Prigozhin sent ‘to hell’, but who gave the order?

As the first reports came in that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed, I spoke to Marat Gabidullin, who was a senior commander in Prigozhin’s mercenary army and for a time his personal assistant for military affairs. Gabidiullin is living in exile in France and well known as a bitter critic of Prigozhin – he was forced to change addresses regularly, worried that Prigozhin would send someone to kill him. In the past, he described his old boss as brutal, greedy, smart, dangerous, and willing to sacrifice his men by the thousand for profit and power. But now he’s almost wistful at the thought of Prigozhin’s passing. He told me that one of Russia’s ‘greats’ had been brought down. ‘It’s the end of an era and the beginning of the time of the small people.’

We haven’t seen the body yet but it seems unlikely that Prigozhin will pop up somewhere, wearing one of the absurd wigs and false beards he had on in photographs supposedly found at his St Petersburg mansion by the Russian security services.