Just hours after the crash of an Embraer RA-02795 private jet near Kujenkino, northwest of Moscow, on August 23, Russian-speaking Telegram channels panic: the list of seven passengers and three crew members just released by the Federal Aviation Agency. Yevgeny Prigojine’s name is inscribed on it.
Mercenary leader Wagner is not the only group executive recorded on this flight. Other personalities, sometimes highly placed within the organization, are also included. Through open data as well as internal Wagner document leaks, The world was able to shed light on the profile of these passengers.
Yevgeny Prigozhin
He is the leader of the Wagner Group. After several years of denying it, Yevgeny Prigojine finally admitted in September 2022 to having founded the group of mercenaries, in 2014. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, in February 2022, he has not stopped speaking out for defend his men; going so far as to openly oppose the Russian Ministry of Defence.
On June 23, he and some of his mercenaries rebel and take the direction of Moscow. The abortive mutiny ended in the exile of part of his troops to Belarus.
Dmitri Utkin
He is a key figure in the Wagner system. Born in June 1970, this former member of the Russian special forces left to fight in Syria in 2013, with the “Slavic Corps”, a group of Russian mercenaries. On his return, he was arrested with his combat comrades by the FSB, the internal security services: mercenary activity is officially prohibited by Russia. Dmitri Outkine escapes a conviction by the justice.
The rest of his journey is more vague: how, in what context and why did he meet Evgueni Prigojine? From 2014, he began to lead soldiers paid by Evgueni Prigojine, according to Center Folder, a group of investigators funded by Russian businessman and dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Dmitry Utkin, who reports directly to Yevgeny Prigojine, then adopts his nickname, “Wagner”, which will soon be used to name the entire group. Since then, the Wagner Group has continued to expand its activities in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, long with the approval and complicity of the Kremlin.
In an internal document consulted by The world, Dmitri Outkine, nom de guerre “Ninth”, is listed as “commander” of Evro Polis in 2021, the screen entity with which the mercenaries signed their contracts before leaving for Syria. Dmitri Utkin remained right to the end at the heart of the Wagner machine.
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