Washington: The head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, may have perished in a plane crash in Russia, according to reports, but US President Joe Biden said he was "not surprised" by the information on Wednesday.
Biden said, "I don't know exactly what happened, but I'm not surprised." After participating in an exercise class with his family close to Lake Tahoe, Biden told reporters, "There's not much that happens in Russia that (President Vladimir) Putin is not behind.
But he added, "I don't know enough to know the answer" to the question of what might have happened to the powerful former Putin goon.
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According to Russian state media, Prigozhin's name was on the passenger list of the plane that crashed northwest of Moscow. Two months had passed since he sent Wagner on a hasty march towards Moscow in an effort to overthrow the nation's military authorities.
Last month in Helsinki, Biden lightheartedly advised Prigozhin to be careful after his failed uprising because his elite Wagner force had a significant impact on the war on Ukraine.
If I were him, I would watch what I ate. Biden said, "I'd keep an eye on my menu.
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According to Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council at the White House, Prigozhin's sudden death, if true, shouldn't surprise anyone. She cited the uprising in June and Russia's incursion into Ukraine. The disastrous war in Ukraine led to a private army marching on Moscow, and now — it would seem — to this," remarked Watson.