2023-06-24 04:58:28
Yevgeny Prigozhin, once a low-key businessman who benefited from having Russian President Vladimir Putin as a powerful backer, has come to global attention with Russia’s war in Ukraine.
In his role as the leader of a mercenary force that claims to be fighting many of the Russian armed forces’ toughest battles in Ukraine, Prigozhin, 62, has now moved into his most dangerous role to date: preaching outright rebellion. against the military leadership of his country.
Prigozhin, owner of the Kremlin ally Wagner Group, has stepped up what has been months of harsh criticism of Russia’s handling of the war, calling on Friday for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately, opening a criminal investigation and ordering Prigozhin’s arrest.
In a show of how seriously the Kremlin took the threat, members of the riot police and the National Guard were swiftly deployed to beef up security in Moscow, including government agencies and transportation infrastructure, the state agency reported. from Tass news. Prigozhin, once a convicted felon, hot dog vendor and longtime Putin associate, called on Russians to join his “march for justice.”
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“PUTIN’S CHEF”
Prigozhin and Putin have known each other for a long time. Both were born in Leningrad, now called Saint Petersburg.
During the last years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served a prison sentence -10 years according to him_, although he does not say the reason.
After that, he owned a hot dog stand and then fancy restaurants that caught Putin’s eye. In his first term, the Russian president took his then French counterpart Jacques Chirac to dinner with one of them.
“Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business from a kiosk, he saw that I didn’t mind serving distinguished guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011.
Their businesses expanded considerably into catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open the Prigozhin factory, built with generous loans from a state bank. In Moscow alone, his Concord company won millions of dollars in contracts to provide public school meals. He also hosted caterers for Kremlin events for several years — earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef” — and has provided catering and public services to the Russian military.
In 2017, opposition activist and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of breaking antitrust laws by bidding for some $387 million for Defense Ministry contracts.
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THE MILITARY LINK
Prigozhin also owns the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-allied mercenary force that has come to play a central role in Putin’s projection of Russian influence in hot spots around the world.
The United States, the European Union, the United Nations and others say that this mercenary force has intervened in conflicts, especially in countries in Africa. Wagner Group fighters allegedly provide security for national rulers or warlords in exchange for lucrative payments, often including a share of gold or other natural resources. US officials say Russia may also be using the Wagner Group’s work in Africa to support its war in Ukraine.
In Ukraine, Prigozhin’s mercenaries have become a leading force in the war, fighting as counterparts to the Russian army in battles against Ukrainian forces.
That includes the Wagner Group fighters in the capture of Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have been fought. Last month, the Wagner Group and Russian forces appeared to have largely won Bakhmut, a victory of little strategic importance to Russia despite the cost in lives. The United States estimates that nearly half of the 20,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since December were fighters from the Wagner Group in Bakhmut. His paid soldiers included prisoners recruited from Russian prisons.
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ANGER AGAINST RUSSIAN GENERALS
As his forces fought and died en masse in the Ukraine, Prigozhin railed against the Russian military leadership. In a video released by his team last month, Prigozhin stood next to rows of corpses he said were fighters from the Wagner Group. He accused the regular Russian military of being incompetent and depriving its troops of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight.
“These are someone’s parents and children,” Prigozhin said then. “The scum that won’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.”
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A “MALICIOUS ACTOR” IN THE UNITED STATES
Prigozhin had already received more limited attention in the United States, when he and a dozen other Russian citizens and three Russian companies were accused in the North American country of operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord ahead of Donald Trump’s election victory. in 2016.
They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The US Treasury Department has repeatedly sanctioned Prigozhin and his associates in connection with both his alleged election interference and his leadership of the Wagner Group.
Following the 2018 indictment, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Prigozhin as sarcastically saying: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with a lot of respect. It doesn’t bother me at all to be on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.”
In that episode, President Joe Biden’s White House called Prigozhin a “known malicious actor,” and State Department spokesman Ned Price said (Prigozhin’s) “bold confession,” if anything, appears to be just a manifestation of the impunity enjoyed by thieves and henchmen under President Putin and the Kremlin.”
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AVOID CHALLENGING PUTIN
As Prigozhin increasingly spoke out against the way Russia’s conventional armed forces conducted fighting in Ukraine, he continued to play a seemingly indispensable role in the Russian offensive, and did not appear to suffer retaliation from Putin for his criticisms. to the Russian generals.
It was sometimes hinted in the media that Prigozhin’s influence over Putin was growing and that he was aspiring for a prominent political post. But some analysts warned against overestimating his influence on the Russian president.
“He is not one of Putin’s close figures or a confidant,” said Mark Galeotti of University College London, who specializes in Russian security issues, on his “In Moscow’s Shadows” podcast.
“Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does very well in the process. But that’s the thing: he’s part of the staff more than family,” Galeotti noted.
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