The assassination of Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was ordered by the Secretary General of the Russian Security Council, Mykola Patrushev, a former FSB officer, with the approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer.

The WSJ reported on Friday that Prigozhin’s private plane was shot down by a small bomb placed under the wing, according to Reuters.

Patrushev repeatedly warned Putin about the threat posed by Prigozhin, who is increasingly critical of the Russian military leadership, the WSJ reports.

As the group of mercenaries brought Putin a long-awaited victory by capturing Bakhmut, the Kremlin leader ignored Patrushev’s pleas.

But he was finally taken seriously after Prigozhin called Putin to complain about the lack of ammunition among the mercenaries, mainly blaming it on Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The head of Wagner’s mercenary group, which fought on the side of Russia in Ukraine, had a long dispute with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which resulted in a mutiny at the end of June. It ended quickly but was seen by many as a serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin, who has held power for nearly a quarter of a century.

Prigozhin died in a plane crash exactly two months later. Earlier, the Kremlin dismissed as “absolute lies” the suggestion that he was killed on Putin’s orders.

In October, the head of the Kremlin assumed that hand grenades that exploded inside the plane were the cause of the disaster.

Nine more people were also killed: two more key figures in the group of mercenaries, four bodyguards of Prigozhin and a team of three people.

Patrushev, 72, is a former head of the FSB security service, now secretary of Russia’s Security Council, and is considered one of the most influential hardliners among his close advisers.

They had known each other since working together in the Soviet KGB in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in the 1970s.

Considered Putin’s “superhawk,” Patrushev is a staunch defender of the war in Ukraine, sees America as the devil incarnate, and now wants to make Russia’s economy fully sovereign.

Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov said he had seen the article, but would not comment on it. “Recently, unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal has been very attached to crime fiction,” he added, however, referring to a type of sensational and shocking fiction published in American pulp magazines before as from the end of the 19th century. .

Pulp Fiction is also the title of Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film, which was a worldwide success.