Russian Investigative Committee officially confirms Wagner boss's death

Today (August 27), the Russian Investigative Committee announced that it has completed molecular genetic testing on the victims on the flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg before the Embraer Legacy 600 crashed in Tver province, about 300 km north of Moscow late on August 23.

"According to the official results, the identities of all 10 victims have been confirmed, which is the same as the list recorded before the plane took off," AFP quoted Ms. Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for the Russian Investigative Committee.

Russian authorities have confirmed that Prigozhin was among the seven passengers who died, along with Dmitry Utkin, co-founder of Wagner, and other members of the mercenary company. The three-member crew also died in the incident.

Earlier, speaking on Russian television on August 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed for the first time that Mr. Prigozhin died when the Wagner leader's private plane crashed in Tver province. However, it will take time to complete DNA testing of the victims.

Russian authorities have opened an investigation into the plane crash, but have yet to release details about the direction of the investigation or preliminary results.