Editorial: Vladimir Putin is no Bond villain. Supporting him is morally repulsive

It’s not entirely clear that the Embraer Legacy 600 jet that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in Russia’s Tver region Wednesday carried Yevgeny Prigozhin, the warlord and oligarch who headed up the Wagner Group of mercenaries and who in June defied Vladimir Putin’s orders to sign a contract placing his troops under Defense Ministry command. But it’s clear that British and American security forces believe Prigozhin’s jet was shot down by the FSB intelligence agency on Putin’s orders.

“I’m sure it’ll be presented as an accident,” the, “and there will be an element of doubt, but everyone in the West will come to the same conclusion — that this is Putin’s revenge on people who challenge his power base.”