Vladimir Putin has no plans to attend Yevgeny Prigozhin's funeral, the Kremlin said this morning.
"The presence of the president is not envisaged," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Mr Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any specific information about the funeral, and said the arrangements were up to the family.
It is not clear when Prigozhin's funeral is being held but security appeared to be tightening up in a St Petersburg cemetery this morning (see 9.17am post).
Mr Putin paid tribute to Prigozhin after last week's plane crash - calling him a talented businessman who made "serious mistakes".
"I want to express my most sincere condolences to the families of all the victims. It's always a tragedy," Putin said in televised remarks.
"I had known Prigozhin for a very long time, since the start of the 90s. He was a man with a difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life."
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-live-updates-satellite-images-show-new-russia-deployments-as-biden-and-putin-summit-mooted-12541713
so much for ,as my mum taught me , never saying anything bad about the dead .
