The Kremlin has angrily rejected as an “absolute lie” Western suggestions Wagner mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was assassinated on its orders in a staged plane crash.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sent his condolences to Prigozhin’s family, citing “preliminary information”  Prigozhin and his top associates in the Wagner mercenary group had all been killed.

Officially the Wagner chief’s death remains unconfirmed, with Kremlin officials saying time was needed for test results.

Russia’s aviation authority has said Prigozhin was on board the private jet when it went down on Wednesday with no survivors – two months after Prigozhin led a mutiny against army chiefs.

While he praised Prigozhin, Putin said he had also made some “serious mistakes”.

Western politicians and commentators have suggested, without evidence, that Putin ordered Prigozhin killed to punish him for launching a failed June 23-34 mutiny against the army’s top brass which also represented the biggest challenge to Putin’s own rule since he came to power in 1999.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the accusation and many others like it were false.

“There is now a great deal of speculation surrounding this plane crash and the tragic deaths of the plane’s passengers, including Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Peskov told reporters on Friday.

‘An absolute lie’

“Of course, in the West, all this speculation is presented from a well-known angle.

“All of this is an absolute lie, and here, when covering this issue, it is necessary to base yourself on facts.

“There are not many facts yet.

“They need to be established in the course of investigative actions.”

Russian investigators have opened a probe into what happened, but have not yet said what they suspect caused the plane to suddenly fall from the sky northwest of Moscow.

Nor have they officially confirmed the identities of the 10 bodies recovered from the wreckage.

Asked if the Kremlin had received official confirmation of Prigozhin’s death, Peskov said: “If you listened carefully to the Russian president’s statement, he said that all the necessary tests, including genetic tests, will now be carried out.”

Peskov, who said Putin had not met Prigozhin recently, said “official results” would be published “as soon as they are ready”.

He said it was unclear how long the tests and investigative work would take.

It was therefore impossible to start talking about whether Putin would attend Prigozhin’s funeral, Peskov said in answer to a question on the subject.

Asked about the future of the Wagner Group, which has a series of lucrative contracts across Africa but now appears leaderless, Peskov was concise.

“I can’t tell you anything now,” he said. “I don’t know.”

‘Highly likely’ he’s dead

Peskov said Wagner Group had made a “big contribution” to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, and praised its fighters’ “heroism”.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Friday there was not yet definitive proof Prigozhin was onboard the downed plane but it was “highly likely” he was dead.

It said Prigozhin’s demise would “almost certainly have a deeply destabilising effect on the Wagner Group”.

“His personal attributes of hyper-activity, exceptional audacity, a drive for results and extreme brutality permeated Wagner and are unlikely to be matched by any successor,” it said.

“Wagner’s leadership vacuum would be compounded by the reports that founder and field commander Dimitry Utkin and logistics chief Valery Chekalov also died.”

-AAP