Russia is famously known for being a land with numerous attributes. A land of endless snow-white, frozen landscapes in the dead of winter.
A land of golden-domed Orthodox churches from centuries past and monstrous buildings, hydroelectric dams and spaceports built in the previous century.
Putin in June 2016 Image Credit Russian Federation Photo
Putin Back in 2014 Image Credit Russian Federation
A land known for its sumptuous caviar, smooth-tasting vodka and incredible banquets.
But more recently and specifically during the more than quarter of a century under the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin, it has acquired the most dubious legendary reputation of all, but more famous than all the others.
It has become known as the land of mysterious deaths of famous, high-ranking personages.
Alexey Korshenko, the former head of the VIP business aviation terminal at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, was described in reports as the man who knew “secret details about the death” of Yevgeniy Prigozhin of the infamous Wagner Group private military company (ChVK). Knowing those secrets is now assessed to have been fatal.
Korshenko was found dead in his apartment, UNITED24 Media reported on 21 July, although this report also adds that his body had been found on 6 June and the incident only reported on Tuesday of this week.
Prigozhin, 62, had led an abortive coup against Putin in June 2023. Units of his Wagner mercenary army declared they were headed for Moscow and marched through Rostov-na-Donu, but eventually turned back before reaching the Russian capital.
The Wagner head put the rebellion in action over his accusations that the regular Russian military under the Chief of the General Staff. Gen.
Valeriy Gerasimov was not supplying his units with adequate ammunition. He also said positions of his units had been shelled by Russian artillery, killing a number of his Wagner Group soldiers.
Mid-Air Catastrophe
Later, after the march on Moscow was called off, Prigozhin met with Putin to supposedly clear the air between them.
In his mind, their differences had been settled, but the former KGB Lt. Col., who is Russia’s President, did not feel the same.
On 23 August 2023, Prigozhin’s private business jet, a Brazil-manufactured Embraer Legacy 600, suffered a mid-air explosion that caused the aircraft to begin to break apart.
It crashed in the Tver region not far from Moscow, killing all onboard.
Official Russian reports originally blamed the explosion on a hand grenade that had detonated inside the aircraft mid-flight.
Other theories were that a case of wine placed on board had several bottles missing and a bomb in their place.
However, Western and Russian intelligence sources had previously told The Wall Street Journal that former Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev directed the assassination.
Patrushev is a long-time Putin associate and one of his closest confidants.
Like the Russian President, he is a former Soviet-era KGB officer and has been described by the famous UK-based Russian expert Mark Galeotti as having considerable influence over Putin.
He is also often credited with having been one of the last persons to speak to his one-time KGB colleague and advising Putin to launch the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 when almost all others were counseling the opposite course.
The Man Who Ran the Maintenance Operation
As the head of the VIP aviation terminal at Sheremyetyevo (SVO), Korshenko was aware of all the maintenance procedures performed on the aircraft at his aerodrome.
This facility had serviced Prigozhin’s plane just before its fatal 2023 crash, and Korshenko was one of the only people who knew what had happened to the aircraft before it took off.
Information on the maintenance issues for Prigozhin’s aircraft immediately before departure shows that during pre-flight checks, technicians discovered two major mechanical faults.
One of these was a failing turbo-cooler unit.
A replacement component imported from the United States was somehow damaged, so a local firm supplied an alternative unit that is suspected of containing the explosive device planted on the aircraft, intelligence sources have alleged.
The Moscow Times noted that the local supplier firm, Protector, is connected through its owner by individuals associated with organized crime and “Russian intelligence-adjacent networks.”
That puts the company in the position to do Patrushev’s – and ultimately Putin’s – bidding, said a Russian aviation industry specialist familiar with the operations at SVO.
“The story is not much of a shock,” said a former US intelligence official who spoke with National Security Journal on background. “This 57-year-old former executive is suddenly fired after running this VIP jet terminal for 15 years. Then soon after, he is found hanged on the balcony of his Moscow residence. And in the end, the Russian investigators decide this is a suspected suicide.”
“It’s classic KGB – killing those who know the inconvenient secrets,” he said. “Almost as good as the official reports in Russia of the guy whose body is found handcuffed and leg-shackled but classified as ‘shot while attempting to escape.’ Kroshenko is somewhat unique as one of Putin’s murdered victims in that he was not shoved out of a window or poisoned with some exotic radioactive isotope dropped into his tea.”
A saying that the Soviet-era dictator Josef Stalin was famous for is “if there is a person, there is a problem. If there is no person, there is no problem.”
It was illustrative of his ruthless and dictatorial approach to ruling as an absolute leader.
In his time, human beings were treated as obstacles to be removed if deemed necessary.
It’s a lesson that Putin, with a long history of being suspected of having various persons murdered, has learned well.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
