Fury over Putin’s claim Prigozhin plane was blown up by mercenaries high on coke – as Wagner aides release AI audio of their former chief mocking Vlad

Vladimir Putin faced angry backlash from pro-war supporters in Russia today after he claimed Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and his associates were high on cocaine and committed suicide by detonating hand grenades on board their plane.

The Russian leader claimed in Sochi that “fragments of hand grenades were discovered in the bodies of those who died in the plane crash.”

He attributed this finding to Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee – a Russian version of the FBI – who was his former university classmate and a close friend.

He also said that five kilos of cocaine had previously been found in Prigozhin’s possession, implying that his former friend and others in Wagner’s high command were addicted aboard the plane.

But Putin’s statement on cocaine and drugs was met with disbelief and has only deepened the perception that Prigozhin – once close to the dictator – was murdered in a state assassination.

In response, Prigozhin’s loyal supporters produced an AI-generated video in which their fallen leader posthumously mocked the Russian president.

“Of course,” said the dead warlord, “we just got high on cocaine and started throwing grenades at each other on the plane. Naturally.’

Weeks after leading an uprising against the Kremlin, 62-year-old Prigozhin was traveling on a private jet from Moscow to St. Petersburg on August 23 when the plane caught fire.

The executive Embraer aircraft then plummeted to Earth, killing Prigozhin, his bodyguards and other Wagner commanders, including Dmitry Utkin. Fingers were immediately pointed at President Putin, who had had a spectacular row with Prigozhin over the war in Ukraine.

But in an apparent attempt to abdicate responsibility, Putin suggested the explosion was the result of a hand grenade accidentally detonating on the plane.

“Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash,” Putin told the Valdai forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. “There was no external impact on the aircraft – this is already an established fact.”

The despot said he thought it was wrong that crash investigators did not conduct alcohol and drug tests on the deceased when their bodies were recovered from the crash site.

“Unfortunately, no research has been done into the presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood of the victims,” ​​he said. “In my opinion, this should have happened, but it didn’t.”

The FSB security service had probably returned cocaine briquettes found in his building weeks ago.

They were returned because investigation revealed that they were ‘simple washing powder’.

Wagner’s ‘intelligence service’ had used the fake drugs in an operation in Africa, it was claimed.

Reportedly, no other premises belonging to those on board were searched for cocaine or grenades.

Former Wagner commander Marat Gabidullin, who left the group in 2019, has rejected Putin’s claims.

‘I don’t believe this. I never noticed any signs that (Prigozhin or Utkin) were taking drugs. And neither of them drank,” Gabidullin said The times.

Since the beginning of the conflict, several of Putin’s opponents have met a gruesome end.

Western intelligence officials also believe that the explosion that damaged the plane in flight was internal rather than external.

But so far only President Putin has suggested that the crash was caused by the accidental detonation of grenades by one of the passengers or crew.

It is claimed that explosives were planted in a case of wine loaded onto the private jet – and that Putin was behind the attack. The Kremlin called allegations that he was behind the crash an “absolute lie.”

A Russian investigation has been launched, but no findings have yet been released. Moscow has rejected an offer from Brazil, where the Embraer business jet was built, to join the investigation.

Prigozhin’s uprising in June posed the most serious challenge to Putin’s rule since he came to power in 1999.

Prigozhin said it was aimed at ousting the Defense Ministry leadership, which he blamed for mistakes in fueling the fighting in Ukraine.

His mercenaries took over Russia’s southern military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don and then rolled toward Moscow before abruptly ending the mutiny under an agreement that granted them amnesty from prosecution.

At first, the president’s response — expelling Prigozhin to neighboring Belarus — seemed unusually meek, the verdict of a president whose power was waning.

Then, exactly two months later, Prigozhin’s plane was blown out of the sky.