![Yegeny Prigozhin](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2023/10/05/TELEMMGLPICT000340959984_16965331988050_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Wagner troops high on cocaine may have blown up Prigozhin, Putin says
Russian president criticises investigators for not conducting alcohol and drug tests on Wagner chief and the nine other victims of the crash
![Yegeny Prigozhin](/https/www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2023/10/05/TELEMMGLPICT000340959984_16965331988050_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=680)
Vladimir Putin suggested Yevgenny Prigozhin’s private jet was destroyed when he or his companions set off a hand grenade on board, possibly while drunk or high on cocaine.
“The head of the Russian investigative committee told me just a few days ago that fragments of a hand grenade were found in the bodies of those killed,” he said.
Putin criticised investigators for not conducting alcohol and drug tests on Prigozhin and the nine other victims of the crash.
He also alleged that five kilograms of cocaine were found at the Wagner offices after the mercenary group’s short-lived rebellion.
“The investigation is not yet complete. The presence of alcohol or narcotics in the blood was not established, but unfortunately such tests were not carried out,” he said.
“Even though we know that after the incident the FSB found in the company in St Petersburg not only 10 billion in cash, but also five kilograms of cocaine. But again, from my point of view such tests should have been done but they were not.”
Wagner boss Prigozhin died when his private jet crashed over Russia’s Tver region on August 23. The Kremlin has previously denied assassinating him in revenge for his June 24 mutiny. Kremlin critics and Western countries have suggested foul play.
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Putin’s comments were the first significant update on Russia’s investigation into the crash.
Prigozhin led an armed rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, in the biggest threat to Putin’s two-decade rule.
After the crash, Putin described him as a man who had made “serious mistakes in his life but he achieved the right results”.
The Kremlin has dismissed suggestions that it orchestrated the crash in revenge for Wagner’s march on Moscow.
Russia has a history of mysterious deaths of Kremlin opponents under Putin.