The version with "grenade fragments" in the "musicians’" bodies does not stand up to criticism
According to the version of the investigation, on board the aircraft were: experienced professional crew of the aircraft (...), Evgeny Viktorovich himself (commanders...).
The aircraft took off from Sheremetyevo airport, heading towards St Petersburg. After 21 minutes of flight, the Embraer crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino, Tver Region. No distress signal was given.
On 23 August 2023, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case over the airliner crash.
[on memorials and spontaneous popular reaction...] There were various attitudes towards the leadership of the Orchestra, but the whole country saw them as true heroes of the Fatherland. Whether any other public figures will be seen off in this way is another question. (...) People with ambiguous fate, who despised death, brightly passed away not into oblivion, but into people's memory. And whoever was behind it - they hardly expected such an effect.
And the new interpretation of events is all the more striking. At the Valdai forum, VVP, answering Simonyan's question, essentially deheroised Prigozhin.
He stated that:
"...Bastrykin reported to me that grenade fragments had been found in the bodies" [and] "During the search in Prigozhin's office, 5kg of cocaine was found" [and] “There was no expert examination for the presence of alcohol and drugs in the bodies (...)."
Thereby hinting that the plane crash could have been the result of a hand grenade explosion, possibly as a result of cocaine abuse.
Peskov later rather ineptly tried to smooth things over by stating that the Bastrykin's report about the hand grenade fragments - "this was not a final report", it follows "so far from the established facts" [etc...].
...Let's start ... with transport security. Airports have security regulations and protocols that apply to absolutely all aircraft that have arrived/departed/are on the territory of a Russian airport. These regulations and protocols are not out of thin air, they are rewritten from Soviet times and amended to Russian ones, taking into account the realities.
According to them, all aircraft, regardless of whether they belong to business, civil or military aviation, are thoroughly inspected in the absence of passengers, and all passengers pass through inspection and control points. Weapons and ammunition authorised for carriage are handed over to the airport armoury and then, from there, are transported under guard in special sealed containers to the flight and handed over to the crew commander under guard. None of the passengers can take them during the flight, the box is sealed, the numbers of seals are written in the documents.
It is simply impossible to carry an undeclared grenade on board on your own. During the entire period of Soviet-Russian flight practice there has never been a single case of self-detonation on board an aircraft travelling from a civilian airport. It's not like blowing up a Moskvich car in a car park near the Ararat cafe in the 90s. Everything is strict.
The general director of A-Group, which owns the business aviation terminal in Sheremetyevo, said that he had just learnt about the version with the grenade that exploded on board Prigozhin's plane from Putin. According to Mikhail Semyonov, earlier investigators had no questions about security and any sneaking of weapons and ammunition on board. That is, the "musicians" could not have thrown grenades around on board the aircraft. That's ruled out.
Further. Everyone who is familiar with the rules and procedures established by the Orchestra management knows that there could not have been any alcohol and drugs on board Prigozhin's plane. The leaders of the organisation did not drink, sniff or do drugs. And they were an example for the rest of the staff.
Alcohol and drugs were tabooed personally by Evgeny Viktorovich. Any cases of consumption were strictly suppressed. Having once burned himself under the influence of alcohol when he committed a crime in his youth, Prigozhin never made such mistakes again. And security in the organisation was treated very scrupulously. The organisation's planes were additionally checked for explosive objects.
"Drugs" allegedly found in Prigozhin's office by FSB officers, mentioned by Vladimir Vladimirovich, turned out to be washing powder (5 briquettes) and after examination were returned to the organisation, as the "musicians" assure.
During investigative actions in a criminal case involving a plane crash, bodies are ALWAYS examined for the presence of narcotic substances and alcohol in the blood. Bastrykin could not have been unaware of this by virtue of his professional activities. And Putin may not have known this and may have improvised to ruin Prigozhin's reputation (for obvious reasons).
Could an explosive device have got on board the plane unnoticed by the passengers and crew and not discovered by anyone during the checks? Theoretically it could, but this would require such a carefully planned special operation of very powerful special services with such a level of permissiveness that transport security is simply cut off from the control over the circulation of weapons and explosives at the airport. That's unlikely. If it is---then the question is for the security services and for those who authorised such an operation. But it's not likely to be found.
In the meantime, if we put together Vladimir Vladimirovich's conclusions, it turns out that the most combat-ready unit in the history of modern Russia was commanded by alcoholics and drug addicts who knew nothing about the rules of handling hand grenades. Which does not correspond to reality.
Comment from Alexey (call sign "Brest"):
"In early November 2018, I had a chance to fly on board No1. Then Evgeny Viktorovich together with Kombrig (Ninth) flew from Sudan to Libya for a meeting with General Khalifa Haftar, which was taking place in Benghazi. On board were also ten employees of the first assault detachment in which I then worked in Sudan: the commander of the detachment Ratibor with the management and six of the most trained fighters to strengthen personal security.
Then three Heroes of Russia: the First, the Ninth and Ratibor also flew together. Let's leave the debate on why..... it's not about that right now.
Even there in Africa, where security measures are not so strict, the personal guards were instructed to remove their magazines for the duration of the flight. The rest of us got our weapons after landing, right on the runway, then, in full combat readiness promptly loaded into jeeps and drove off to Benghazi.
1. Passengers are always seated in "business class" at the front of the aircraft cabin, security separately in the centre and tail cabin.
2. Passengers do not and cannot have anything explosive with them. People of this level do not carry grenades, this is the task of security.
3. According to security measures even personal guards are forbidden to touch ammunition during the flight and they (rules) are respected.
4. Anyone who has used a live grenade knows that it's perfectly safe until you get the ring out and it's not easy to do that.
5. It is known for certain that the aircraft began to fall as a result of the wing damage in the landing gear area. The superjet fuselage is designed for much greater loads than a grenade explosion in the cabin.
Conclusion: the voiced version, especially powdered with alcohol and cocaine, is epic XXXXXXX (...) A pathetic, hastily made, ugly, incompetent attempt to trample the killed Heroes of the Fatherland in XXXXXXX.”
