“When Zhenya* comes marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We’ll give him a hearty welcome then,
Hurrah! Hurrah!”

* Zhenya: Familiar form of the Russian name Yevgeny.

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On August 13th, in my post titled Where’s Yevgeny? – Part 5, I wrote the following:

“. . . According to investigative journalist Christo Grozev of Bellingcat, within six months Yevgeny Prigozhin will stage a second coup attempt against the Kremlin, or he will be dead.

I’m setting my clock now.”

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I hope Mr. Grozev had a sizable amount of money bet on that prediction, because it only took ten days for him to be proven dead right . . . literally. As we now know, Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed to have been killed, along with nine others, in the crash of his private plane in the Tver region northwest of Moscow on August 23rd.

Oh, wait a minute, Mr. Grozev; don’t try to collect on that bet just yet. Note that I said “presumed.” As the ongoing forensic investigation of the wreckage and the retrieved human remains continues, the question looms as to whether he was actually on that plane. Vladimir Putin and his official spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, say that Yevgeny is dead, dead, dead. And if he was indeed one of the passengers, then he is definitely gone, because there were clearly no survivors . . . there rarely are when a plane explodes and plunges 28,000 feet from the sky to the earth.

But was the real Yevgeny Prigozhin — whose name appears on the flight manifest — actually on that plane? The odds are, he was. But there are some who suspect otherwise. And if not, where in the world is he? And who was sitting in his seat? We don’t yet know the answers to any of these questions; and in the long run, we will have only the Kremlin’s word that their final answer will be the truth.

As was the case with his extraordinary life, Yevgeny’s death remains shrouded in mystery.

Either way — dead or simply vanished — his absence is already having, and will continue to have, a dramatic effect upon Russia’s foreign policy and activities with regard to its “special military operation” in Ukraine; its long-established and continuing support of regimes in a number of African and Middle Eastern countries; its utilization of Belarus’ strategic location in proximity to several NATO-member countries (specifically Poland, Lithuania and Latvia); and perhaps other adventures as yet unimagined.

Aside from Vladimir Putin himself, it’s difficult to imagine the loss of a single individual having that great an impact within the Russian inner circle. After all, Yevgeny was neither an elected nor an appointed government official. Nor, apparently, was he one of the most wealthy or influential of Russia’s known lineup of oligarchs. He was known as “Putin’s Chef”: a long-time friend and close confidant of the little man from St. Petersburg who now sits on the “throne” of a mighty nation. But, as we know all too well, friendship means nothing to Vladimir Putin, and loyalty only works in one direction: to him, not from him.

No, Yevgeny’s principal value to Putin is — or was — as the head of an organization known as the Wagner Group: a collection of mercenary fighters capable of the most unimaginably barbaric acts, as they have proven time and time again, most recently in Ukraine. But is he indispensable even in that capacity? Perhaps not.

Because there is — or was — a lesser-known man, one Dmitry Utkin, whose name was also on that ill-fated passenger list. And Utkin turns out to have been quite the mystery man himself. A simple Google search has turned up the following basic information:

“Dmitry Valerievich Utkin . . . was a Russian army officer. He served as a special forces officer in the GRU, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was allegedly the co-founder and military commander of the Russian state-funded Wagner Group, with his military alias reportedly being Wagner. Utkin was reportedly a neo-Nazi. He rarely made public appearances, but was allegedly the commander of the private military company, while Yevgeny Prigozhin was its owner and public face. Utkin received four Orders of Courage of Russia.”

Aha! So Wagner Group wasn’t a one-man conception or operation after all. But now this charming fellow is apparently also dead. So what happens to the Wagner Group, without which Putin’s military forces have been proving themselves far less formidable than he would have the world believe?

That — far more, even, than what has happened to Yevgeny — seems to be the big question. Will they simply be relocated, and who will lead them? Or will they be split up and sent to various strategic locations? Perhaps merged into the Russian military forces themselves? Or reinvented as something wholly new and different? I certainly don’t know, but I’d be willing to bet that Vladimir Putin already has a pretty good idea; else, why would he have waited two full months before publicly solving his “Prigozhin Problem”?

Oh, I’m sorry . . . did that sound like an accusation? No, of course it wasn’t. It just popped into my mind and rolled right off my tongue. But if the shoe fits . . .

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Once again, I leave you with a plethora of questions and a dearth of answers . . . and a little fun in a very un-funny situation. I’m sure I’ll be back with more comments as the daily news continues to provide me with the seeds — and a good bit of fertilizer — for my musings.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/27/23