autotldr Bot , 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia claimed on Thursday that the warlord Yevgeny V. Prigozhin and his associates may have brought down their private jet with hand grenades while possibly under the influence of cocaine — a new narrative from the Kremlin about the August plane crash widely seen as an assassination carried out by the Russian government.

Mr. Putin made the assertion at the end of an hourslong, televised question-and-answer session with international foreign policy experts in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

“The head of the Investigative Committee reported to me just the other day that fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the plane crash,” Mr. Putin said.

Mr. Prigozhin and his two top deputies died in the Aug. 23 plane crash, just two months after the Wagner founder had led a dramatic, 24-hour rebellion against Russia’s military leadership.

“Unfortunately, no examination was carried out for the presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood of the victims,” Mr. Putin said, adding that Russian security forces had found five kilograms of cocaine in Mr. Prigozhin’s offices.

The claims are unlikely to lift the cloud of suspicion hanging over the Kremlin in the aftermath of the plane crash, which American officials — and many Russians — believe was an assassination ordered by Mr. Putin.

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