Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former head of Wagner’s mercenaries, was buried on Tuesday in a private ceremony, Concordia’s press service said, according to Reuters.

The firm, which earned Prigozhin the nickname “Putin’s chef” for catering to the Kremlin, said he was buried in a cemetery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg.

Like President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin was born in this city.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin confirmed that Putin would not attend the funeral of former mercenary commander Wagner, having previously said it was “impossible” to know.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a daily press conference on Tuesday that the presidential administration has no information about the funeral of the founder of the Wagner group and that Putin’s presence at the funeral is “not expected.”

On Sunday, the Russian authorities officially confirmed that Prigozhin was one of the passengers of the private plane that crashed last Wednesday in the Tver region of Russia.

The Kremlin strongly rejects any suggestion that President Putin orchestrated the plane crash in any way. Russian authorities say the crash is still under investigation.

On the same topic:

• Who was Yevgeny Prigozhin – from a hot dog seller to the head of Putin’s military machine