The mercenary boss, who called for an uprising against the Russian generals, has long ties to Putin
The multimillionaire mercenary boss, who has long benefited from President Vladimir Putin’s powerful patronage, has thrust himself into the global spotlight with a dramatic rebellion against the Russian military that has challenged Putin’s own authority.
Yevgeny Prigozhin is the 62-year-old owner of the Kremlin-affiliated Wagner Group, a private army of convict conscripts and other mercenaries that fought some of the deadliest battles in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Friday, Prigozhin abruptly escalated months of harsh criticism of Russia’s warfare by calling for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister and then advancing on Moscow with his hired soldiers.
When Putin’s government issued an “anti-terrorist alert” and sought to seal off Moscow with checkpoints, Prigozhin resigned just as abruptly the following day. As part of the deal to defuse the crisis, he agreed to relocate to Belarus and was seen late Saturday withdrawing with his forces from Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia where they had taken over military headquarters.
It was unclear what would come next for Prigozhin, a former prison inmate, hot dog vendor and restaurant owner who has garnered worldwide attention.
“Putin’s Cook”
Prigozhin and Putin have been around for a long time, both born in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.
In the last years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served a stint in prison — 10 years by his own account — though he doesn’t say why.
Businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) guides Russian President Vladimir Putin through his factory which produces school meals September 20, 2010 outside of St. Petersburg, Russia. (Kremlin pool photo via AP, file)
After that, he owned a hot-dog stand and then fancy restaurants, which piqued Putin’s interest. During his first term in office, the Russian head of state invited French President Jacques Chirac to dinner in one of these restaurants.
“Vladimir Putin saw me turn a kiosk into a shop. He saw that I don’t mind serving the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011.
His business expanded significantly to include catering and the provision of school meals. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory, built with generous loans from a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord has received millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals in public schools. He also organized catering for Kremlin events for several years – earning him the nickname “Putin’s Chef” – and provided catering and supply services for the Russian military.
In 2017, opposition politician and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of violating antitrust laws by bidding for around $387 million in Defense Ministry contracts.
military connection
Prigozhin also owns the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-allied mercenary force that plays a central role in Putin’s projection of Russian influence in trouble spots around the world.
The United States, European Union, United Nations, and others claim the mercenary force was particularly involved in conflicts in countries across Africa. Wagner fighters are said to offer security to national leaders or warlords in exchange for lucrative payments, often including a share of gold or other natural resources. US officials say Russia may also use Wagner’s work in Africa to bolster its war in Ukraine.
In this shot, taken from a video released by the Prigozhin Press Service on May 20, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, flanked by his Wagner mercenaries, expresses his displeasure with the Russian military commanders on the front lines in Bakhmut, Ukraine. (AP, file)
In Ukraine, Prigozhin’s mercenaries have become an important force in the war, fighting against the Russian army in skirmishes with Ukrainian forces.
This includes the capture of Bachmut by Wagner fighters, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles took place. Until last month, the Wagner group and Russian forces appeared to have largely won Bakhmut, a victory of little strategic importance for Russia, despite the loss of life. Prigozhin said that 20,000 of his men died in Bakhmut, about half of whom were prisoners recruited from Russian prisons.
What is the group’s reputation?
Western countries and United Nations experts have accused Wagner Group mercenaries of committing numerous human rights abuses across Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
In December 2021, the European Union accused the group of “grave human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings” and “destabilizing activities” in the Central African Republic, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.
Some of the reported incidents were notable for their grisly brutality.
In November 2022, a video surfaced online showing a former Wagner contractor being beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to the Ukrainian side and was recaptured. Despite public outrage and numerous calls for an investigation, the Kremlin has turned a blind eye.
Angry at Russia’s generals
While his troops fought in Ukraine and died en masse, Prigozhin rampaged against Russia’s military leadership. In a video his team released last month, Prigozhin stood next to the bodies of Wagner fighters. He accused Russia’s regular military of incompetence and his troops for depriving them of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight.
“These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin said at the time. “The scum who don’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.”
Criticism of the Brass
Prigozhin has sharply criticized the top military officials and accused senior officers of incompetence. His remarks were unprecedented in Russia’s tightly controlled political system, where only Putin could voice such criticism.
In January, Putin reiterated his trust in the Russian military’s chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, by putting him in direct command of Russia’s forces in Ukraine, a move some observers also interpreted as an attempt to reduce Prigozhin’s size.
When Prigozhin was recently asked about a media comparison to Grigory Rasputin, a mystic who gained influence over Russia’s last tsar by claiming to have the power to cure his son’s hemophilia, Prigozhin retorted sharply: “I don’t stop blood , but I shed blood.” Enemies of our fatherland.”
A “bad actor” in the US
Previously, Prigozhin received rather limited attention in the US when he and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were accused of conducting a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord in the run-up to Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory .
They were charged as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The US Treasury Department has repeatedly imposed sanctions on Prigozhin and his associates, both related to his election interference and his leadership of the Wagner Group.
After the indictment in 2018, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Prigozhin as making a clearly sarcastic remark: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with great respect. I don’t mind being on this list at all. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.”
The Biden White House called him “a notoriously bad actor” in that episode, and State Department spokesman Ned Price said Prigozhin’s “bold admission appears, if anything, to be merely an expression of the impunity afforded to crooks and cronies.” Enjoying President Putin.” Kremlin.”
Avoid challenges to Putin
As Prigozhin increasingly voiced his opposition to the way Russia’s conventional military was conducting the fighting in Ukraine, he continued to play a seemingly indispensable role in the Russian offensive and appeared to face no retaliation from Putin for his criticism of Putin’s generals.
Media reports at times indicated that Prigozhin’s influence over Putin was increasing and that he was in search of a prominent political post. But analysts warned against overestimating his influence on Putin.
“He’s not one of Putin’s confidants or his confidants,” said Mark Galeotti of University College London, who specializes in Russian security issues, on his podcast In Moscow’s Shadows.
“Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does it very well. But that’s the thing — he’s part of the staff rather than part of the family,” Galeotti said.