Prigozhin's murder was organized by Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia - The Wall Street Journal.
According to the WSJ, Patrushev warned Putin that relying on Prigozhin and his mercenaries in the war with Ukraine was giving Prigozhin more and more influence and posing a threat to the Kremlin. When Prigozhin started the mutiny, Patrushev saw it as an opportunity to get rid of the PMC head permanently.
Patrushev started warning Putin about the danger of Prigozhin back in the summer of 2022, according to the WSJ, but Putin did not listen to him as the Wagnerites were making progress on the battlefield. According to the publication's interlocutor, a former Russian intelligence officer, that changed in October 2022.
That's when Prigozhin allegedly called Putin and complained in crude terms about ammunition shortages leading to heavy casualties. Patrushev was in Putin's office at the time, the WSJ source claims. The head of the Security Council felt that Prigozhin had become dangerous and no longer respected the Kremlin's authority.
Putin ignored Prigozhin's subsequent complaints about the supply and including public conflicts with Russia's military leadership - and did not answer any calls from the head of the PMC, the WSJ writes. In June 2023, when Prigozhin started the mutiny, Patrushev "took control," according to the material.
The head of the Security Council called officers sympathetic to Prigozhin and asked them to persuade the head of Wagner PMC to stop the mutiny, according to the WSJ sources. Patrushev was also looking for mediators to resolve the conflict in neighboring countries. In addition to Lukashenko (who eventually became such a mediator), it was the president of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
In case the Russian army could not contain the mercenaries, Kazakhstan's armed forces were supposed to help - as a return favor for the introduction of CSTO forces in January 2022, the WSJ sources claim. Tokayev, however, refused.
After the rebellion ended, Patrushev began to develop an assassination plan. According to the publication's sources from Western intelligence services, Putin was later shown these plans and he did not object. On August 23, the head of the PMC waited at Sheremetyevo airport until his plane was checked and prepared for departure. At that moment, a small bomb was planted under the wing, according to the WSJ interlocutors in the Western intelligence services.
The bomb exploded half an hour after takeoff at an altitude of about 8,500 meters. All ten people on board were killed. The Kremlin denies involvement in Prigozhin's death.
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🇺🇸 #Oklahoma high school principal (Kirk Moore) seen charging at and disarming a school shooter.
The suspect, identified as 20-year-old Victor Hawkins, was a former student who said he wanted to shoot up the school “like the Columbine shooters did.” While taking down the shooter, Moore was shot in the leg. He is expected to recover.
When the Principal woke up that day, he never thought he would be tackling a gunman.
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🇨🇳🛢 How much strategic oil does the world actually have in reserve?
Global strategic crude oil inventories stood at ~2.5 BILLION barrels as of December 2025, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
China holds by far the largest stockpile at 1,397 million barrels, more than 3 times the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve of 413 million barrels, which itself sits at only 58% of its full storage capacity of 714 million barrels.
China added an average of 1.1 million barrels per day to its strategic inventories throughout 2025, with preliminary data suggesting it continued building stockpiles in early 2026 ahead of the Iran War.
Japan holds the 3rd-largest reserve at 263 million barrels, followed by OECD European countries at 179 million barrels.
Meanwhile, the US is releasing 172 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve to suppress oil prices, part of a broader 400 million barrel coordinated release agreed by 32 IEA member nations in March.
🔗 ...
🛢 JP Morgan Warns Oil Market Out of Balance, Prices Must Rise
🔸The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil flows, has removed 13.7 million barrels per day from global supply in April alone. A JP Morgan research note warns the market has no good way to replace it.
🔸Normally, spare production capacity in Saudi Arabia and the UAE acts as the market’s shock absorber. But that buffer has effectively been removed, eliminating the system’s first line of defense.
🔸With spare capacity unavailable, markets turned to inventories
➤ Global stockpiles are now being drained at ~7.1 mbd in April, an extraordinary pace, according to the note.
🔸Meanwhile, demand is collapsing because supply simply isn’t reaching users — “forced demand destruction.”The hardest hit sectors include:
▪️ Petrochemical plants across Asia are shutting down or slashing output as LPG, ethane, and naphtha flows from the Gulf collapse
▪️ Airline jet fuel ...
🛢⛽️ Global oil inventories are heading toward RECORD LOWS:
Global visible oil inventories have fallen -255 million barrels since the start of the conflict on February 27, to 7,864 million barrels.
Total estimated oil draws, including non-OECD refined products storage, have accelerated to 10.9 million barrels per day in April, the largest monthly draws on record since 2017.
Cumulative estimated draws since the start of the war now stand at 474 million barrels, with Hormuz flows holding at ~10% of normal, or 2.0 million barrels per day.
Meanwhile, even in an optimistic scenario where Strait of Hormuz flows begin recovering by late April, it is unlikely to prevent global visible inventories from reaching all-time lows, according to Goldman Sachs.
As inventories keep falling, physical oil markets are likely to require sharply higher prices for immediate delivery, since buyers cannot wait months for cheaper futures delivery when stocks are running critically low.
Goldman also warns...