Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary force, the Wagner Group, was reportedly killed among 10 other passengers in a private jet crash North of Moscow on Wednesday. The Russian aviation authorities had confirmed that Yevgeny was on board along with other seven Wagner mercenaries, however, his dead body has not been recovered during the ongoing search operation so far. According to Flightradar 24, the aircraft descended and ascended its height multiple times a few minutes after the takeoff and finally nose down to the ground leaving nobody alive to narrate the story of the dreadful incident.
Almost two months after Wagner Chief announced his disobedience to the Kremlin and turned its guns on the Russian Federation by ordering an invasion against Moscow. Although Yevgeny immediately reversed his orders and laid down arms in a bid to wash out his guilt, however, seasoned Putin perceived his weakness and planned to tactfully handle this issue without bloodshed and further strategic loss. Presumably, the events during the short fight indicate that the notorious FSB used its famous nerve agent against the cabin crew to destroy the plane during the flight. Yevgeny’s plane crash reminded us of the tragic incident of the Pakistani C130 Hercules involving multiple deaths including then Army Chief and President General Zia-Ul-Haq on August 17, 1988, who met a similar fate a few minutes after taking off from Bahawal Pur in suspicious conditions.
Historically, private militaries and mercenary groups had been founded by the competing major nations and other countries in the garb of contractors and security firms to undertake extra-legal actions against their opponents while bypassing the global laws and multilateral forums including the UN. Thus, Black Water, Wagner Group, Zee, and several other political and armed movements had been carved out by powerful countries to protect their hidden and unlawful interests in their nations and across the globe. Realistically, founding terror groups, hiring assassins or creating a group of religious fanatics is an old-age practice by the states that has badly failed in several nations including India, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United States, Russia, and Lybia. Interestingly, feeding snakes for malicious intent does not guarantee the safety and security of their handlers. In fact, Wagner’s mutiny and killing of Yevgeny have a great lesson for other nations who fund mercenaries in the ploy of national interest and attempt to cure cancer with poison, which is factually digging a ditch for themselves and their future generations. Hence, as early as this course is recast would be better otherwise such events would be repeated in human history again and again.
