From helping orchestrate interference in Western elections to recruiting prisoners to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine, 61-year-old Yevgeny Prigozhin is emerging as one of the Russian president’s most loyal and ambitious men. Like Vladimir Putin, a native of St. Petersburg, after years of operating in the shadows, he is increasingly becoming a public figure who, according to analysts, is aiming for a political role in Russia.
On the eve of the 8th US election, Prigozhin – who recently came out as the man behind the elusive but powerful Wagner mercenary group – also admitted trying to change the outcome of this and previous polls in America. “Gentlemen, we interfere, we interfere and we will interfere,” he said. “Carefully, precisely, surgically,” he continued, in a statement that was interpreted as a provocation.
Sanctioned by Washington and Brussels, Prigozhin was accused of running an online “troll factory” to interfere in elections held in several Western countries.
In September, he admitted that he had founded the Wagner Group, whose fighters were at the forefront of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. This month, the Wagner Group opened its first headquarters in St. Petersburg. For years, Prigozhin had angrily rejected allegations that he had ties to Wagner, and the Kremlin had also denied any ties.
The group’s presence has been noted in conflict zones, including Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic, where it has been accused of abusing and seizing state power.
In September, video surfaced of a bald man who bears a striking resemblance to Prigozhin in a prison, offering inmates contracts to fight in Ukraine on horrific terms. “If you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we’ll consider it desertion and shoot you. Any questions, boys?’ said the man. “No one surrenders,” he ordered, adding that recruits must carry grenades in case of capture. “If you die, your body will be repatriated to the location you wrote on the form.”
It was not possible to verify whether the man was Prigozhin, but his company Concord did not deny it. “If I were a prisoner, of course I would dream of joining this friendly team so that I can not only pay my debt to the Motherland, but also pay it back with interest,” he said.
Chief from Putin
Prigozhin came from humble backgrounds to become part of Putin’s circle. He spent nine years in the late USSR, convicted of fraud and theft. In the chaos of the 1990s, he started a fairly successful business selling hot dogs. From there, he got into the restaurant business and opened a fancy restaurant in St. Petersburg, whose patrons included Putin, later moving from KGB work to local politics. The restoration company he founded at one point worked for the Kremlin and earned Prigozhin the name “chief of Putin’s cuisine”.
Prigozhin has been described as a billionaire with a fortune built on government contracts, although the extent of his wealth is unknown. One of the most famous images shows him at the Kremlin in 2011, leaning over a seated Putin and offering him a plate as the Russian leader looks back with an approving look.
He faced economic sanctions from Washington, which accused him of playing a role of interference in the 2016 presidential election, in particular through his “factory of trollson the Internet. Prigozhin denied any involvement at the time and sought $50 billion in damages from the United States in 2020.
In July 2018, three Russian journalists investigating the activities of the Wagner group in the Central African Republic for the investigative media outlet Dossier were killed in an ambush.
Western countries accused the private battle group of coming to the aid of Mali’s military junta, in a move that contributed to France’s decision to end a nearly decade-long military operation.
Prigozhin was unusually vocal after the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who fell ill on a flight in Siberia and was transferred to Germany in 2020. The two have never made a secret of their enmity, with the anti-corruption group Navalny blaming a company that partnered with Concord to serve food in schools that is dangerous to children’s health.
Prigozhin sued Navalny, who was now convicted and serving a prison sentence, for libel and a court ordered the group to pay more than $1 million in damages. “I intend to strip this group of unscrupulous people of their clothes and shoes,” he said at the time.
Source: DN
