Smiling Putin enjoys a kiss from female admirer after his former friend Prigozhin’s plane explodes – as the Russian leader shows no sign of misery

A smiling Vladimir Putin enjoyed a kiss from a female admirer and enjoyed the adoration of a crowd at an event in Russia – shortly after the plane of his former friend and Wagnerian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin exploded.

Prigozhin, once a close ally of Putin before launching a mutiny against him in June, has been listed by Russian authorities as one of 10 passengers aboard a doomed plane that crashed in a ball of flames, killing everyone on board.

But as reports circulated that the dreaded Wagner chief had been assassinated, Putin showed no signs of distress last night at a concert celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory at the Battle of Kursk in World War II.

Video shows the dictator, surrounded by bodyguards, walking out to a cheering crowd who shout “we are with you, we love you” before a woman dressed in a pink jacket shouts, “Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin), my favourite.’

Putin, basking in the attention, walked the woman through his bodyguards and planted an enthusiastic kiss on his face.

Kiss and I love you. Thank you, be healthy,” she told Putin, to which the smiling dictator replied, “Same.”

Since the pandemic and the outbreak of war, Putin has rarely allowed people to spontaneously approach him for health and safety reasons.

The footage shows him uncharacteristically relaxed after giving a keystroke speech at an event in Kursk, Russia – despite knowing his former friend had probably been killed in the horror plane crash some three hours earlier.

And during a speech at a summit conference of the BRICS group of countries this morning, Putin again made no mention of Prigozhin and the crash.

For years, Prigozhin was a staunch ally of Putin: he hosted banquets at the Kremlin, catered for the Russian government, ran propaganda troll farms, and raised a ruthless private army, Wagner.

Yet his attempt at a short-lived mutiny against Moscow in June was seen by the dictator as treason.

Although it is stated that Prigozhin was aboard the doomed plane that crashed, there is still no confirmation that the warlord, who has been a thorn in Putin’s side since the start of the war in Ukraine, has died.

Russia’s Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating the crash, confirmed this morning that ten people died in the crash, with no mention of Prigozhin.

But while there is no official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, the warlord’s supporters have claimed that he is dead and called him a hero and patriot who they say was killed by unidentified people whom they called “traitors to Russia” .

On Thursday morning, Russian officials stretched black body bags from a wooded area at the crash site. Parts of the plane’s tail and other fragments lay on the ground near where forensic investigators had set up a tent.

Whoever or whatever was behind the crash, Prigozhin’s death would relieve Putin of someone who had faced the most serious challenge to the Russian leader’s authority since he came to power in 1999.

Others who have opposed Putin or his interests have also died under unclear circumstances or are near death, including outspoken political leaders and journalists. The Kremlin has always denied any state involvement in such incidents.

Prigozhin’s death would also leave the Wagner group, which incurred Putin’s wrath in June by staging a failed armed mutiny against the military’s top ranks, leaderless and raise questions about its future operations in Africa and elsewhere .

The crashed Brazilian Embraer Legacy 600 model of a corporate jet has recorded just one accident in its more than 20 years of service, according to the website International Aviation HQ, and it was not due to mechanical failure.

Embraer said it has complied with international sanctions imposed on Russia and has not performed any maintenance on the aircraft since 2019.

According to flight tracking data, the plane showed no signs of a problem until a steep descent in the last 30 seconds.

Video footage shows how the plane fell from the sky on Wednesday in the Bologovsky district of the Tver region, 90 kilometers north of Moscow. A burning wreckage, which appears to be an aircraft, was later seen in a field, with unconfirmed footage showing it completely engulfed in flames.

Prigozhin, 62, has become increasingly cautious since he led a coup against Putin’s regime exactly two months ago.

After its failure, he had been warned that his life was in danger. He was known to take great care of his safety and it is rumored that he did not board the ill-fated plane despite state television claiming otherwise.

Sources close to him said that although the plane was his, he usually flew another plane.

Another plane, also believed to have connections to Prigozhin, was discovered “zigzagging” over Moscow in the aftermath of the crash, fueling speculation that the Wagner boss may not have been on board after all.

The available tracking data for the downed plane appears to show it rising to about 29,000 feet, before suddenly vanishing and dropping to 0 feet.