Overview

Yevgeny Prigozhin Plane Crash Death refers to Russian politician and the commander of the Russian private military company Wagner Group Yevgeny Progozhin dying in a private jet crash in late August 2023, two months after a failed rebellion or coup attempt. The news became a viral subject of discussions and memes in the context of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, many of which referenced Russian President Vladimir Putin and speculation of his involvement in the incident.

Background

On August 23rd, 2023, two months after the failed rebellion attempt by the Russian private military company Wagner Group, a private jet carrying Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group alleged co-founder and high-ranking officer Dmitry Utkin (as well as five other passengers) crashed in the Tver region of Russia. Within one hour of the crash, multiple Telegram^[1][2][3] channels posted videos and images of the crash and the wreckage site (shown below, left and right).

Within three hours of the crash, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency^[4] published the list of passengers who traveled on the airplane (shown below).

Initial reports^[2] included information that the plane was downed by anti-air missiles, although as of August 23rd, 2023, this had not been confirmed.

Online Reactions

The event quickly generated discourse online and became a subject of memes on social media, with many celebrating Prigozhin's death. On August 23rd, 2023, several Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels, including @ukraina_novosti,^[5] @u_now^[6] and @lentachold^[7] posted memes and collections of memes shared by users on social media (examples shown below).

As the news of the plane crash spread to 4chan, X and other platforms, users on these websites also posted memes about Prigozhin's death, many of them contextually linked to the June 2023 coup attempt or referenced President Putin's rumored involvement.^[10] For example, memes shared by X^[8][9] meme accounts @ShitpostGate and @ShitpostRock on August 23rd received over 80 reposts and 1,700 likes and 210 reposts and 2,000 likes, respectively, in less than 24 hours (shown below, left and right).

Body Double and Survival Rumors

In an interview on August 24th, 2023, Russian political commentator Valery Solovey made a claim that Yevgeny Prigozhin could be alive after learning about an upcoming assassination attempt and putting a body double onto the plane.^[11]

On August 29th, 2023, the British tabloid Daily Star^[12] reported on the rumor. The title of the article, "Wagner boss Prigozhin ‘alive' after 'body double' on plane as he plots 'revenge'," was then used as a caption for various memes about Prigozhin possibly being alive, most notably Metal Gear Solid video captions, on iFunny and TikTok.

For example, on September 14th, 2023, TikToker^[13] @offical_water_01 posted a meme referencing Team Fortress 2 that received over 238,000 views and 37,400 likes in two weeks (shown below, left). On September 15th, TikToker^[14] @bigsnaked posted a Metal Gear Solid meme that received over 150,900 views and 27,900 likes in a similar timeframe (shown below, right).

On September 24th, the pro-Russia hacker group Killnet wrote on Telegram^[15] that Prigozhin was still alive, marking the message as insider information. Later that day, X^[16] user @JackStr42679640 shared the rumor. The post gained over 240 reposts and 520 likes and was followed by users sharing memes^[17][18] about Prigozhin being alive on the site.

Search Interest

External References