The name of Yevgeny Prigozhin was heard by the general public only in 2016, thanks to the investigation of Alexei Navalny. Then the businessman got the nickname “Putin’s cook”, who was organizing Putin’s holidays, fed
guests of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum and became a food supplier to Moscow schools.
Among the merits of Prigozhin is also the creation of a “troll factory” – an Internet research agency that deals with disinformation on the Internet and discredits the opposition. And in 2022, the US announced a $10 million reward for information about the interference of “Putin’s Chef” and his companies in the 2017 American elections. Prigogine himself, of course, refutes this.
Illustration: Sofya Lipatkina / Skat media
The position of a businessman in general often changes – before he tried to remove information about his criminal record from the Internet, now Prigogine not only does not hide this, but often mentions it. So, he spent 9 years on charges of several articles – theft, fraud, robbery and involvement of minors in criminal activities.
But the main brainchild of Prigozhin was the Wagner PMC, which he created in 2014. Vagenrovtsy participated in hostilities in Syria, Sudan, Libya, the Central African Republic and, since 2014, in Ukraine. The name of the group comes from the pseudonym of their commander-in-chief, former GRU lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin, who does not hide his sympathy for fascism, so he began to be called “Wagner” – the name of his favorite Nazi composer. The personalities of the Wagnerites themselves are also associated with Nazism, most of them found tattoos with symbols of Nazi Germany.
Photo: Alexander Zemlyanichenko / AR
The mercenaries of PMC “Wagner” are known throughout the world for their cruelty. They stood out with particular cruelty in the Central African Republic – the UN and France accuse the group of raping women and killing civilians in the Central African Republic. In 2018, it became known that they brutally treat not only the locals of the countries where they are located, but also journalists – in 2021 they killed three Russian journalists in Africa.
Officially, the activities of PMC “Wagner” were in no way connected with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, but Russia has repeatedly exhibited any military successes of mercenaries for the successes of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Which is proof that Russian high-ranking officials not only communicated with the leadership of the criminal group all this time, but also used them for their “state” purposes.
Until 2022, Prigozhin denied his involvement in the Wagner PMC, insulting journalists. He also sued for “slander”: he won in Russian courts, but lost in foreign ones. But everything changed in September of this year. “Putin’s Cook” acknowledged not only the creation of the Wagner PMC, but also the participation of Russian mercenaries in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since 2014:
It was solely thanks to their courage and courage that the liberation of the Luhansk airport and many other territories became possible, and the fate of the LPR and the DPR changed radically.
Photos from social networks
It is worth noting that for 8 years Russia denied its direct participation in the conflict in the Donbass, but, as we have already figured out, the Russian leadership has been successfully cooperating with the Wagner PMC all these years. It is also worth noting the presence of Article 359 in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation:
Recruitment, training, financing or other material support of a mercenary, as well as his use in an armed conflict or hostilities, is punishable by imprisonment for a term of twelve to eighteen years.
For a whole month, Prigozhin was never detained and a criminal case was not opened, which, of course, is not surprising. In addition, he was awarded three stars at once – the hero of Russia, the hero of the LPR and the hero of the DPR, with which he had already appeared before journalists. A bright appearance of the “Putin’s cook” was his trip to a penal colony to recruit prisoners for the war, where he first called himself a “representative” of PMC “Wagner”. According to him, mercenaries are taken from 22 years old, but the age limit is not specified – he promised to check their physical fitness.
In the same video, Prigozhin says that the first prisoners he sent to war had already stormed the Uglegorsk thermal power plant on June 1, and all of them were in a strict regime for relapse under serious and especially serious articles. The businessman promised all prisoners a pardon six months after participating in the war, which means that especially dangerous criminals will return home, although the legislation of the Russian Federation provides for a pardon only from the president of the country after long procedures. And he promised the “refuseniks” to shoot them, despite the fact that in Russia there is no death penalty, especially extrajudicial one:
Those who arrive and on the first day say: “I got somewhere wrong,” we make a mark “deserter” and after that execution follows. <...> Do you have anyone who can pull you out of the zone from here with ten years? What do you think? There are two who pull out. This is Allah and God – in a wooden box. And I’m taking you alive. But I don’t always return alive.
Video: YouTube channel Meduza
Prigozhin’s publicity has greatly increased since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He repeatedly began to give comments to journalists about the success of his mercenaries in Ukraine and criticized the Russian leadership for failures at the front. The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and British Intelligence note that Kadyrov and Prigozhin have taken the same position of criticizing the authorities in recent days. Both of them are trying to achieve the success of their troops in the Donetsk region in order to save their popularity. Both ISW and British Intelligence report that reports of a “split” in the Kremlin are gaining momentum in the Russian media.
Kadyrov and Prigozhin are likely to be perceived as informal leaders “pro-war» bloc, whose criticism is based on arguments about greater commitment to the state and readiness for escalation. Both probably achieved some prestige based on the notable participation of both Chechen and “Wagnerian» combat units in the field.
British Intelligence
A similar opinion was expressed by publicist Alexander Nevzorov:
The end of the Russian-Ukrainian war will not mean the end of the war as such. The war will start in Russia. War for power.
The attention of the journalists of the Agency publication was attracted by videos recorded by the same person – Sergey Surkov, who himself shoots and sends these videos to independent media. In them, the author shows and tells that the mobilized men are kept in “bestial conditions”, sent to war without preparation, they buy food for themselves and go on strike. Radio Liberty journalist Mark Krutov drew attention to the fact that on the uniform of one of the mobilized there is a symbol of the Reverse side of the medal channel, which is associated with Prigozhin and his Wagner PMC, and all the men in the video are wearing balaclavas. It is worth noting that in other videos that get on the net, the mobilized do not cover their faces, but the mercenaries in their VK group publish photos exclusively with smeared faces or in balaclavas. A scandal has risen on the Internet these days because of this story, journalist Dmitry Kolezev commented on it this way:
In this regard, a version was born in the Telegram channels that all this was some kind of provocation by Prigozhin against Shoigu. But would we be surprised if this turns out to be true?
Photo: Vedomosti
But Prigozhin denies his involvement in this information campaign to destabilize the situation in the army and in society:
These theses are nothing but the work of the Ukrainian special services to create a conflict. To make it clear to all talkers, the statements of Prigozhin and Kadyrov are aimed at raising the fighting and patriotic spirit of the fighters, who are now having a hard time, who are on the front line and protect all of you.
Press service of Prigozhin
If you look at the biography of a businessman, the version that he may be trying to carry out a “palace coup” in this way does not seem unusual. For several years, the businessman denied what he calmly admitted and led campaigns on the Internet aimed at discrediting the opposition.