Very secretive. How was Prigogine’s funeral?

In St. Petersburg, behind closed doors and without military honors, the founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried.

The funeral of Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin took place on August 29 in St. The procession took place in a private format, and only in the evening appeared the official information that the grave was located in the Porohovsky cemetery. This came as a surprise to Russian journalists and observers who had been waiting all day for this funeral, but in other cemeteries.

No military honors

Information about Prigozhin’s funeral was published by the Wagner press service in a short Telegram message on Tuesday evening. The public said that the ceremony at St. Petersburg was held in a “closed format”, and everyone “who wants to say goodbye can visit the Porokhovskoe cemetery.” No further details were provided.

Subsequently, at the Porokhovskoe cemetery, the Russian edition MSK1 was told that Prigozhin was buried “around 4 pm” next to his father’s grave. They added that the Wagner flag was visible in the area.

Prigozhin is a hero of Russia. According to Russian laws, heroes of the Russian Federation are buried with a military escort, a guard of honor and a military band, and the coffin is covered with the state flag. However, as an employee of the Porohovsky cemetery told the Russian edition of the Agency, it was “only a VIP funeral.”

“There were from 20 to 30 people. Only relatives and relatives, I know them. The ceremony lasted for 40 minutes. Everyone was in civilian clothes, I did not see any military. I have been working in the industry for more than 30 years, nothing unusual for me, just a VIP funeral They are not the first and probably not the last,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be present at the ceremony, the media added.

After the funeral, the Porokhovskoe cemetery was “overrun” by police officers and law enforcement agencies with dogs. According to Russian media, metal detectors were installed at the entrance, as the authorities were probably preparing for a mass pilgrimage to Prigozhin’s grave.

tangled trace

The previous day, signs of preparations for Prigozhin’s funeral were seen at three cemeteries in St. Petersburg. In particular, in Bogoslovsky, Severny and Serafimovsky. In these cemeteries, the police and “Wagnerites” were seen.

At the same time, funerals are also expected in Mytishchi near Moscow, where there is a “Pantheon of Defenders of the Fatherland”, where Russian heroes are buried.

On Tuesday evening, information began to spread in the Russian media that Prigozhin will be buried at the Serafimovsky cemetery, where the pantheon of honored soldiers and officials of the Ministry of Defense, as well as the grave of Vladimir’s parents, is located Putin. At the same time, no one wrote about Prigozhin’s possible burial in the Porohovsky cemetery.

On the morning of August 29, police and funeral tents appeared in front of the entrance to the Serafimovsky cemetery, and the road to the cemetery was blocked. Another drone flew over the area. According to eyewitnesses, a corpse drove around the city, where, as journalists believed, Prigozhin’s body was found.

Chekalov’s funeral

As a result, the funeral of the “Wagnerian” – Prigozhin’s first deputy Valery Chekalov, who was also on the crashed plane, actually took place at the Northern Cemetery. The 47-year-old is believed to have run Prigozhin’s non-military business interests, which Western governments say were used to fund a mercenary group.

At Chekalov’s funeral, unlike Prigogine, journalists managed to visit, although they encountered obstacles – they were not allowed to join the procession and were not allowed to take photos and videos.

It should be noted that the Russian media did not find out where PMC Wagner commander Dmitry Utkin was buried.

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