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Vladimir Viktorich Nikolayev (Russian: Владимир Викторович Николаев; born 10 October 1973) is a Russian politician accused of membership in the Russian Mafia. He was a member of former Russian president Vladimir Putin 's governing party United Russia; the mayor of Vladivostok; and the owner of seafood, meat, and timber-processing companies.
Vladimir Nikolayev may refer to: Vladimir Nikolayev (architect) (1847–1911), Russian Empire architect, City Architect of Kiev. Vladimir Nikolayev (politician) (born 1973), Russian politician, city mayor of Vladivostok (2004–2007) Vladimir Nikolayev (murderer) (born 1959), Russian murderer.
- Overview
- 'Only a question of time'
It was both shocking and predictable.
Two months to the day after Yevgeny Prigozhin launched a brief armed rebellion that threatened the Kremlin's authority, the mercenary chief and some of his top lieutenants were listed aboard a plane that crashed with no survivors.
The truth of Wednesday's incident may never be widely known. But the signal — to Russian elites and to the world — was viewed by many analysts as blazingly clear in the field outside Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to show that his rule remains unshaken and that no challenge will go unpunished.
“Russia’s reputation for deceit, cruelty and violence is so widely accepted that nobody for one second thought that this was an accident,” retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, told NBC News. “We all automatically assumed it was either a hit or staged.”
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's press secretary, said at a briefing Thursday that the Defense Department's initial assessment is that Prigozhin was likely killed. He added that there is no information to indicate a surface-to-air missile hit the aircraft, pushing back at reports suggesting it as the cause of crash.
Two U.S. officials told NBC News intelligence gathered so far points to sabotage. One of the officials said a leading theory is that the aircraft was downed by an explosive on board, but they do not have enough information to say that with certainty.
President Joe Biden had said in July that if he were Prigozhin, "I’d be careful what I ate." After the news of the jet's crash, Biden likely echoed the thoughts of many: “I’m not surprised,” he said, adding "There is not much that happens in Russia that Putin is not behind."
Indeed, Prigozhin would not be the first person to fall — or plunge — out of Kremlin favor and die in suspicious circumstances.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told a news conference Thursday that the incident followed a "pattern in Putin’s Russia: deaths, dubious suicides, falls from windows," which "underlines a dictatorial power system that is built on violence.”
The Russian president once said he could never forgive betrayal. So even after Prigozhin called off his mutiny and Putin appeared to show him rare leniency with the offer of exile, most observers agreed the Wagner leader's days were numbered.
Prigozhin “was always a threat and a reminder that Putin is weak,” Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at London’s Chatham House think tank, said in an email. “It was only a question of the time and mode of Prigozhin’s elimination.”
The Kremlin was silent Thursday on the crash.
Dec 29, 2023 · Moscow has used laws on 'extremist' bodies to hand out years-long jail sentences to critics © Vladimir NIKOLAYEV / AFP. Navalny galvanised huge nationwide protests in Russia before he was...
Jan 6, 2020 · Nikolayev, the son of a saleswoman and a factory worker, confesses that he wasn't particularly interested in politics a few years ago — "the fat years," as he puts it, when Russians' incomes ...
Vladimir Nikolayev is a Russian politician accused of membership in the Russian Mafia.
Who is Vladimir Nikolayev? Vladimir Nikolayev is a Russian politician accused of membership in the Russian Mafia. He was a member of former Russian president Vladimir Putin's governing party United Russia; the mayor of Vladivostok; and the owner of seafood, meat, and timber-processing companies.
