Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/Getty
Russian state media appears to have one goal in the aftermath of the plane crash that reportedly killed the head of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group’s founder Dmitry Utkin and their associates on Wednesday: to deflect any blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday, state media network Rossiya-24 referenced a criminal investigation that was opened by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, citing “potential violations of air transportation safety and operation rules” that may have caused the crash.
The most popular star of Russian state television, Vladimir Solovyov, likewise did his best to divert the focus from the most likely beneficiary of the incident—even going so far as to claim that Putin had nothing to gain from Prigozhin’s demise. During his show Full Contact Thursday morning, Solovyov complained about the Western media’s coverage that described the incident as “Putin’s revenge.”