Conspiracy theories refuse to die

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin paid the ultimate price for leading a life riddled with blood and murders if reports about his death in a plane crash north of Moscow are true.

Prigozhin's presumed death has led to a number of conspiracy theories.

What one may say with relative certainty is to repeat a common saying that "good will be rewarded with good, evil with evil."

If, that is, it can ever be confirmed that Prigozhin died along with other top Wagner commanders in the incident.

A CNN commentator noted that the former chef of Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently died the way he lived: violently, flamboyantly and at the center of intrigue.

When news broke that a private business jet registered to the Wagner mercenary boss plummeted from 28,000 feet to 8,000 feet in 30 seconds in the sky north of Moscow before crashing in a fireball, it was speculated that Prigozhin was on the plane.

It is curious that the media - including many in the mainstream - is still treating reports of his "death" with extraordinary caution despite so-called confirmation by Russia's state media and a bulletin posted by the Wagner Group on one of its channels.

Dead or alive, the image of Prigozhin is still at the center of intrigue.

What happened in the skies at that particular moment could have been an accident - after all, planes do crash. Even though it is a matter of probability, the chance of one in a thousand or ten thousand is still a chance.

However, in light of the aborted march towards Moscow by Prigozhin's Wagner two months ago and past reports of poisoning and defenestration of Putin's political opponents and former KGB agents who had defected to the West, more people tend to believe the plane crash could be just another act of revenge by the regime in the Kremlin.

Could the plane registered to the Wagner boss have been hit by a missile or downed by a bomb planted on it before take off?

This would be easy to establish as long as the Investigative Committee of Russia is willing to publish its findings at the end of its official investigation as investigators can readily detect any residues of explosives in the wreckage.

The question is whether the Investigative Committee will reveal the true findings given it has been at the front of Putin's efforts to clamp down on political opponents at home.

Suspicions aside, one thing is certain: the disappearance of Prigozhin - who last allegedly showed up in Africa a few days before the plane crash - clears the way for Putin to cleanse Wagner Group's remaining affinity to his former chef to bring the mercenary unit under his control.

The last thing the Kremlin may wish to do is eradicate Wagner entirely when it can still be useful to them.

It would be in the Kremlin's interest to retain this fighting ability while transforming its leadership.

The departure of Prigozhin one way or another has created much-needed room for the surgery.