Rumors and misdirection keep crowds away from Prigozhin burial

Even in death, the movements of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary boss, were the subject of intense interest, contradictory reporting and cultivated confusion.

Speculation about where Prigozhin would be buried Tuesday ricocheted around news media and channels on the Telegram messaging app, including those considered close to the Russian security services. There were reports (true) of increased security presence and barriers erected at several cemeteries around his hometown, St. Petersburg, and other reports (false) of hearses and a funeral cortege.

The fog of misinformation was so dense that a joke spread on social media calling it a “special funeral operation,” a pun on the Kremlin’s term for the war in Ukraine, “special military operation.”

Then, about 5 p.m. Tuesday, came the announcement from his company’s press service that Prigozhin had been buried around 1 p.m., with a small group of people in attendance, at Porokhovskoye Cemetery in the eastern part of St. Petersburg. At least some police contingents and rumors appeared to have been decoys — Porokhovskoye had not been mentioned in the swirl of speculation.

Information about the burial could not be confirmed independently, because by the time it was released, hundreds of police officers and national guard troops ringed the entire cemetery and sealed it off to all but a few people. All that could be seen of the grave from a bridge over the cemetery were a large Russian flag, a Wagner flag and the top of a wooden cross. A Times reporter saw police officers sweeping the funeral plot with a dog trained to detect explosives.

Prigozhin was once seen as being close to President Vladimir Putin, and for years he and his Wagner military company were lethal tools of Kremlin policy in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, and gained a popular following. Then in June he led a brief mutiny against the Russian military leadership, leading to widespread speculation that his days were numbered.

On Aug. 23, a business jet carrying Prigozhin fell, smoking, from the sky northwest of Moscow. All 10 people aboard were killed, including the three top figures in Wagner, leaving the group’s future in doubt.

The confusion about his burial and heavy security presence at Porokhovskoye ensured that the throng of supporters expected to attend never materialized.

“It seems that the authorities, as expected, want to avoid a spontaneous rally in memory of the top leadership of Wagner and to do so, have imposed a fog around the burial place,” Farida Rustamova, an independent journalist, wrote on Telegram.

Russian state television barely mentioned the burial.

Wagner’s logistics boss, Valery Chekalov, who perished with Prigozhin, was buried Tuesday at a ceremony that had not been publicized in advance, but was attended by several hundred people. The group’s top field commander, Dmitry Utkin, was also killed.

In the days before Prigozhin’s burial, any information released was vague, conflicting and unconfirmed by the government or Wagner. The Kremlin said it had no information — except that Putin would not attend.

The murk was fitting for Prigozhin, whose life and death have been shrouded in mystery.

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