Among the victims were Yevgeny Prigozhin, Dmitry Utkin and Valery Chekalov, the key figures of the Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military company.

[1][2][3][4] The crash prompted speculation that the jet was destroyed on the orders of Russian president Vladimir Putin, after Prigozhin had led the Wagner Group rebellion exactly two months prior.

[9] While official Russian sources downplayed the crash, some intelligence agencies and international leaders suggested it was a politically motivated assassination.

He began openly criticizing the Russian Defense Ministry for mishandling the war effort, eventually saying their reasons for the invasion were lies.

[14] On 23 June 2023, he led the Wagner Group in a one-day rebellion against the Russian Defense Ministry, which was resolved through negotiations that allowed Prigozhin to evade punishment.

[6] The airplane crashed near Kuzhenkino in Tver Oblast,[28] about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of its departure point at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.

[29][30] Video footage of the incident revealed a vapor trail, a puff of white smoke, and then pans down to the aircraft in free fall before impact.

A Telegram channel linked to the Wagner Group, named Grey Zone, reported that Russian air defenses brought down the jet.

The channel claimed that residents near the crash site heard two distinct loud noises before the incident and observed two vapor trails.

[35] A source from the Russian government told The Moscow Times that the possibility of a shootdown was being considered due to the crash site's proximity to Vladimir Putin's residence in Valdai.

[59][60] On 5 October, Putin told a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi that the Wagner leaders on the flight may have been using alcohol or drugs and implied that they blew up the jet themselves with their own weapons.

[53] The paper also cited three veteran aviation experts who said that given their analysis of the visual evidence available there was no missile strike, but rather a catastrophic structural failure.

[64] On 22 December 2023, The Wall Street Journal cited sources within the Western and Russian intelligence agencies as saying that the crash was orchestrated by Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Security Council of Russia, who had reportedly warned Putin several times over Prigozhin's outspokenness and had helped secure Belarusian president Aleksandr Lukashenko's assistance in mediating an end to the Wagner Group rebellion in June.

[66] Shortly before the aircraft crash, Redut, a rival Russian private military outfit, began preparation to enter Africa, focusing recruitment efforts on this area.

[18] Grey Zone declared Prigozhin a hero and a patriot who it said had died at the hands of unidentified people whom it called "traitors to Russia".

[66] On 24 August, Putin issued a statement which called Prigozhin "a person with a complicated fate", adding that "he made some serious mistakes in life, but also achieved necessary results".

[80] Pro-Kremlin journalist and RT chief editor Margarita Simonyan said she was "leaning toward the most obvious" version, also alluding to intentional downing.

[82] Asked by a journalist for a reaction at the sidelines of the 15th BRICS summit in South Africa, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov refused to comment.

"[11] White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later said that the Kremlin had "a long history of killing opponents", and that it was "very clear what happened" to Prigozhin.

[13] The French government expressed "reasonable doubts" about the cause of the crash, and added that Prigozhin was "the man who did Putin's dirty work" and left behind "mass graves" in Africa, Ukraine, and Russia.

[86] Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko stated he could not "imagine" Putin being responsible for Prigozhin's death, calling a supposed assassination to be "too rough and unprofessional".