A former US military leader has said that the head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is either in prison or dead. Retired General Robert Abrams told ABC News that “I assess that I doubt we’ll ever see Prigozhin in public again. I think he’ll either be buried, or sent to prison.” Will go, or be dealt with in some other way, but I doubt we’ll ever see him again”.

When Abrams was asked if Prigozhin was alive, he said that “I personally don’t think he’s alive, and if he is, he’s in jail somewhere”. Recently, it was told in some reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had met Prigozhin after the coup. Abrams said, “I would be surprised if we actually see proof that Putin met with Prigozhin, and I think it is extremely bogus.”

On June 23, 2023, Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group, announced that he was marching to Moscow to challenge Russia’s military leadership. Prigozhin accused him of mismanaging the war in Ukraine. Prigozhin’s forces quickly took control of a military base in the city of Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia, just 600 miles from Moscow. However, the coup was soon resolved after Prigozhin suddenly decided that he would not march on Russia. He changed his mind to avoid bloodshed. The coup attempt was a major blow to Prigozhin. He had been a close ally of Putin for many years and had been rewarded with lucrative government contracts. However, the coup attempt showed that Prigozhin had crossed his limits. Putin was furious with Prigozhin and called him a “traitor”.