The Kremlin said on Friday that it was “impossible” to know whether President Vladimir Putin would attend the funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former head of the Wagner PMC mercenaries who was described as the leader’s “chef” in the Kremlin just a few months ago. Reuters reports.

“If you listened carefully to the comments of the President of Russia, he said that all necessary research, including genetic research, will be conducted. The official results will be released as soon as they are ready for publication,” Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov said after being asked at a news conference if he could confirm Prigozhin’s death.

In this way, he referred to Putin’s statements made on Thursday evening during a televised meeting from the Kremlin with the leader of the separatists in the Donetsk region, Denys Pushylin. Putin described Prigozhin’s death after his plane crashed in the Tver region on Wednesday as a “tragedy”, while noting that the former Wagner mercenary commander had made “many serious mistakes in his life”.

Peskov also said today that Putin has not met with Prigozhin recently, stressing that it is not yet clear how long it will take for the genetic examination and other studies necessary to clarify the circumstances of the tragedy and other necessary elements.

He said this after Kremlin journalists asked him if the Russian president would attend Prigozhin’s funeral.

“There is currently no date for the funeral, so we cannot talk about it in any way. The only thing I can say is that the president has a busy schedule now,” said Dmytro Peskov.

The Kremlin condemns “absolute lies” about Prigozhin’s death

At the press conference, Peskov also addressed speculation that Prigozhin was killed on the orders of the Kremlin because of a military mutiny that he started on the night of June 23-24.

“Now there is a lot of speculation about the plane crash and the tragic death of the plane’s passengers, including Yevhen Prigozhin. Of course, in the West, all these speculations are presented from a well-known angle,” he told reporters in Moscow.

“All this is an absolute lie and here, when reporting on this topic, you need to rely on facts. Few dates are currently known. They should be established in the course of investigative actions,” he added.

Several Western officials, including US President Joe Biden, have expressed reservations about Prigozhin’s death being an accident.

“I am not surprised. There’s not a lot going on in Russia that Putin is behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer,” the White House leader said Thursday, hours after Prigozhin’s death was announced, in response to reporters’ questions on the subject.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday criticized Biden’s statement and his other comments on the subject, saying they showed a lack of diplomatic tact.

Follow the latest events of the 548th day of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HOTNEWS.RO.