The reappearance of a 40-second video clip from an April interview of Yevgeny Prigozhin sparked a wave of theories on Sunday that he was not dead, Reuters reported.

Russia’s aviation authority announced last Wednesday that Chief Wagner was aboard a private plane that crashed northwest of Moscow, exactly two months after a military uprising against the country’s military leadership began.

The Kremlin has condemned as “complete lies” any suggestion that his death was not the result of a random accident.

In a video of Prigozhin that has now gone viral on Russian social media, Wagner’s former mercenary commander said on April 29 that Russia was on the brink of disaster as the military leadership in Moscow gradually eliminated anyone who spoke the truth rather than praising. generals in charge of a “special military operation”.

“Today we came to the edge of the abyss,” mercenary commander Wagner told military blogger Semyon Pegov at the time. The interview was published by the “Grey Zone” Telegram channel, which is considered close to Wagner’s group.

“Why do I speak so frankly? Because I have no right [să nu o fac] to the people who will continue to live in this country. Now they are being lied to,” Prigozhin said.

“You better kill me. But I will not lie, I will honestly say that Russia is on the verge of disaster. And if these wheels are not adjusted today, the plane will fall apart in the air,” he added.

Russians, between believing that Prigozhin knew he was going to die and thinking he was still alive

Hundreds of Russians commented on the video a few hours after it was reposted by the administrators of the Gray Zone channel.

“But he knew,” Telegram user “avanpost” wrote. Some even suggested that Prigozhin is still alive.

Another user wrote that Prigozhin will soon “jump out of the snuff box and put devils in his pants,” referring to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov.

Another Telegram user said it would be “cool” if Prigozhin and Sergei Surovikin, the former commander of the Russian invasion force who was allegedly arrested for ties to Wagner’s group, “stayed in Jamaica drinking pina coladas and smoking smoke from a giant joint ‘.

Russian state media confirmed a few hours before the plane carrying Prigozhin crashed that Surovikin, nicknamed “General Armageddon,” had been removed from his position as commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

A wave of speculation about the death of the ex-head of Wagner’s mercenaries swept through Telegram channels

Some comments on Telegram were directed directly against the Kremlin, suggesting that the plane crash was organized on the orders of Vladimir Putin.

“You’d have to be an amoeba not to understand this,” wrote one user on the messaging app. But other users blamed Ukraine or even France for the death of the head of the Wagner group.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi said last Thursday that Ukraine had nothing to do with the crash of the plane Prigozhin was on board. “That’s for sure. But I think everyone understands who has,” he hinted.

However, one of the Russian posts in Telegram says that Prigozhin was killed by Ukrainians on the orders of US special forces and “Anglo-Saxons”, and adds that “it is inconvenient for us to lose such a hero.”

The Investigative Committee of Russia announced on Sunday afternoon that the results of genetic tests confirmed the identities of ten people killed in the plane crash, including Yevhen Prigozhin.

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