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Kremlin: Putin Won’t Attend Prigozhin’s Funeral 

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Omsk Region Acting Governor Vitaly Khotsenko during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Omsk Region Acting Governor Vitaly Khotsenko during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Kremlin: Putin Won’t Attend Prigozhin’s Funeral 

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Omsk Region Acting Governor Vitaly Khotsenko during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Omsk Region Acting Governor Vitaly Khotsenko during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. (Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has no plans to attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed when his plane crashed last week, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

The crash came two months to the day after Prigozhin and his mercenaries staged a mutiny against Putin's top military commanders in which they took control of the southern city of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow before turning back 200 km (125 miles) from the capital.

"The presence of the president is not envisaged," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked if Putin would attend.

Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any specific information about the funeral, and the arrangements were up to the family.

Investigators said on Sunday that genetic tests had confirmed that Prigozhin was among the 10 people killed in the crash.

The Kremlin has rejected as an "absolute lie" the suggestion by some Western politicians and commentators that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed in revenge.

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Khamenei Orders Attack on Israel for Haniyeh Killing

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcoming Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh (dpa)
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcoming Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh (dpa)
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Khamenei Orders Attack on Israel for Haniyeh Killing

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcoming Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh (dpa)
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei welcoming Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh (dpa)

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued an order for Iran to strike Israel directly, in retaliation for the killing in Tehran of Hamas’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, according to three Iranian officials briefed on the order.

Khamenei gave the order at an emergency meeting of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council on Wednesday morning, shortly after Iran announced that Haniyeh had been killed, said the three Iranian officials, including two members of the Revolutionary Guards, The New York Times reported.
They asked that their names not be published because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of the assassination; Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has neither acknowledged nor denied killing Haniyeh, who was in Tehran for the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Israel has a long history of killing enemies abroad, including Iranian nuclear scientists and military commanders.

Through almost 10 months of war in Gaza, Iran has tried to strike a balance, putting pressure on Israel with sharply increased attacks by its allies and proxy forces in the region, while avoiding an all-out war between the two nations.

In April, Iran made its biggest and most overt attack on Israel in decades of hostility, launching hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for an Israeli strike on its embassy compound that killed several Iranian military commanders in Damascus, Syria. But even that show of force was telegraphed well in advance, nearly all the weapons were shot down by Israel and its allies, and little damage was done.