Former US diplomat says presumed death of Wagner chief shows Russia has ‘no rule of law’

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said Friday that the reported death of Yevgeny Prigozhin proves that there is no “rule of law” in Russia.

Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, is believed to have died in a plane wreck in Russia this week. 

U.S. officials, including President Biden, have speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin may have been responsible for his death, given that Prigozhin led a brief rebellion against Russian military leadership in June.

“The way that he was taken out, in this incredibly audacious way… it’s pretty clear, allegedly, that his plane blew up and he was on it,” McFaul said in an MSNBC interview.

“That’s the way Vladimir Putin deals with people he doesn’t like. Or he arrests them. Or he poisons them,” he continued. “Or he throws them in jail for 25 years for criticizing his war, as has happened to several dissidents, but there’s no rule of law in Russia, that’s for sure.”

Putin has increasingly clamped down on dissent in Russia since the country invaded Ukraine last year. Political opposition was jailed, and foreign affairs experts believe Prigozhin’s death may have been intended to send a message to those considering moving against Putin.

“This is a demonstrative action,” Dmitry Oreshkin, a professor at Free University in Riga, Latvia, told The Associated Press. “Prigozhin could have been quietly poisoned and he would have died of a heart attack, like many previous opponents of Putin or his generals. But apparently it was intended to serve as a show of uncompromising control over the situation.”

The Kremlin has denied allegations Prigozhin was killed by the government.

In remarks after Prigozhin’s death, Putin said Thursday that the mercenary leader had contributed greatly to Russia but had “made mistakes.”

“He made serious mistakes in his life,” Putin said in an address. But he added that Prigozhin, “achieved the necessary results in his life, both for himself and when I asked him to do so for the common goal.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also denied rumors that Ukraine was to blame amid its ongoing war with Russia.

“We have no relationship with this,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday.