Kremlin Hints Putin Was Not Invited to Prigozhin’s Funeral

Vladimir Putin will not be attending the funeral of his longtime friend-turned-foe Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Noting that Russian leadership does not have “any specific information” about the mercenary chief’s funeral, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested that the Russian president had been left off the invite list. “The decision on this matter is made by relatives and friends. We can’t say anything without them,” Peskov told local media. While no plans for a funeral have been publicly disclosed, crowds of Wagner fighters were spotted carrying flowers into a St. Petersburg cemetery that was surrounded by police and security services on Tuesday, local outlet Fontanka reported. “Everything is classified. We are not informed [about the funeral],” an unnamed source in the city administration was quoted saying. Prigozhin and his Wagner co-founder Dmitry Utkin were killed in a fiery plane crash along with several bodyguards last week, exactly two months after the mercenary group staged a violent mutiny and killed several Russian service members.