CNN —Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin — who the Russian aviation agency confirmed was a passenger on board a plane that crashed on Wednesday evening — seemed to be living on borrowed time. Video of the plane debris taken at the purported crash site in the western Tver region of Russia matches the plane registered to Prigozhin. Investigations were started within the armed forces, and probably within the security forces as well. Any effort to paint Prigozhin as wealthy and corrupt stopped almost immediately, and no new financial investigations were announced. And in what might have been the last straw for Putin, Prigozhin released a video on Monday of himself standing in what looked like an African desert, boasting of his men’s exploits.

---

Persons: Daniel Treisman, “, CNN — Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin —, Wagner, Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin, Alexander Lukashenko, Putin, William Burns, “ I, Alexander Zemlianichenko, –, —, Sergei Surovikin, Surovikin, Viktor Afzalov Organizations: University of California, CNN, Belarus, CIA, Kremlin, Central African, Investigations, Washington, Twitter, Facebook Locations: Los Angeles, Russian, Russia, Tver, Kuzhenkino, Tver region, Moscow, Africa, Mali, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Sudan, Ukraine, Petersburg, Sahel, St . Petersburg