How Putin’s ‘Murder, Inc.’ Eliminates Rivals – Even Inside US

ANALYSIS – Many believe Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's death in a plane crash was a not-very-subtle assassination by Vladimir Putin. And it follows a pattern of mysterious deaths of Putin's rivals and critics.

But Prigozhin is only the latest and most high-profile Putin critic to be eliminated by the Kremlin's ‘Murder, Inc.'

A long list of individuals linked to Putin's regime who in some way crossed him have died in violent or mysterious circumstances. Even in the United States.

Putin, a former lieutenant colonel in the notorious Soviet-era security service, the KGB and briefly head of the current Russian FSB, is suspected of assassinating most of these people. (RELATED: ‘Gray Hair' – Putin's Brutal Choice To Replace Chief Of Wagner Mercenaries)

Prigozhin first publicly fell out of favor after steady and vocal criticism of the military leadership and their botched handling of the Ukraine war. His anti-Kremlin antics culminated in his short-lived attempted coup in late June.

As I have written, many considered him a dead man walking from that point – the term used to describe prisoners awaiting execution on death row.

Their predictions appear to have come true following the plane crash in which Prigozhin was among 10 passengers and crew to have died en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Among the others killed were the Wagner Group's top leadership.

Some have speculated that a Russian surface-to-air missile took down the plane. More likely, an explosive was placed on the plane. Prigozhin was extremely serious about his personal security, using doubles and decoys.

This included a second identical plane that flew at the same time as the plane he was on. No one knew till the last minute which plane he would board. His assassins must have had very closely held inside information, implying the Russian Security Service, the FSB, was behind it. (RELATED: Did Putin Shoot Down Wagner Chief On Plane Near Moscow?)

Prior to Prigozhin, other suspected Putin assassinations include Ravil Maganov, the Lukoil chairman who voiced criticism of the war in Ukraine, Boris Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin and vocal Putin critic, and Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch who fled to the UK and threatened to bring Putin down by force.

Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist who accused Putin of turning Russia into a police state in her book “Putin's Russia” was murdered in Moscow in 2006, while the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko who accused Putin of her murder, was killed by polonium poisoning in London later that year. (RELATED: NHL Star Threatened To Have Police Officers Killed With ‘Call To Russia')

In December 2022, the Russian tycoon Pavle Antov reportedly fell from a hotel window in Rayagada, India, on December 25, days after his 65th birthday.

The politician and millionaire had criticized Putin's war with Ukraine on WhatsApp following a missile attack in Kyiv but quickly deleted the message and claimed that someone else wrote it, the BBC reported.

Like Antov, Maganov died by falling out the window of a Moscow hospital in September 2022.

But Putin's hits aren't limited to Russia and other overseas locations. Some of his targets have been killed in the U.S., including the nation's capital.

As Business Insider reported:

Businessman Dan Rapoport publicly condemned the Russia-Ukraine war on social media multiple times and emphasized his support for Ukraine, the Daily Beast reported.

He was discovered dead in front of an apartment building in Washington, D.C, in August 2022, according to the report. Police said he had a Florida driver's license, a black hat, just over $2500, and orange flip-flops when he was found.

Russian press minister Mikhail Lesin was found dead of “blunt force trauma to the head” in a Washington, DC, hotel room in November 2015.

Lesin, who founded the English-language television network Russia Today (RT), was considering making a deal with the FBI to protect himself from corruption charges before his death, per the Daily Beast.

Lesin had been close to the Russian power circles and knew a lot about their inner workings.

And the long arms of Putin's ‘Murder, Inc.' got him and Rapoport – right in downtown D.C.

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