Fact Check: Does Passport Photo Prove Prigozhin Body Double Died in Crash?

The death of Yevgeny Prigozhin has forced searching questions over the future of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine, with Prigozhin's Wagner Group, which commanded tens of thousands of mercenaries allied to Russia, now deprived of its leader.

This week, a representative of the Wagner Group said ten of thousands of fighters, including many who were sent to Belarus in the aftermath of Prigozhin's failed mutiny on June 24, are finding they are being blocked from working amid competition from Russia's Ministry of Defense and the National Guard.

However, as disorganization seemingly breeds among the mercenary group, some remain convinced Prigozhin lives on, with one TikTok user sharing what they saw as proof of a body double cover-up.

The Claim

A TikTok by user BeautyMrk, posted on August 31, 2023, which has been viewed 121,800 times, suggested a Yevgeny Prigozhin body double had been killed in the Tver region plane crash instead of the Wagner Group leader.

During the video, that has since been removed, BeautyMrk quoted comments from a news article that suggested Prigozhin's "body double was killed in last week's plane crash."

BeautyMrk responded "Oh no, they didn't," before cutting to a picture of a passport said to have belonged to a Prigozhin body double, adding "Well, yeh, they did and this is actually the body double."

The Facts

While rumors about Prigozhin's death continue to attract attention, the TikTok by BeautyMrk does not provide proof that a Prigozhin body double died in the plane crash last month.

Most of the TikTok draws on comments from an article by the Daily Mail which quotes commentator Valery Solovey. Solovey, who has been variously described as a "political analyst" and a "conspiracy theorist", is thought to have said that Prigozhin is in hiding and a body double was killed in the crash.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the source or content of these comments.

The article features a photo of what looks like a fake passport, said to belong to one of Prigozhin's body doubles. It's been said the man in the photo is Leonid Krasavin, who has reportedly been linked to Prigozhin since 2020.

The passport was said to have been found during a raid earlier this year. Russian news outlet Izvestia reported in July that it had "received" footage from a raid on Prigozhin's home in St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 24, carried out by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents.

The authenticity of the passport has not been verified either.

There are no other comments in the article that suggest that Krasavin died or that another body double may have been killed. However, the video by BeautyMrk makes a link between the photo and Solovey's comments which is not in the article nor has it been speculated on elsewhere.

The passport photo and the comments by Solovey are not proof that Prigozhin's body double died in a plane crash and there has been no compelling evidence to suggest that the late Wagner leader's death was faked or that he's still alive.

The Ruling

False.

The passport is not proof that Yevgeny Prigozhin's body double died in the plane crash north of Moscow.

The passport is thought to be a fake document found in Prigozhin's office in June after the late Wagner leader's mansion was raided by Russian security agents. The authenticity of the photo of the passport, however, has not been verified.

A Daily Mail article about body doubles that the TikTok was based on was from an interview with just one commentator, littered with speculative and unverified claims. Although the commentator said a body double was killed, those claims were presented without proof, and no additional evidence was provided in the article proving a body double was killed.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team