Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev personally organized the murder of the head of "Wagner" Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Axar.az reports that this claim was published by the American "Wall Street Journal".

Western intelligence agencies cited by WSJ said Patrushev started designing a plan to dispose of Prigozhin in August. Putin did not object when he was shown the proposal, the newspaper said.

Later that month, as Prigozhin waited in a Moscow airport for an aircraft safety check to finish, intelligence officials believe a small bomb was placed under the plane’s wing.

Videos from just after 5 p.m. on Aug. 23 show a plane missing a wing falling from the sky near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region.

Patrushev is considered one of Putin’s oldest and closest confidants, as the two worked together as young KGB officers in Leningrad. When Boris Yeltsin appointed Putin as his prime minister, Patrushev took over as head of the Federal Security Service (FSS).

Patrushev is part of a small circle of advisers Putin is believed to have relied on for planning the invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Friday called the WSJ report “pulp fiction.”

"We have seen this material, but we would not like to comment on it. It is unlikely that such materials can be commented on," he said.