Artem Budrin13:21, 08/24/232 min.1630Ilya Ponomarev noted that Putin did not have the goal of physically destroying Prigozhin, and the President of the Russian Federation did not expect such a decisive step from Shoigu.

Former deputy of the Russian State Duma, Ilya Ponomarev, believes that  the Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu is behind the liquidation of the leader of the “Wagner” PMK Yevgeny Prigozhin .“

I think it’s Shoigu. I think it’s revenge, and I don’t think it’s Putin.

I think that if it was Putin, it would have been a purely FSB mechanism to eliminate Prigozhin.

There, a bomb or an engine failed the plane, could have been poisoned, a hunting accident in Africa, a rhinoceros bitten there – so a lot could have happened, but he was shot down by two S-300 missiles and was shot down on the day when a new commander of the Air Force was appointed, who, accordingly, this entire sphere directly controls instead of Prigozhin’s friend Surovikin.

I don’t believe in such coincidences, that’s why the order should have been directly given by Sergei Shoigu, who, as we understand, has a personal account with Prigozhin. And I think that this “answer” arrived from him.” – said Ponomarev.

He noted that Putin did not have the goal of physically destroying Prigozhin, and the President of the Russian Federation did not expect such a decisive step from Shoigu.

I just stick to my initial version, which is based on a number of sources from Russia, that Putin was aware of Prigozhin’s mutiny and therefore I do not believe that Prigozhin’s mutiny was directed against Putin.

I believe that for Prigozhin it was such a transition to another work.

I think that now he had a completely comfortable situation for himself, he recently recorded a video in Africa – he returned to business. T

his trip to Moscow was commercially very successful for him, as a kind of advertisement,” Ponomaryev added.

(C)UNIAN 2023