Media: Jets belonging to Russian elite leave Moscow.
At least six planes belonging to top Russian officials and businessmen have left Moscow amid the rebellion launched by Wagner mercenaries, Russia's Vazhnye Isorii investigative journalism project reported on June 24, citing data from the Flightradar24 flight tracking site. Two planes belonging to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin flew from Moscow to St. Petersburg earlier on June 24, while a business jet belonging to Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg landed in Baku around 3 p.m. local time, Vazhnye Istorii reported.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denys Manturov's plane reportedly landed in Turkey around noon. Speculation is circulating regarding Putin's whereabouts amid the Wagner Group's armed rebellion in Russia. Independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo said Putin's presidential plane took off from an airport in Moscow at around 2 p.m.
Moscow time, headed northwest. However, it has not been confirmed whether Putin was onboard, and Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Putin remains at the Kremlin.
Alexander QueryReporter
Alexander Query is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the former business editor at the Kyiv Post.
He worked as a TV correspondent and an anchorman at UATV in Ukraine, and received a BA in modern literature from La Sorbonne, in Paris.