Retired Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Sunday that the plane crash that took the life of Yevgeny Prigozhin "has the earmarks of a revenge hit."
And regardless of whether it was or not, Holt said the death of the Wagner Group chief puts Russian president Vladimir Putin in a Catch-22 situation.
"Vladimir Putin's got a problem here," Holt said on "Sunday Report." "He has incurred the wrath of Wagner Group that wants to go after Moscow. And if Vladimir Putin did not do the hit, he's still got a problem because that means the inner circle is fragmenting on discipline and taking shots without his approval."
As for the downing of the aircraft that took down Prigozhin and nine others, including Wagner's top commander, Dmitry Utkin, Holt said "we're not going to know for sure" whether Putin ordered what looked like a missile strike.
"There's no certainties, just probabilities. But it has the earmarks of a revenge hit," Holt said. "This was 60 days after Prigozhin's people had taken down a helicopter in Rostov-on-Don."
Holt said it will be interesting to see what comes out of Moscow this week.
"I think that they're gonna try to shore this up as quickly as they possibly can," Holt said. "Because Russia feels like you know, they've been embarking on a three-year foreign policy campaign that's really been successful for them in Africa minus them pulling out of the grain deal in Ukraine.
"You don't have to worry about Wagner and Ukraine anymore because the Chechen commander, [Ramzan] Kadyrov, largely has filled those gaps," Holt added. "So again, we're going to watch a lot from Putin this week. And what we'll start to learn is, Does he have control of that inner circle or not?"
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.