Ten killed in air crash in northern Moscow, Prigozhin on passenger list

Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) has launched an investigation into the crash of an Embraer plane that took place in the Tver region, according to the entity in a statement quoted by Tass news agency, adding that the name Yevgeny Prigozhin was included on the list of flight passengers.

According to the emergency authorities, the plane was carrying three pilots and seven passengers and crashed while making the connection between Moscow and St. Petersburg, with no reports of survivors.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations indicated that search operations have already begun near the village of Kujenkino, in the Tver region, where the Embraer Legacy crashed.

The governor of Tver, Igor Rudenia, took personal control of the investigation into what happened to the civilian plane.

Videos whose authenticity Agence France Presse was unable to confirm were broadcast on various Telegram channels, claiming to be linked to the Wagner Group and showing burning wreckage in a field or an aircraft crashing.

Russian news agencies also released images of the crash of the aircraft and the site of the wreckage, but did not confirm that Prigozhin, protagonist of a military coup in June, is among the victims.

Flight tracking data consulted by the Associated Press confirms that a private jet registered to Wagner, which Prigozhin had previously used, took off from Moscow this evening and that its signal disappeared minutes later.

The plane reportedly crashed in the Tver region, more than 100 kilometers north of the Russian capital, where there are no nearby airfields.

The leader of the mercenaries Wagner, 62 years old, fought alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine and two months ago he was the protagonist of a failed military rebellion against the Russian military leadership, in which he took one of the most important cities in the south of Russia, Rostov-on-Don.

After the mediation of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin agreed to withdraw his mercenaries and transfer his base to the territory of that former Soviet republic.

After accusing him of treason, Russian President Vladimir Putin received him in the Kremlin, after which Prigozhin announced the resumption of the Wagner Group's operations in Africa.

Prigozhin appeared on Monday for the first time since the riot in a video, in which he suggested he had returned to Africa to make Russia "even greater on all continents".

“Wagner Group makes Russia even greater on all continents and Africa even more free,” said the leader of the mercenary group in the recording, broadcast on Telegram channels close to the Russian militia.