The Kremlin worked with Russian security services to keep mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s funeral secret, according to a new report.
The Wagner boss was laid to rest in a St. Petersburg cemetery Tuesday after what was, by all accounts, an understated and lackluster ceremony with just 20 to 30 people present and no military honors.
Two unnamed Russian officials who spoke to The Moscow Times said the muted nature of the funeral was deliberate: “The aim was to ensure that when the coffin with Prigozhin’s body was lowered into the grave, there were no mass gatherings of citizens, mercenaries and sympathizers around, as well as no broadcasts and photos on social media from the entrance to the cemetery,” one of the officials was quoted as saying.
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The Federal Security Service reportedly worked with top Kremlin officials to ensure the funeral would be kept under wraps.
“Prigozhin, with his demand for justice, sharp and often truthful statements, caused emotion among Russians and as a formal Hero of Russia, and as a ‘people’s hero.’ Do we need heroes who marched on Moscow? No,” the official was quoted as saying.
The other official suggested the modest funeral ceremony could also be the Kremlin’s way of knocking Prigozhin down a peg after he publicly humiliated Vladimir Putin with his violent mutiny against military leadership in late June.
“I think the country’s leadership could not forgive him,” he said.
The Kremlin has feigned cluelessness over the Aug. 23 plane crash that killed Prigozhin, Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin, and several other top members of the mercenary group. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, acknowledged Wednesday that the crash—which happened exactly two months after Prigozhin’s armed uprising—may not have been an accident.
A day after Prigozhin’s burial, his gravesite is reportedly being guarded around the clock by members of the National Guard.
“They ordered the burial a day in advance, we were told that everything was secret. The coffin was not opened,” a staffer at the cemetery was quoted as telling local outlet Bumaga.
Afterwards, the staffer, Igor Nazarov, said security services had descended on the cemetery and were restricting who could enter.
“But people aren’t really coming. What, are you expecting lines like at the Russian Museum? The Wagnerites would then have to gather everyone in Belarus and rent a train,” he said.
