Inside Prigozhin's St Petersburg mansion raided by Putin's goons

Severed heads, wigs and alligators: Inside Prigozhin’s St Petersburg mansion raided by Putin’s goons after Wagner chief’s failed coup – two months before his plane crashed

  • Palace of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was raided after failed insurrection

Two months before the plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin had his goons raid the Wagner chief’s mansion in Russia.

Investigators searched Prigozhin’s property in St Petersburg on June 24 this year after the Wagner chief’s failed mutiny against Russia’s defence ministry.

During their raid, Putin’s officers discovered huge caches of assault weapons and ammunition, stashes of gold bars, a stuffed alligator and a framed photo which is purported to show the severed heads of the exiled private military leader’s enemies.

State media also leaked images that appeared to show the Wagner chief wearing a set of laughable disguises that he reportedly wore in Africa and the Middle East as he furthered Putin’s interests and deployed Wagner forces.

Prigozhin, known as Putin’s chef and with longstanding links to the Kremlin dictator, has long been thought to be a prime target for Russian authorities after his uprising failed and he was exiled to Belarus.

Russian officials yesterday claimed that Prigozhin was on an ill-fated plane which crashed in a field north of Moscow, killing all ten onboard, two months after his failed coup attempt against Putin’s regime. 


Photos purporting to show Prigozhin wearing the wigs as part of various disguises were leaked to state-backed Russian Telegram channels


Prigozhin’s backers say he was likely working as a state agent and that the leaking of these images flouts Russia’s security laws


Prigozhin is purportedly seen wearing various disguises in these images leaked to Telegram

Police uncovered closet containing many different wigs of varying styles and colours

Images leaked by Russian media in July showed Putin’s officers rifling through the Wagner chief’s house.

A giant sledgehammer with the inscription ‘For use in important negotiations’ was photographed on display near a snooker table in a reception room of the mansion.

READ MORE: Russian officials claim Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin WAS on plane which crashed near Moscow 

A large number of boxes containing Russian bank notes worth around £86million (10billion rubles) were also seized in raids on Prigozhin’s estate, which includes his office building.

Russian media reports that the money and equipment have since been returned to the office and the Wagner Centre.

Among the private military leader’s valuable possessions photographed in his luxurious palace home was a Russian military uniform decorated with around two dozen medals.

Also on display in his lavish home was what appears to be a stuffed alligator on a table.

Several passports were found and photographed.

Video shows officers armed with assault rifles searching through his home and offices.

Photos also revealed the luxury Prigozhin lived in, revealing his private swimming pool, helipad, sauna, gym and a medical office.

The house also appeared to have its own private prayer room, full of religious imagery. 

During a raid on Prigozhin’s St Petersburg palace, Russian security services are said to have found a stuffed alligator displayed on a table

A framed photo which is purported to show the severed heads of exiled private military leader Prigozhin’s enemies

A huge cache of weapons, including assault rifles and ammunition, was found by security services inside the Wagner founder’s home

Images from the raid released by Russia show a grand piano at the foot of a sweeping staircase

A photograph published in Izvestia shows a spa and sauna room, lit by a chandelier

A Telegram channel with links to Wagner announced Prigozhin’s death on Friday evening

Russian state media also leaked photos of Prigozhin wearing various disguises. 

One disguise showed him as an employee of the ministry of defence in Sudan, while in another he is disguised as an assistant diplomat from Abu Dhabi. 

Others showed him posing as various military figures from Libya and Syria, and the mercenary leader is seen making odd faces in several selfie shots that appeared on pro-Kremlin Telegram channels. 

Although the Wagner Group officially operates as a private company, several individuals who helped to found it are tied to the GRU. 

The poor quality of some disguises led to speculation on some Telegram channels that they may have been doctored in an attempt to further discredit the Wagner chief.

But Prigozhin’s supporters declared the leaking of the images may flout Russia’s strict national security laws if they were in fact real disguises used by Prigozhin abroad.

Ukrainian commentators meanwhile wasted no time in ridiculing the Wagner leader, with Kyiv government official Anton Gerashchenko writing: ‘These are not shots from a casting for a role in a cheap comedy, but a selfie of Prigozhin.

‘In most of the pictures, yesterday’s ”Hero of Russia” is in Libyan uniform with Libyan epaulettes and elements of conspiracy.’

Russian security services raiding the estate and offices of exiled Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin

Huge caches of weapons found at the Wagner leader’s estate by police

Gold bars were among the riches found by police in Prigozhin’s mansion

A giant sledgehammer with the inscription ‘For use in important negotiations’ was photographed on display near a snooker table in a reception room of the mansion

Prigozhin’s private swimming pool in his St Petersburg palace, complete with a tiny slide

An opulent reception area of Prigozhin’s home, which was captured on video by Russian police

The house also appears to have its own private prayer room, full of religious imagery

A luxurious living area in the mansion, complete with a huge cinematic TV on the left 

Among the private military leader’s valuable possessions photographed in his palace was a Russian military uniform decorated with around two dozen medals

Huge amounts of cash in various currencies was found in Prigozhin’s offices, reported to be worth around £86million (10billion rubles)


Several passports were also found and photographed inside Prigozhin’s home. 

The raid came after the warlord launched what appeared to be an armed insurrection against Putin – which was soon halted after Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko helped to broker a deal to end the conflict.

Since the failed insurrection, Prigozhin – a once popular figure among Russians – had faced a wave of criticism.

Russian state media, which once hailed him and his fighters for their brutal, hard-line campaign in Ukraine, hattacked him for his perceived betrayal of Putin and even ceased broadcasting news about Wagner and Prigozhin’s predicament. 

READ MORE: Wagner chief vowed ‘you will soon see our next victories at the front’

Prigozhin, 62, had been increasingly careful since he led a coup against Putin’s regime, had been warned that his life was in danger and was known to take huge care over his security.

But Russian officials now allege he was on board a plane which crashed on Wednesday evening north of Moscow with no survivors.

The Federal Air Transport Agency published a list of all those it believed were onboard the private jet, including Prigozhin, his deputy Dmitry Utkin and five others, believed to be close allies. 

Ten bodies have been retrieved from the wreckage, local emergency services have said, but MailOnline is unable to independently verify whether Prigozhin was one of them. 

Reports of a second plane, also linked to Prigozhin, in the area at the time of the crash that later flew to Moscow has fuelled suggestions the warlord cheated death by travelling in a different plane or even that it may be his ruse to escape into exile. 

Both state media and Telegram accounts affiliated to Wagner have reported Prigozhin’s and Utkin’s deaths. 

While the fate of his bitter rival remained unknown, the Russian President enjoyed a WW2 memorial concert and handed out military honours in Kursk, Russia. 

Washington confirmed on Wednesday evening that President Biden has been briefed, and the UK government confirmed it was ‘monitoring the situation closely’. 

Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) assists Vladimir Putin (centre) during a dinner with foreign scholars and journalists at the restaurant Cheval Blanc on the premises of an equestrian complex outside Moscow in November 2011

Video footage purportedly shows the aircraft falling out of the sky in the Bologovsky district in the Tver region, 60 miles north of Moscow on Friday. A burning wreckage, which appears to be of a plane, was later seen in a field, with unconfirmed images showing it completely ablaze. 

However, Prigozhin is rumoured to have not been onboard the fateful plane, despite state TV asserting otherwise.

Sources close to him said that while the aircraft belonged to him, he usually flew on another aircraft.

Another plane, also supposedly with links to Prigozhin, was detected ‘zig-zagging’ over Moscow in the aftermath of the crash, fuelling speculation that the Wagner boss may not have been onboard after all.

Tracking data available for the crashed plane appears to show it rise to around 29,000ft, before suddenly disappearing and dropping to 0ft. 

Images shared online purported to show the jet, believed to be carrying the Russian chief, falling to the ground as it crashed in the Tver region in Russia 


It was claimed a video showed the plane flying in the Tver region before crashing towards the ground (right)

Ten bodies have been recovered from the wreckage, said to be pictured above, Russian officials have said

Plumes of smoke from the blaze, said to be of the plane, could be seen for miles around, video on social media shows

READ MORE: Who are the Wagner Group’s founders and senior figures? 

A channel linked to Wagner said the plane had been shot down by air defences, but this has not yet been confirmed. 

A Telegram channel thought to be linked to Prigozhin also said their leader had died, saying he had been ‘killed as a result of actions by traitors of Russia’. 

A post described him as a ‘hero of Russia, a true patriot of his Motherland’. 

Wagner deputy and co-founder Dmitry Utkin, widely reported to be a neo-Nazi, is also claimed to have been killed in the crash.

One of the other passengers said to have died, Valeriy Chekalov, has previously been sanctioned by the US due to his links to the Wagner group. 

A Wagner address last night stated: ‘We directly say that we suspect the Kremline officials led by Putin of an attempt to kill him!’, the Sun reported.

‘If the information about Prigozhin’s death is confirmed, we will organise a second Marh of Justice on Moscow!’ 

Russian State TV Rossiya24 was the first to announce warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death, stating: ‘A private jet flying from Moscow to St Petersburg crashed.

‘Ten people were killed. Yevgeny Prigozhin was among the passengers.’

It was initially unknown if Wagner chief Prigozhin (pictured in a video reportedly filmed in Africa which was released on Monday) – known as the Wagner chief and with longstanding links to the Kremlin dictator – was on board 

The plane, which had Prigozhin named as a passenger on its flight list, was later reported to be engulfed in fire, as images on social media claimed to show the wreckage

A man lights a candle at an informal memorial next to the former Wagner Centre in St Petersburg, which has been scattered with dozens of flowers

Witnesses to the crash heard a loud bang before they saw the jet ‘fall from the sky’ – locals on social media are sharing these images of the aftermath, although it is unconfirmed at this stage if this is the plane 

The Russian Investigative Committee released a photo of the alleged crash site on Wednesday after the blaze had been extinguished

Wagner deputy and co-founder Dmitry Utkin is also claimed to have been killed in the crash

Ultranationalist pro-war TV channel Tsargrad said the bodies of Prigozhin and Utkin had been identified at the crash site. A genetic analysis was still to be carried out, and authorities have started an investigation, state media reports.

However, Keir Giles, a Russia expert with international affairs think-tank Chatham House, urged caution about reports of Prigozhin’s death.

He said ‘multiple individuals have changed their name to Yevgeniy Prigozhin, as part of his efforts to obfuscate his travels’.

‘Let’s not be surprised if he pops up shortly in a new video from Africa,’ Mr Giles said.

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