The last time Yevgeny Prigozhin was pictured alive was a video published on Monday from what was rumoured to be Mali, in which the camouflage-clad warlord pledged to make “Russia even greater on every continent and Africa even freer”, while brandishing an assault rifle.
Forty-eight hours later, Prigozhin’s private plane crashed in mysterious circumstances in a field north-west of Moscow, killing him and everyone on board.
Prigozhin’s grip on Wagner has been questioned ever since he challenged Vladimir Putin’s authority with his mutiny against the Russian army in June. Now his grisly end has cast fresh doubt over Russia’s ability to maintain the mercenary deployments it runs in Africa and the Middle East through the network he built, according to people familiar with its operations.