Elon Musk, the billionaire and owner of ‘X’, responded on Thursday, August 24, to reports suggesting the potential death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, in a plane crash. Musk commented that the outcome took more time than he had anticipated. The news has generated astonishment and raised doubts about the veracity of Prigozhin’s reported demise.
The fate of Prigozhin, who was once a chef, has been under intense speculation ever since he led an armed rebellion against military leadership in Russia and marched toward Moscow, which made President Vladimir Putin angry.

In a televised address, Putin had promised to punish those who orchestrated the rebellion and called Prigozhin’s mutiny a “betrayal” and “treason”.
Reacting to the news reports of Prigozhin’s demise, a social media user wrote, “That didn’t take too long.”

Commenting on the same, Elon Musk replied, “Longer than I expected.”

“Slight chance this is a psy op,” he further stated.

Biden says ‘not surprised’
Reacting to the news of Prigozhin’s suspected death in a plane crash, United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday (August 23) said that he was not surprised by the developments, adding that President Putin is behind almost everything that happens in Russia.

The White House stated that Biden was briefed on the crash and he informed the reporters that he did not know much about what had happened.

“But I’m not surprised. There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind, but I don’t know enough to know the answer,” Biden said.
Last month, Biden and CIA Director Williams Burns had separately spoken last month about the potential danger that Prigozhin was facing after his actions.

“If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate. I’d be keeping my eye on my menu,” said Biden, in a press conference with Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto in July.

“But all kidding aside…I don’t think any of us know for sure what the future of Prigozhin is in Russia,” he added.

Speaking about it a week later, CIA Director William Burns stated, “I think Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold … If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster.”