London, Thanasis Gavos

British officials and security and Russian experts say they are convinced that the plane crash in which Yevgeny Prigozhin was reportedly on board was provoked on the orders of President Putin.

A security source who spoke to the Daily Telegraph said: “Of course it is Putin. As a leader he cannot allow himself to be humiliated the way he was. Putin operates on two things: loyalty over talent and the consequences of betrayal.”.

The same source estimated that everything indicates that the downing of the aircraft with the head of the Wagner Group was caused by the FSB security intelligence service that remains loyal to the Russian president.

The former head of the British MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove he told the Telegraph that Prigozhin’s death does not surprise him.

“Most people will come to the conclusion that this is not an accident,” he commented, speaking of Putin’s “revenge”.

The UK’s former defense attache in Moscow, John Forman, likened the events leading up to Prigozhin’s death to a “Russian opera”, also speaking of “revenge”. As he said, “the timing (of Prigozhin’s death) is not accidental,” two months after his mutiny and march on Moscow.

Orysia Lutsevich, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia program at London-based think tank Chatham House, said that if Prigozhin had indeed been killed, it would be a “logical development” after his mutiny.