 Russian Defense Ministry may have more interest in Prigazin's death than Putin. The Institute for the Study of War, ISW, has suggested that the Russian Ministry of Defense may be more interested in the death of Yevgeny Prigazin, founder of the Wagner Group, than the Russian President, or that this is a way to whitewash Putin. The ISW noted that Russia's investigative committee announced on August 27 that genetic testing had confirmed that Yevgeny Prigazin was among the 10 people who died in a plane crash on August 23. Russia's so-called military bloggers claimed that the Russian Ministry of Defense had been actively pushing for the termination of Wagner Group's activities in the Middle East and Africa even before Prigazin's death. As one of the Russian military bloggers said, representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense are afraid to put direct pressure on Wagnerites during negotiations and instead are putting pressure on Middle Eastern and African officials to cut their ties with the private military company. Analysts have concluded that the Russian Ministry of Defense may be more interested in dismantling the Wagner Group than Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, the surge of such reports in the Russian communities of military bloggers and so-called opposition activists may also be an attempt to distance Putin from the Prigazin murder and the possible breakup of the Wagner Group.