- The Wagner Group boss' plane crash death was an assassination, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- A close Putin ally drove the plan, with the death seen as suspicious by observers.
- A bomb was put under the plane wing, per the report.
The death of mutinous Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash was an assassiantion masterminded by Nikolai Patrushev, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Western intelligence officials and a former Russian intelligence officer told The Journal that the Wagner Group boss' death in August was driven and approved by 72-year-old Patrushev.
Prigozhin, who led a short-lived uprising against Russia's defense ministry earlier this summer, died after his business jet went down in a fiery crash outside of Moscow. At the time, Putin suggested a hand grenade had detonated on the plane.
But in reality, Patrushev gave orders to his assistant in August to design an operation that would kill Prigozhin, the former Russian intelligence officer told the outlet.
A small bomb was put under the plane's wing during a delay when safety inspectors were looking at the plane, Western intelligence officials told The Journal.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he would not comment on the story, before adding: "Lately, unfortunately, The Wall Street Journal has been very fond of producing pulp fiction," according to Reuters,
Patrushev, like Putin, was a spy with the KGB intelligence agency. He later became the head of its successor, the FSB. He is now secretary of Russia's Security Council and is considered by some as a possible replacement for Putin if anything happened to the president.
The Journal described Patrushev as "Putin's oldest ally and confidant," describing him as loyal to Putin and linked to the assassination of those who threatened Putin's power.
Patrushev, the report said, mostly goes unnoticed during public occasions and is often a figure in the background. But he yields enormous power.
Patrushev had warned Putin since the summer of 2022 that Prigozhin was a threat as the Wagner Group gave him too much political and military power, the report said.
Putin ignored those warnings until Prigozhin called Putin in October 2022 to complain about not getting enough equipment, the former Russian intelligence officer said.
Prigozhin's relationship with Putin and Russia's military worsened: In June, Russia's defense ministry said fighters in groups like Wagner had to sign official army contracts, drawing Prigozhin's ire.
The Wagner Group in its rebellion took a Russian military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don and then started marching toward Moscow, taking down Russian planes and helicopters.
The uprising ended before Moscow was reached, with a peace deal that involved Prigozhin going to neighboring Belarus, a Russian ally.
Patrushev came up with that deal, which also allowed his men to go with him or fight in Russia's military, The Journal reported.
Prigozhin's death was widely seen as suspicious, as it took place two months after Prigozhin and the Group staged a rebellion. But Russia had denied any involvement. The Journal's report is the first to say Patrushev was behind Prigozhin's death.
Hours after the crash, a European who was involved in intelligence gathering who had backchannel communications with the Kremlin asked one of its officials what happened, The Journal reported.
The official said: "He had to be removed."
Russian officials and Patrushev did not respond to The Journal's requests for comment. Business Insider has reached out to the Russian Embassy in the UK for comment.