"The plane crash that took place in Tver, Russia on August 23, 2023, and caused the death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, reminded the Uyghurs of their national grief of 74 years ago. A similar event took place on August 27, 1949 near the Russian city of Irkutsk, when Uyghur leaders were flying from Almaty to Beijing. Just as Putin’s decision to include Wagner in the national army was a cause for the recent struggle, Stalin’s decision to submit (ET) to the People’s Republic of China was at the origins of the 1949 plane crash."