U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, offered no further comment or details reflecting U.S. officials' views on the cause of the plane crash during a Pentagon press briefing.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that the U.S. government was investigating several theories about the cause of the plane crash carrying Mr. Prigozhin and quoted two U.S. officials as saying that a surface-to-air missile may have struck the aircraft.
These two officials requested anonymity and also stated that the information they mentioned was only preliminary, being verified, and that the assessments could be subject to change.
Mr. Ryders stated: "Currently, we have no information to support the theory being put forward by the press that a surface-to-air missile may have shot down this aircraft."
Russian aviation authorities said Prigozhin, his close adviser Dmitry Utkin, and eight others were all on board the plane before it crashed northwest of Moscow on Wednesday.
Satellite imagery shows the plane crash site near Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Russia, on August 24, 2023. Photo: PLANET LABS PBC/Via REUTERS.
On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal also reported on another theory, quoting an unnamed U.S. official: A bomb planted on the plane or some other form of sabotage caused the crash.
It is not unusual for conflicting intelligence viewpoints to coexist within the U.S. government immediately following a major international event.
The plane crash occurred two months after Prigozhin and the Wagner Group staged a coup, in which they seized the southern Russian city of Rostov and advanced their troops toward Moscow.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he was not surprised to learn of Prigozhin's death in a plane crash, and also commented that not much was happening in Russia and that Putin was unlikely to be behind the incident.
On Thursday, Putin offered his sincere condolences to the families of those killed and said that the conclusions of the official investigation would have to wait.
Prigozhin, 62, director of the Wagner private military organization, has frequently criticized the top echelons of the Russian military, alleging poor operational capabilities during the war in Ukraine.
The Embraer private jet involved in this crash had been involved in only one accident in its 20 years of operation, and that accident was not related to any mechanical failure.
Nguyen Quang Minh (according to Reuters)
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