24 hours after the mutiny had begun. Prigozhin was exiled to Belarus under a deal reportedly brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

Before his death, many observers had questioned why Prigozhin, who had posed the greatest challenge to Putin's rule since the president came to power in 1999, had escaped any consequences following the mutiny, seemingly moving freely between Belarus and Russia. He later recorded a video message, reportedly from Africa.

With Prigozhin's death, Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center and founder of R. Politik Reality of Russian Politics, a political analysis company, said the Wagner Group "is really on its way to be dismantled."

"It's the end of Wagner. When the mutiny happened...I wrote a post on Telegram saying that it's an end. It took time, and it will last yet a couple of months. But it's the end. They can't exist," Stanovaya told Newsweek.

She continued: "There will be no successor, there will be no united commandership. It will be mandated and absorbed by different structures, not necessarily by Russia's Defense Ministry."

Putin will not accept anyone who attempts to assume the same role Prigozhin had, she added.

A video circulating on Russian Telegram channels after Prigozhin's death shows Wagner Group supporter Sergey Trifonov standing at a cemetery where Wagner troops are believed to have been buried and saying that "everything has been demolished."

Russian politician Viktor Sobolev declared that the Wagner Group "will cease to exist," with the remnants of the paramilitary organization being given the option to sign contracts with the Defense Ministry.

"The fighters will be able to leave for civilian life or sign a contract with the Defense Ministry. This is an illegal armed formation," he said Monday. "There should not be some armed people in the state who are not subordinate to the state. In the end, it led to a mutiny. We were on the verge of civil war."

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