Wagner Chief, Prigozhin, Buried In Saint Petersburg

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has been buried in a private funeral in St Petersburg, his press service has said.

It said the ceremony, in his home city, was held in “a closed format”, and all those “wishing to say goodbye can visit the Porokhovskoe cemetery”.

The mercenary chief was confirmed dead by Russian officials after genetic analysis of 10 bodies found in a crashed plane on 23 August near Moscow.

The Kremlin has denied speculation it was to blame for the crash.

But a number of Russia watchers – both in the country and abroad – have described Prigozhin, 62, as a “dead man walking” since an aborted armed mutiny he led back in June.

All 10 people on board – including Prigozhin’s right-hand man Dmitry Utkin – died in the crash in the Tver region, north-west of Moscow.

The Wagner press service gave the information about Prigozhin’s funeral in a short statement on Telegram on Tuesday.

It provided no further details.

In life Yevgeny Prigozhin had been a man of mystery. Often concealing his identity, with the help of wigs and fake beards.

All day St Petersburg had been buzzing with rumours and speculation about where the mercenary chief would be laid to rest. There was no advance warning. No official announcement of when and where it would happen. On social media at least four different cemeteries were being talked about as possibilities.

In the end, it was none of them.

Eventually Prigozhin’s representatives revealed that the head of Wagner had been buried in Porokhovskoe Cemetery on the edge of St Petersburg beside his late father.

No military honours for the mercenary chief. And reportedly only a few people attended.

Outside the cemetery we’re told that it is officially closed for the day, so we can’t go in. And just to make sure that the media gathered outside doesn’t try to get in, the place is pretty much in lockdown.

There are long lines of police along the perimeter fence and throughout the cemetery. I can see sniffer dogs, anti-drone officers and riot police.

The funeral may have been low-key. The security; far from it.

You can understand why.

The Wagner mutiny, that Prigozhin organised, was viewed as treachery by the Kremlin. As far as the Russian authorities are concerned, the less attention the better.