Prigozhin is buried beside his father in a private funeral, with no military honours
Wagner Group Chairman Yevgeny Prigozhin was buried at a private funeral in St. Petersburg, his press office said.
He added that the funeral, which was held in his city, was held “closed,” and all those wishing to bid farewell to him could visit the “Porokhovskoe” cemetery.
Earlier, Russian officials confirmed the death of the group's leader after conducting a genetic analysis of ten bodies found in a plane that crashed on August 23 near Moscow, and the Kremlin denied "speculation" that had been raised that it was behind the accident. But a number of Russian observers, inside and outside the country, have described Prigozhin, 62, as a "dead man walking" since the thwarted armed "rebellion" he led last June.
Wagner's press service provided the information about Prigozhin's funeral in a short statement on Telegram on Tuesday, without giving further details.
In an analysis by Steve Rosenberg, BBC Russian Service editor, he says that Yevgeny Prigozhin was a man of mystery, often hiding his identity by wearing wigs and fake beards.
And he says: The streets of St. Petersburg were filled all day with rumors and speculation about the burial place of the group's leader. No official announcement was made about when and where the funeral would take place, even on social media. At least four different cemeteries were talked about as possibilities for his burial place, and in the end he was buried in a cemetery. Nobody knows her."
"In the end, Prigozhin's representatives revealed that Wagner's chief had been buried at the Porokhovsky Cemetery on the outskirts of St. Petersburg next to his late father. There were no military honors for the group's chief, and reportedly few people attended."
"We were told outside the cemetery it was officially closed for the day, so we couldn't go in," says Rosenberg. "There were long lines of police along the perimeter fence and throughout the cemetery, along with several sniffer dogs, drone officers and riot police ".
For its part, the Kremlin considered the Wagner coup, organized by Prigozhin, "treason". Putin described the coup at the time as "treason" and a "stab in the back", but an agreement was reached later for Wagner fighters to join the Russian regular army units or move to Belarus, Russia's ally. However, there has been speculation that Russian security forces were somehow involved in the plane crash. Peskov denied the rumors of a crime, describing them as an "absolute lie".