Video appears to show Prigozhin dismissing security concerns days before fatal plane crash

A newly released video appears to show former Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin brushing off concerns that there were threats to his life days before he was killed in a plane crash.

In the video posted Thursday by the group Orchestra, which posts various materials in support of the mercenary Wagner Group, Prigozhin appears to speak from a moving vehicle he says is somewhere in Africa.

“For those discussing whether I am alive or not, how am I doing. … It is the weekend now, the second half of August of the year 2023, I’m in Africa,” he says in the video, translated by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s government. “Therefore, to all lovers of discussing my liquidation, intimate life, earnings, anything else — everything is fine.”

Prigozhin died Aug. 23, so the reference to the date indicates the video was filmed in the days immediately preceding the plane crash while traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg.

The Kremlin says it is still investigating the crash, which killed all 10 people on board, and is not counting out the potential that it was an intentional act.

The U.S. has said the crash was most likely caused by an explosion on board and suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind it — a claim the Kremlin denies.

The Hill could not confirm the date of the recording or where it was filmed. Another photo posted by the Wagner-affiliated Razgruzka_Vagnera Telegram channel on Aug. 21 appears to show Prigozhin somewhere in Africa wearing the same military gear and clothes.