They must have run out of windows. News broke today that the head of the Wagner Mercenary Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin and several of his top officers died in a plane crash in the Tver Region in Russia. His Embraer private plane looked to be taken out by local defense systems. Prighozin should have stayed in Africa, but they do have windows there too.

Anyone could have seen this one coming, even Putin puppets. Vladimir Putin never forgets a slight. Leading a coup against him is an automatic death sentence. Back in June of this year, Yevgeny Prigozhin led the Wagner Group on a coup and almost marched to Moscow. Our Deanna gives skeptical credit to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for stopping the coup:

The drama may not be completely over in Russia, but the immediate threat of a coup by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group mercenary army is over. But why?
The credit, officially, is being given to Belarus president and strongman Alexander Lukashenko, for allegedly brokering a deal that allowed Prigozhin to go into exile in Belarus, and excuse the other Wagner groupies from prosecution. However, given that Lukashenko is most definitely a Putin puppet, and has little capacity for independent thought outside of what he needs to do to keep control in his own country, the likelihood that he offered Prigozhin exile without Putin’s approval is zero. Lukashenko’s actions here simply don’t line up with what we have seen from him for years.

Just two days ago, CNN reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin was allegedly in Africa making it “freer”:

Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says he is in Africa “making Russia even greater on all continents, and Africa even freer,” in a video circulating on pro-Russian military blogs Monday.
In the clip, Prigozhin is seen holding a rifle in a desert area while wearing camouflage. Behind him, in the distance, is a truck and two other men in camouflage.
The warlord says “the temperature is plus 50 [degrees Celsius],” and that Wagner is conducting reconnaissance and search operations.
CNN has not been able to locate where the clip was filmed nor verify the authenticity of the video, which comes months after Prigozhin launched an abortive mutiny against Russia’s military leadership.
“Justice and happiness for the African peoples,” Prigozhin says in the clip. “Let’s make it a nightmare for ISIS, al-Qaeda and other thugs. We are hiring real bogatyrs [ancient Slavic warriors] and continue to fulfill the tasks that were set before us and that we promised we would handle.”

And now, Yevgeny Prigozhin has assumed room temperature, Putin-style. It could have been climate change that made the plane fall out of the sky. It’s not like Prigozhin and all of the mercenaries in his army didn’t know how Putin felt about betrayal. This interview with Putin is five years old.

You betray Vladimir Putin or cross him in any way and you are going to die. At a time and place of Putin’s choosing. Like all evil autocrats, he is ruthless. This time he didn’t want to use tea and Moscow is fresh out of windows:

"How many more windows do we have?"
"In Moscow?"
"Yes?"
"None. You've used them all."
"All of them?"
"Yes. All of them. One of them twice."
"Okay just shoot the plane down."

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) August 23, 2023

Was the plane shot down? From the Wall Street Journal:

W
agner paramilitary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short-lived uprising against Kremlin authority in June, was on the passenger manifest for a plane that went down northwest of Moscow on Wednesday, killing 10 people, Russian state news agency Tass reported.
Social-media channels close to Wagner said Russian air defenses shot down the jet, an Embraer Legacy 600. Video footage posted by onlookers showed what looked like the trail of a missile and the plane falling from the sky with one wing missing.

Russian aviation officials cited by Tass didn’t provide a reason for Wednesday’s plane crash, while some Russian lawmakers said it could have been caused by a bomb planted on board.
Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns, in remarks in Aspen last month, predicted that Russian President Vladimir Putin—whose carefully calculated aura of strength was damaged by the uprising—would sooner or later exact revenge for Wagner’s mutiny.
“Putin is the ultimate apostle of payback,” Burns said at the time. “If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster.”

Well, it wasn’t the tea this time, or the 20th floor window. I guess the Wagner Group should have swept the plane better or bought some countermeasures. A second Embraer plane was following, but turned around and landed in Moscow. Alledgedly.

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