Outside a glass-fronted enterprise centre a little bit approach out of central St Petersburg, the mourners stored coming.
Up till just some weeks in the past, this constructing was often known as the Wagner Centre.
It had its grand opening final November, a mark of how a lot each Yevgeny Prigozhin and his non-public army firm, usually known as 'the musicians' or 'orchestra' in Russia, had been on the ascendancy.
Today it felt as if both were being laid to rest. What a distinction 10 months could make.
US 'believes plane crash intentionally caused by explosion' - latest updates
"It's like losing a father, he was everything to us," mentioned one Prigozhin fan. "Everyone was waiting to hear what Uncle Zhenya would say."
"I lost my son in Artyomsk [Bakhmut]," one other mentioned. "It was important for me to come and pay tribute to Prigozhin as a hero of Russia."
One girl was inconsolable, her palms pressed to her face as she sobbed. We thought she had misplaced a liked one, however she mentioned she was crying for Russia's future.
"I am in so much pain because [Prigozhin] didn't have the chance to do everything he wanted to do," she mentioned.
"These people wanted to bring order and now how can we talk about order? Our authorities are corrupt up to the very top. This was my last hope, for some change in the future and now I have no hope. Oligarchy and that's all."
Five hours away on the crash web site close to Tver, investigators had been nonetheless choosing their approach by means of the stays.
"Now investigations are being carried out. This will take some time," President Vladimir Putin mentioned sagely.
No doubt a report will finally be filed with explanations which can fulfill nobody besides these seeking to conceal the reality.
Read extra:Why Wagner boss' 'death' proves no one is indispensable in RussiaPrigozhin plane crash: What happened?
Previous high-profile Russian targets
Thus it was with the lengthy inquiry into Boris Nemtsov's assassination outdoors the Kremlin in 2015, or Russia's token investigation into Alexei Navalny's poisoning in August 2020.
Both Mr Nemtsov and Mr Navalny had been solely totally different males to Prigozhin, Kremlin critics talking out in defence of democracy and civil society versus a Kremlin lackey who obtained too massive for his boots.
But the precept stays the identical, it appears - cross the Kremlin, whoever you might be, and it will not finish properly.
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'We will all go to hell'
Circulating at present on social media - an outdated video, launched in February on pro-war Telegram channels. It is of Prigozhin and his deputy, Dmitry Utkin, who was additionally reportedly killed, in dialog with a Russian army blogger.
"Death is not the end, just the beginning of something else," Utkin says, off-camera.
"We will all go to hell, but in hell we will be the best," Prigozhin provides.
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