The United States believes that the plane of Evgeny Prigozhin, which crashed in the Tver region the day before, was shot down by a surface-to-air missile launched from Russian territory.
Source. This was reported to Reuters by two American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
They emphasized that this is preliminary information that is currently being investigated.
The version that Prigozhin's plane was shot down by an air defense system was expressed shortly after the crash by the Grey Zone telegram channel, which is close to the Wagner PMC.
Later, the same cause of the crash was cited by a Financial Times source, a Western official familiar with the intelligence.
Near the crash site of Prigozhin's plane, not far from Vladimir Putin's residence in Valdai, there are four S-300 divisions guarding the residence, a Russian government source told The Moscow Times the day before.
Background. As reported, the bodies of those killed in the plane crash, including Wagnerite leader Prigozhin, have been taken for examination.