The funeral of Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, has been held privately at a cemetery on the outskirts of his hometown St Petersburg, according to his press service.
"The farewell to Yevgeny Viktorovich took place in a closed format. Those who wish to say goodbye may visit Porokhovskoye cemetery," it said in a short post on Telegram.
Secrecy had surrounded the funeral arrangements for Mr Prigozhin, the head of Wagner group, who was killed in a plane crash last week.
It came two months to the day after he staged a mutiny in the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin's rule since he rose to power in 1999.
The Kremlin had confirmed that Mr Putin would not attend the funeral.
One of Mr Prigozhin's deputies, who was another fatality in the plane crash, was also buried today.
The family of Valery Chekalov, the head of Wagner logistics, was joined by dozens of people, including Wagner mercenaries, at the Severnoye cemetery, also in St Petersburg.
Some of those present, including women and children in sunglasses, came forward to kiss his coffin.
Unidentified mourners at the funeral ordered a Reuters videographer and photographer to stop filming.
Cause of crash not yet known
The private Embraer Legacy 600 private jet on which Mr Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg from Moscow crashed in the Tver region north of Moscow on 23 August.
Among those on board was Dmitry Utkin, another top Wagner leader, and four men reported to be Mr Prigozhin's bodyguards.
It is still unclear what caused the plane to crash, but villagers near the crash scene told Reuters they heard a bang and then saw the jet plummet to the ground.
When asked if Mr Putin would attend the funeral of Mr Prigozhin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "The presence of the president is not envisaged."
Mr Peskov said the Kremlin did not have any specific information about the funeral plans, and the arrangements were up to relatives. It was not immediately clear when Mr Prigozhin's funeral would take place.
The day after the crash, Mr Putin sent his condolences to the families of those killed and said he had known Mr Prigozhin for a very long time, since the chaotic years of the early 1990s.
"He was a man with a difficult fate, and he made serious mistakes in life," Mr Putin said, while describing him as a talented businessman.
The crash came two months to the day after Mr Prigozhin and his mercenaries staged a mutiny against Mr Putin's top military commanders in which they took control of the southern city of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow before turning back 200km from the capital.
The mutiny posed the biggest challenge to Mr Putin's rule since he took power on the last day of 1999. The Kremlin has rejected as an "absolute lie" the suggestion by some Western politicians and commentators - for which they have not provided evidence - that Putin ordered Prigozhin to be killed in revenge.
US President Joe Biden said last week he was not surprised by the death and that not much happened in Russia that Mr Putin was not behind.
Investigators said on Sunday that genetic tests had confirmed the identities of all 10 people killed in the crash, who also included two pilots and a flight attendant.
