The funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military group, took place at a private cemetery on the outskirts of his hometown of St. Petersburg. The funeral was held in a closed format, and the press service mentioned that those who wanted to pay their respects could visit the Porokhovskoye cemetery. The decision for a private ceremony and the location of the burial had been the subject of speculation.
Prigozhin's headstone at the Porokhovskoye cemetery included his name and a poem by the Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky. Notably, Vladimir Putin did not attend the funeral, as confirmed by the Kremlin. Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, stated that there were no plans for Putin's presence at the funeral and that they lacked specific information about the event.
Yevgeny Prigozhin had recently died in a plane crash, occurring two months after an unsuccessful mutiny orchestrated by him against Russian military commanders. During this mutiny, his Wagner troops briefly gained control of the city of Rostov and advanced toward Moscow before the effort was stopped.
The secrecy surrounding the funeral arrangements and the choice of a private cemetery point to the Kremlin's apparent discomfort with Prigozhin's legacy. Once an ally of Putin and even receiving high military honors, Prigozhin had been later denounced by Putin as a traitor.
Confusion had arisen regarding the burial location, with police closing off several cemeteries in the city, including setting up metal detectors at the Serafimovsky cemetery, leading to speculation about Prigozhin's potential burial site.
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