How Russia’s media reacted to the Prigozhin plane crash

After Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted march on Moscow at the end of June, the Wagner Group leader became a divisive figure in Russia. He was not quite a pariah – on account of his mercenary group’s huge contribution to the war in Ukraine and Putin’s seemingly weak decision to condemn him to barely enforced exile in Belarus – but definitely not a hero either.

Therefore it comes as no surprise that, following his sudden demise in a plane crash en route to St Petersburg yesterday, the Russian press has struggled with how to cover the news.

Notably, despite Prigozhin’s status for nearly a year as an invaluable contributor to the ‘special military operation’, none of the papers have run obituaries or glowing, weepy tribute pieces to a ‘war hero’. Instead the tone of the coverage in Russia has ranged from morbid curiosity to clinical factual reporting.