Wagner mercenary group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the list of passengers on an aircraft that crashed in the Tver Region, Russian authorities say.
The Russian Emergencies Ministry has said that private aircraft “came down” near the village of Kuzhenkino – and all were killed.
The ministry says the jet was flying from Moscow to St Petersburg, and that 10 people, including three crew members, were on board.
Prigozhin has been keeping a low public profile since heading his short-lived mutiny in June, which lasted only 24 hours.
He last appearing in a video earlier this week which was said to have been filmed in an unspecified location in Africa.
What do we know about the plane.
Speculation on Telegram channels suggested the crashed plane was an Embraer Legacy jet with the serial number RA-02795.
Tracking data on FlightRadar24 – a popular flight tracking website – does not show where it departed from.
Earlier on Wednesday it appeared near Moscow, where it climbed to an altitude of nearly 29,000ft (8,800m) before the data showed it suddenly dropping, ending up at 0ft.
The Crashed Plane
The plane is registered to Autolex Transport, which the US government has linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin.
The plane’s flight records are now partially inaccessible through FlightRadar24.
But it has made several journeys to and from Moscow and St Petersburg in recent months, and has been pictured by local media in Belarus, where the Wagner group is now thought to be based
Social media accounts silent on Prigozhin’s fate.
None of the social media accounts believed to be linked to Prigozhin have so far made any claims as to whether he is dead or alive.
Some are saying that another business jet owned by him was also in the air at the time of the crash, also having departed Moscow.
Wagner-linked channel Reverse Side of the Medal is saying that this second jet has turned around and is flying back to Moscow. BBC Reports and photos
