Russia has scolded US President, Joe Biden for saying he was not surprised at the apparent death in a plane crash of Wagner mercenary boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
On Friday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov cautioned that it was not appropriate for Washington to make such remarks.
The comments illustrated Washington’s disregard for diplomacy, Mr Ryabkov told the state-run TASS news agency.
“Still, it is not for the US president, in my opinion, to talk about such tragic events of this kind,” he said.
Mr Biden had on Wednesday said he was not surprised by reports about Mr Prigozhin’s death, adding that not much happens in the country that President Vladimir Putin is not behind.
“I’m not surprised,” the US leader said. “There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer.”
President Putin sent his condolences to the Prigozhin’s family on Thursday, calling him a talented businessman who knew how to look after his own interests and who could, when asked, do his bit for the common cause.
But he also described Mr Prigozhin as a flawed character who had made some bad mistakes.
“I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It’s always a tragedy,” Mr Putin said in televised remarks made during a meeting in the Kremlin with the Moscow-installed chief of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
Russian media had reported on Wednesday that Mr Prigozhin was among a group of 10 people on board a private plane that crashed, killing everyone.
The Wagner chief’s deputy, Dmitry Utkin was also said to be on the illfated flight.
Almost immediately, allegations of the Kremlin’s complicity in Mr Prigozhin’s death started flying around.
Only in June, the Wagner boss, whose troops had played a key role in the Russian offensive in Ukraine, staged a shortlived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership.
Since the botched rebellion, Mr Prigozhin was rarely seen in public, and many predicted that it was only a matter of time before the authorities caught up with him.
However, Western governments, including the Biden administration, have discounted allegations that the Wagner boss’s private plane may have been shot down by a missile
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