Russia’s president is commenting on mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin who was presumably killed on a plane crash north of Moscow.

Vladimir Putin’s remarks are int the past tense, recalling how they went back to the early 1990s. and described him as ”a man of difficult fate.”

Putin adds Prigozhin had ”made serious mistakes in life, and he achieved the results he needed — both for himself and, when I asked him about it, for the common cause, as in these last months.  He was a talented man, a talented businessman.”

Putin expressed condolences to the families of those aboard the private jet, that included some top Wagner lieutenants, saying they had ”made a significant contribution” to the fighting in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a preliminary American intelligence assessment has found the plane crash was intentionally caused by an explosion.

One official says an explosion falls in line with Putin’s ”long history of trying to silence his critics.”