Kremlin denies role in Prigozhin plane crash

THE Kremlin on Friday rejected allegations it was behind a plane crash that is presumed to have killed the head of the private mercenary group Wagner, which staged a short-lived but shocking mutiny in Russia two months ago.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose brutal fighters were feared in Ukraine, Syria and Africa, was eulogized on Thursday by President Vladimir Putin, even as suspicions grew that the Russian leader was behind the crash that many saw as an assassination.