After Prigozhin's death Kremlin to try to take control over Wagner mercenary company, says ex-CIA director

The Kremlin will likely try to seize control of Russia’s Wagner mercenary company, whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed on Aug. 23 in a plane crash, former Pentagon chief and ex-CIA director Leon Panetta has said.

The Russian leadership will be "very concerned" about allowing mercenaries to continue to operate independently, Panetta said in comments to U.S. news channel CNN on Aug. 23 after news of Progozhin’s death broke.

"So I would not be surprised if they assert control over the Wagner Group in Africa, Asia, and wherever else they may be located," Panetta said.

“For that matter, I think those in the Wagner Group have got to worry about their own lives as well.”

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An Embraer-135 plane crashed in Russia's Tver Oblast on Aug. 23. Russian media reported that it belonged to the leader of the Wagner private military company, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Russian Telegram news channels spread various versions of the cause of the crash, including an air defense strike, a strike by an S-300 air defense missile, or an explosion on board.

Late in the evening, the Russian Air Transport Agency confirmed that Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin (Prigozhin's deputy, whose call sign “Wagner” was used to name the company) were on board the jet. This happened exactly two months after the start of Wagner’s failed "mutiny" against the Russian government in late June.

In addition to them, the bodies of eight other people were found at the site. According to media reports, they included close associates of Prigozhin and participants in the war in Syria, as well as the plane’s three crewmembers.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine