DESPITE a body and DNA of Yevgeny Prigozhin being confirmed to have been found on the crashed plane belonging to him, a Russian expert has claimed the Wagner Group boss is actually alive.
The former leader of the Russian Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin might not actually be dead – in fact, he is allegedly still alive and plotting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demise.
The bizarre claim comes from Russian expert Valery Solovey less than a week after Russia confirmed Prigozhin’s DNA was recovered from the crash site.
The bloke, formerly known as “Putin’s chef“, was one of 10 people killed when his Embraer Legacy 600 plane plummeted to the ground on a flight between St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Rumours of an explosion on board have since followed with the 62-year-old’s death now formally confirmed following genetic testing of the fireball plane crash.
But despite that confirmation, Dr Solovey has made the bizarre claim that the warlord is not actually dead, and also claimed that Prigozhin is living in an undisclosed country somewhere.
The former professor at Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations said: “First, the plane in which Yevgeny Prigozhin was supposed to fly was downed by a Russian air defence system – there was no explosion on board.
“Prigozhin himself was not on board.
“His double was flying instead of him – Vladimir Putin is perfectly aware of that.
”If you….believe official statements of the Russian authorities, then what can I say…?”
Dr Solovey said he would reveal Prigozhin’s supposed country of exile early next month but denied it was in Africa, where the Wagner private army has multiple interests.
However, Prigozhin – whose funeral is expected imminently and which Putin is refusing to attend – aimed to show himself by the end of this year.
Speaking to the Daily Star within hours of Prigozhin’s plane crashing, international war expert Professor Anthony Glees poured scorn on the death being a hoax.
“If Prigozhin is dead, then once again, Russia will truly find itself in meltdown,” he said.
“If he’s not dead, it will be the hoax of the century and so I think we can assume he is dead.
“Some said that after the failed rebellion, Prigozhin was a ‘dead man walking’ but in a real sense, Putin was also a ‘dead man walking’ as long as Prigozhin continued to exert huge influence.
“I suspect Putin had intelligence that Prigozhin was planning another putsch against him.”
Eighteen-Eleven Media