Putin Stays Away As Prigozhin Is Buried In Little-Known St Petersburg Cemetery

The funeral of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner Group, was held at a private cemetery on the outskirts of his home town, St Petersburg, his press service announced yesterday hours after the Kremlin said Vladimir Putin would not attend the event.

- Pjotr Sauer

"The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those who wish to say goodbye may visit Porokhovskoye cemetery," the press service said in its first post on Telegram in two months, ending days of speculation over how the warlord would be laid to rest.

Pro-Russian media published images of Prigozhin's headstone at Porokhovskoye cemetery. The mercenary's name was written on the headstone, alongside a poem by the St Petersburg-born Nobel laureate, Joseph Brodsky.

Earlier in the day the Kremlin said that Putin had no plans to attend Prigozhin's funeral. "The [Russian] president's presence is not envisaged. We don't have any specific information on the funeral," said Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov.

Prigozhin died when his business jet crashed last week, two months after he staged an aborted mutiny against Russian military commanders in which his Wagner troops briefly took control of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow.

Rumours swirled all week in Russia over the timing and location of Prigozhin's funeral. The secrecy appeared to demonstrate the Kremlin's unease about the legacy of Prigozhin, a former ally of Putin who had received one of Russia's top military honours before being labelled a traitor by the president after a failed mutiny against Moscow.

There was confusion yesterday over where Prigozhin would be buried. On Monday evening local police closed off several of the city's largest cemeteries and set up metal detector gates at the historic Serafimovsky cemetery, leading to speculation that Prigozhin would be buried there.