Taylor Speaks with CBC News, International Business Times About the Prigozhin Plane Crash

September 1, 2023

CBC News,International Business Times

Brian Taylor

Political Science Department

Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict & Collaboration

Conflict

Government

International Affairs

Russia

CBC News

International Business Times

Brian Taylor

Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin is presumed dead after a plane, where he was listed as a passenger, crashed last week in the Tver region in Russia.

Theories emerged about the Russian mercenary chief possibly "faking death," or even evading death, after a second private plane linked to him landed safely near Moscow around the same time as the one supposedly with Prigozhin on board crashed.

But many experts are now holding the view that Prigozhin was on board the plane and was killed as part of an ongoing power struggle in Russia.

Brian Taylor, professor of political science and director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, tells IBT that he believes Prigozhin is dead and he agrees with Biden. "Putin made clear at the time he saw the mutiny as 'treason' and 'a stab in the back,' which he was unlikely to forget or forgive," he says.

Taylor was also interviewed on CBC News for the segment "Wagner Group's Prigozhin on passenger list of flight that crashed, Russian officials say."