ROME
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former Kremlin chef, for nine years lord and master of the Wagner militia, Putinin’s armed wing in Africa and the Middle East, the dirty work man accused of war crimes in several theaters of operations, felt cornered. And he reacted angrily like a cornered animal: by attacking. Do it or slow it down.
Cornered by his nemesis, the powerful Minister of Defense Shoigu, who wanted to take his “toy” away from him by placing Wagner under the control of the General Staff, Prigozhin responded by raising the bar. Raised in the university on the streets, as soon as he comes of age, Prigozhin ends up before a judge and is convicted of theft, the sentence is tolerated, but two years later he is tried again, accused of robbery, fraud and managing a minor prostitution network .
They give him 12 years in prison, he serves nine years and gets out in 1990 when the social union collapses. These are times without rules. He becomes an entrepreneur, starting first a chain selling hot dogs and a casino, and then a restaurant business. He meets Putin in his VIP restaurant. And the sparks fly over. Prigozin organizes receptions in the Kremlin and receives state contracts worth millions, but the definition of “Putin’s cook” is close to his heart. And so he has started two new companies since 2014; the Wagner mercenary company and a troll company in the service of the Kremlin. For years he kept a low profile for this business until he finally claimed Wagner’s departure as part of the “Sonderaktion”. Armed with Putin’s protection, Prigozhin aspires and decides to wage a war against Shoigu with the aim of gaining his post. But Shoigu is no less tough than him and convinces Putin to restrict Wagner, which also provides him with cannon fodder and in Ukraine, as in Bakhmut, produces results, albeit at the cost of over ten thousand dead, mostly convicts fighting for pardon battle.
Prigozhin’s dream is power, but he knows he will never be able to run for president to challenge Putin, who would crush him. So he sets his sights on Shoigu and when he sees that he’s losing, he attempts a coup. Let’s take Russia. A dream culminating in a last-minute deal that looks more like a fragile truce than peace.
To. Farr.