<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Russian President Vladimir Putin broke his silence Thursday on the plane crash a day earlier that reportedly killed mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and other senior members of the Wagner paramilitary group.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In televised comments Putin offered his "sincere condolences to the families of all the victims", describing the crash as a "tragedy".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prigozhin was registered on the plane that was carrying nine others who are also presumed to have died.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wednesday evening's crash took place exactly two months after Prigozhin led a rebellion against Moscow's top military brass, considered by some observers to have been the biggest threat to Putin's long rule.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Moscow opened a probe into violations of air traffic rules, investigators have been silent since, as speculation of a possible assassination has grown.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted Kyiv had nothing to do with the incident.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I think everyone knows who this concerns," he said, in what appeared to be a reference to Putin.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There is a court in The Hague, there is a court of God. But Russia has an alternative (court) -- President Putin," he said when asked again about the air crash later Thursday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- A 'common cause' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Putin broke his silence on Thursday, he paid a qualified tribute to the mercenary boss and the paramilitary group he led.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I knew Prigozhin for a very long time, since the early 90s. He was a man of complicated fate, and he made serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results," Putin said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In an address to Russians during the Wagner rebellion on June 23-24 in which he warned against "civil war", Putin had called Prigozhin -- once his ally -- a "traitor".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But on Thursday, he said the Wagner members who had died in the crash had made a "significant contribution" to Moscow's offensive in Ukraine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They had shared a common cause, Putin said, adding: "We remember that, we know that, and we will not forget that."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said the investigation into the crash would take time, but added: "It will be conducted in full and brought to a conclusion."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Chechen strongman and Putin ally Ramzan Kadyrov paid tribute to Prigozhin's "iron character" in a message on Telegram.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But he added: "Recently he either did not see or did not want to see the full picture of what is happening in the country."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Reasonable doubts' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some Western leaders expressed doubts that the crash had been an accident.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There's not much that happens in Russia that Putin's not behind," said US President Joe Biden, after having said he did not know what happened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">France saw "reasonable doubts" about the crash, while Germany said it followed a pattern of "unclarified" fatalities in Russia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it was suspicious that "a disgraced former confidant of Putin suddenly, literally falls from the sky two months after he attempted a mutiny".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Even influential pro-Kremlin figures, such as state television personality and Putin ally Margarita Simonyan, seemed to suggest that it could have been an assassination.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Among the versions that are being discussed (about the crash) is that it was staged. But personally, I'm leaning towards the more obvious one," she said on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia's aviation authority published the passenger list for the Embraer private jet late on Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It included Prigozhin and his right-hand man, Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner's operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian police patrolled the crash site near the village of Kuzhenkino, some 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of Moscow in the Tver region.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One woman living near Kuzhenkino said her neighbour had heard a roar and saw "sparkling from the plane", accompanied by fire.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"A neighbour ran up to me with shaking hands and when we went to the window I saw only one mushroom (cloud from the explosion), a black cloud," she said in video published by state-run news agency RIA Novosti.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Real patriot' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Video verified by AFP from the scene appeared to show the Embraer Legacy plane in a plume of white smoke as it fell from the sky.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Flightradar24 tracker website said the plane flying from Moscow to Saint Peterburg appeared on their radar until the last 30 seconds and descended "dramatically" at around 15:20 GMT.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some Wagner-linked Telegram channels initially suggested the plane had been shot down by Russian air defence, on a day when Kyiv struck Russia with more drone attacks.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said the US military had "no information to suggest that there was a surface to air missile" involved in the crash.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While they did not know what had caused the crash, Ryder added: "Our assessment, based on a variety of factors, is that he (Prigozhin) was likely killed."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prigozhin appeared to enjoy some popularity in Russia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He appealed to nationalist-leaning Russians -- also suspicious of the army leadership during the Ukraine offensive -- who embraced his tough-guy style.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some even speculated that he would take part in the 2024 presidential election, which is expected to extend Putin's rule until at least 2030.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He was one of the few real patriots in our country," Pavel Zakharov said as he laid flowers at Wagner's headquarters in Saint Petersburg.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many Russians eagerly awaited Prigozhin's outspoken, often expletive-laden social media videos, a sharp contrast to the tightly controlled narrative of Russian officials.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Ukrainians hope death 'true' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wagner offices were still operating and even recruiting in Russia after Prigozhin's rebellion, which saw his men take over a military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and march on Moscow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In Siberia, a region from where Wagner recruited heavily, people also laid flowers at the mercenary company's office in Novosibirsk.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in Ukraine, where Wagner fighters were known for their exceptional brutality -- including extrajudicial killings of their own men -- many welcomed the news of Prigozhin's death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I feel really happy that this person died, if it is true," government worker Iryna Kuchina told AFP in Kyiv.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Prigozhin recruited tens of thousands of Russian convicts to fight in Ukraine, often thrown into the front line.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wagner's future without Prigozhin remained unclear. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>