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Wagner chief Prigozhin is buried in secret as Kremlin seeks to avoid unrest

By Robyn Dixon

30 Aug 2023 · 5 min read

informed Summary

  1. Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the chief of the Wagner mercenary group, was buried on Tuesday in a secret ceremony in St. Petersburg, with false trails laid to mislead journalists. The secrecy reflects the Kremlin's concerns about potential unrest among pro-war Russian nationalists who admired Prigozhin.

RIGA, Latvia - Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin was buried in an unusually secret ceremony in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, with his press service announcing that the event was closed to outsiders, after hearses and funeral corteges laid false trails at several local cemeteries and other locations tracked throughout the day by local journalists.

Prigozhin's press service said in a brief statement that the last rites for Prigozhin were held in secret Tuesday without offering details of the time and location, or providing photographs of the event - perhaps a fitting final chapter to a secretive life of disguises, clandestine security arrangements, diversions to conceal travel plans, duplicate passports and body doubles.

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