Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted Thursday that mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's death in a plane crash wasn't an act of sabotage — but rather the result of drug- or alcohol-fueled play with grenades.
Putin offered up the wild theory in a speech at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi, six weeks after Prigozhin's plane fell from the sky in what's widely believed to have been an assassination.
"I know there must be a question hanging in the air as to what happened to the company’s top management," Putin said. "The Investigative Committee head [Alexander Bastrykin] reported to me just the other day that hand grenade fragments had been found in the bodies of those killed in the plane crash."
Putin hinted that those on board might have played a role in their own demises, insinuating alcohol or cocaine might have led to play with grenades.
“Unfortunately, tests on traces of alcohol or drugs in the blood of those killed were not taken, although we know that after the events we all know about [the uprising] the FSB [Russia's intelligence agency] found not only 10 billion [rubles] in cash, but also 5 kilograms of cocaine in the Saint Petersburg office" of Prigozhin’s company, Putin said.
Prigozhin most likely signed his own death warrant when he led the Wagner Group, his private military company, on a short-lived but tense uprising against Putin's military in late June.
When Wagner Group mercenaries stopped short of Moscow, Prigozhin was reportedly allowed to leave Russia for Belarus.
U.S. intelligence has said Prigozhin's plane crashed because an intentionally set explosive went off on board.
The Kremlin has denied it had a role in the catastrophe, but multiple U.S. officials have told NBC News that intelligence pointed to sabotage as a leading cause for the crash.
And considering that Prigozhin's march toward Moscow presented the most serious yet threat to Putin's power, it's widely believed that Putin might have played a key role in his death.
"There was no external impact on the plane," Putin said. "This is an established fact, a fact established by the examination that Russia’s Investigative Committee has conducted. The investigation still continues."
