Putin Implicates Drugs, Alcohol, Grenades in Prigozhin's Death

US officials may believe Vladimir Putin ordered the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, but the Russian president himself is sharing a different theory on the plane crash that killed the mercenary leader. In his first comments on the possible cause of the wreck, which is widely believed to have been an assassination and which western intelligence agencies believe was caused by a bomb, Putin said that hand grenades detonating onboard the plane may have caused it to go down, the Guardian reports. "Fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of those killed in the crash," Putin said at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club thinktank in Sochi, Russia, per ABC News.

As for how grenades might have detonated onboard the aircraft, Putin implied—in what NBC News calls a "wild tale"—that drugs and alcohol may have played a role, possibly hinting that inebriated passengers set them off. "Unfortunately, no examination was carried out to determine the presence of alcohol or drugs in the blood of the victims," he said, before referencing cash and drugs that were allegedly found in Prigozhin's mansion after the paramilitary leader's attempted rebellion against Putin failed. Since Prigozhin's death, Putin said, several Wagner fighters have signed contracts with Russia's Defense Ministry. (More Yevgeny Prigozhin stories.)