Vladimir Putin has offered a sickening tribute to Yevgeny Prigozhin as Western officials said the Wagner chief was assassinated. Breaking his silence after Wednesday’s plane crash, the Russian president praised Prigozhin’s “substantial” contribution to the conflict in Ukraine. But he added: “He was a man with a difficult fate and he made serious mistakes in life”. Prigozhin’s death just weeks after he led a rebellion against the Kremlin threatens to plunge his mercenary group into chaos and could herald the start of a major purge by Putin. It comes as: Russian media reported that a pilot familiar with Prigozhin’s jet...