Video of Prigozhin Predicting 'Plane Will Fall Apart in Midair' Resurfaces

A video clip of deceased Wagner Group head Yevgeny Prigozhin discussing a plane falling "apart in midair" has resurfaced following his death in a plane crash.

On Wednesday, it was reported that a jet had crashed over the Tver region, just northwest of Moscow, killing all 10 passengers onboard. Initially, it was reported that Prigozhin had been among the names listed in the craft, with DNA testing of the remains at the crash site confirming his death.

While the incident is officially believed to have been an accident, it fits the longstanding pattern of Russian President Vladimir Putin's enemies or critics dying abruptly under questionable circumstances. In June, Prigozhin briefly ordered his Wagner Group mercenary forces to march on Moscow after claiming that his men had been targeted while retreating from Ukraine. The situation de-escalated before troops could arrive in the capital, but many nonetheless predicted that the incident had irrevocably put Prigozhin on Putin's bad side.

The Kremlin has strongly dismissed these theories about the plane crash being enacted on Putin's orders as false.

In the wake of this incident, an old clip of the mercenary leader has begun to circulate on social media. He describes a plane falling from the sky in the video, an ominous echo of his eventual death. While some, like Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Geraschenko, described the clip as Prigozhin predicting his own death, in the actual context of the clip he is using a plane crash as a metaphor to describe Russia's spiraling war effort in Ukraine.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the clip of Prigozhin that has resurfaced originated from an April 29 interview with Russian military blogger Semyon Pegov, in which he decried the country's defense establishment and predicted disaster in Ukraine as the Kremlin kicked out those who were honest about the situation.

"Today we have reached the boiling point," Prigozhin said in the interview. "Why am I speaking so honestly? Because I don't have the right, before those people who will live on in this country. They are now being lied to. Better kill me. But I will not lie, I must say honestly that Russia is on the brink of disaster. And if these cogs are not adjusted today, then the plane will fall apart in the air."

Some recent responses to the interview on Telegram, the Post added, predicted that the plane crash was a diversion and that Prigozhin would reemerge sometime later. These comments came before the leader's remains were confirmed to have been located at the scene.

Newsweek reached out to foreign defense experts via email for comment.