MI6 expert identifies two Wagner chiefs he thinks could bring terror on Putin

Two leading Wagner Group commanders could take charge (Image: Getty) An MI6 expert has named the two leading Wagner commanders he thinks could take over from Yevgeny Prigozhin after he reportedly died in a plane crash in Russia . Prigozhin is thought to have been travelling on an aircraft that was also carrying Dmitry Utkin, the alleged co-founder of Wagner and a former hitman. Unverified reports on Telegram say 10 people were aboard the Embraer Legacy 600 that exploded on Wednesday afternoon. It will leave the Wagner Group, a private military company, looking for new leaders for its regime. Prigozhin, a former Vladimir Putin aly, had become critical of the Kremlin in June, leading to an armed-rebellion marching into Russia . The soldiers seized the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and began marching towards Moscow. But the seige was called-off and they retreated, with Prigozhin reportedly exiled to Belarus. Yevgeny Prigozhin has reportedly died (Image: Getty) Now Chris Steele, an MI6 intelligence officer who was active between 1987 and 2009 has named two Wagner commanders he thinks could take on the leadership role. Speaking to BBC Newsnight, he also says he doesn’t think Putin would have been the one to order any operation that led to the plane going down. He said: “I’m not sure I think it was Putin directly who ordered this. Quite often these hits are done by people maybe at the next rank down and Putin gives a nod and a wink. “We know with regards to Prigozhin in particular, he was deeply unpopular among some of the really powerful people around Putin, obviously [Sergei] Shoihgu and also Nikolai Patrushev, who is the secretary of the security council. So I suspect Putin may have given a nod and a wink but the oepration would have been organised by others. “[The death of Utkin] is obviously a significant blow because Utkin was effectively the founder of Wagner, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t other senior Wagner commanders who have strong reputations and so on. The aftermath of the crash in Tver, RUssia (Image: Getty) “There are two in particular that we’ve come across in our reporting. One is a guy called Troshev and there’s another guy called Aleksandr Kuznetsov, both of whom have played a significant role, in particular both in Ukraine but also in some of the Wagner operations in Africa and Syria.” Andrei Troshev currently serves as the Wagner Group chief of staff. Last month he was named by Putin as his preferred choice to replace Prigozhin in the top seat. Troshev was previously an agent for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and was awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation for his military service. Known as “Sedoi” which means “grey hair” in Russian, he has been regarded as one of the group’s most senior figures. He played a large part in Wagner’s work in Syria. Former MI6 intelligence officer Chris Steele (Image: BBC) Kuznetsov meanwhile is said to have been active as a professional soldier, having previously served in the special forces. Reports suggest he was injured in Tripoli in 2019. He was filmed raising the Russian flag and the banner of Wagner Group when soldiers claimed the last high-rise building in Bakhmut earlier this year. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy however denied claims Russia had taken control of the city.