It's difficult to comprehend how stupid Prigozhin was to think that he could still flit around Russia with impunity after his June mutiny. Working with Putin for decades somehow failed to enlighten him on the nature of his boss.
'Message Sent': Russian Elite, Nationalists On Notice After Prigozhin's Presumed Death
I may have some qualms about Wikipedia but I'll readily admit that they are good at compiling lists. This is a particularly useful one.
Suspicious deaths of Russian businesspeople (2022–2023)
Despite the title, it's not limited to people in business – though they do make up the bulk of the names. It includes politicians and anybody who might loosely be considered an opponent of Putin. If I counted correctly, there are 44 names – with Yevgeny Prigozhin and his deputy being the last two. It does not include people who were killed before the start of 2022. This shorter list from Yahoo UK does include several victims killed earlier.
Putin is running his own version of Murder Incorporated out of the Kremlin. The excellent investigative journalism site Bellingcat wrote about a branch of the FSB (successor to the KGB) which is in charge of political hits.
"V" For “Vympel”: FSB’s Secretive Department “V” Behind Assassination Of Georgian Asylum Seeker In Germany
The in-depth article concentrates on one case but there's a lot of information which details overall operations of Putin's murder bureaucracy.
Putin's old day job was a colonel in the KGB. In Soviet times the KGB and its predecessors had a department nicknamed "wet affairs" (мокрые дела) which engaged in assassinations. It engineered the murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico.
Killing opponents is in Putin's blood. The only differences are that in this century Putin has no qualms about operating inside Russia itself and against supposed opponents who don't directly threaten him. Putin is as paranoid as Stalin.
It's puzzling to consider how Prigozhin probably knew all this but still thought he could go about his business as usual.
One lesson here is that if you are taking action against Putin, don't stop before you've completed it. The June mutiny may have succeeded if Prigozhin didn't get wet feet on the road to Moscow – and it would be Putin who had the most high profile funeral in Russia this year.
