Memorial for Prigozhin in Moscow
A portrait of Yevgeny Prigozhin at a memorial for the dead Wagner Group leader in Moscow. A former senior Kremlin official told Insider that Prigozhin's death was "inevitable" after his June rebellion.

On Friday, the Kremlin's spokesperson said the idea that Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind the Wednesday plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin was "a complete lie."

But a former senior official who served at the highest levels of the Russian government told Insider a different story. 

"The rebellion was an anomaly," they wrote. "But the consequences were indeed inevitable."