An explosion inside the aircraft caused the crash of the Embraer carrying the head of its mercenaries Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhinthe president of Russia hinted today Vladimir Putincategorically rejecting speculation about a missile attack.

Prigozhin’s private plane traveling to St. Petersburg crashed on August 23 north of Moscow, killing all ten people on board: the head of Wagner, two other top executives of the Russian mercenary company, four of Prigozhin’s bodyguards and three members of his crew.

In a speech at the Valdai Discussion Club in the resort of Sochi, Putin revealed the briefing he received a few days ago from the head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. “Grenade fragments were found on the bodies of the victims of the plane crash. There was no external strike, that is documented,” he said, rejecting claims by US officials that the plane was downed by a missile.

Avoiding going into detail about how hand grenades could have exploded in the passenger cabin, the Russian president pointed out that it was the experts’ fault for not testing the victims for substances (including alcohol or drugs), recalling that at Wagner’s offices in St. Petersburg had previously found quantities of cocaine.

To date, the Russian authorities have not issued a conclusion on the causes of the plane crash.

Wagner’s mercenaries fought alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, but Prigozhin had been fiercely critical of the Russian elite and led a mutiny in late June, leading thousands of fighters on a march of hundreds of kilometers towards Moscow before finally ordering them back to base. them “to prevent bloodshed”.

The Kremlin has rejected claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Prigozhin’s death to avenge him, but said the investigation into the crash would also look into the possibility of sabotage on the plane.