Over the weekend we finally received confirmation that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner boss, is dead. 

It comes days after speculation ran rife about whether the warlord had indeed been in his private jet when it fell out of the sky in a stream of white smoke six days ago. 

Head of the Wagner Group, the most notorious mercenary group in the world, Yevgeny Prigozhin rose from peddling hot dogs to supporting Vladimir Putin’s bloody bid for Russia’s expansion. That is, until he “made serious mistakes in his life”, as Putin put it.

Today, journalist Sherryn Groch on the “complicated fate” of those who dare to defy Vladimir Putin.