Who Is Prigozhin, The Wagner Chief Taking On Russia’s Military?
Yevgeny Prigozhin, formerly known as “Putin’s chef,” has gained notoriety since mercenaries from his Wagner group took part in the Ukraine war.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group, has gained notoriety after playing a more prominent role in the conflict in Ukraine.
His mercenaries are fighting on behalf of Moscow after regular troops suffered significant attrition and suffered humiliating setbacks, losing territory and losing battles. After a protracted and bloody conflict that lasted 15 months, Wagner troops raised the Russian flag in the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in April.
Days after that moment of victory, Prigozhin used it as an opportunity to publicly blame Russia’s military leadership for the failures in Ukraine, something that only a small number of people can do without incurring the wrath of the Kremlin.
On Saturday, the leader of the Wagner claimed his fighters had crossed the Russian border into Rostov-on-Don from Ukraine and that they would fight anyone attempting to stop them. This escalated the long-running dispute with the defence ministry to new heights.
The head of Wagner has also contested the Kremlin’s official justification for its invasion of Ukraine.
Days after that moment of victory, Prigozhin used it as an opportunity to publicly blame Russia’s military leadership for the failures in Ukraine, something that only a small number of people can do without incurring the wrath of the Kremlin.
What is Prigozhin’s background?
Prigozhin, 62, received a 12-year prison term after being found guilty of robbery and assault in 1981. He started a restaurant in Saint Petersburg in the 1990s after being released.
He met Putin, who was the city’s deputy mayor at the time, in this capacity.
He took advantage of that relationship to start a catering company and land lucrative government contracts in Russia, earning the moniker “Putin’s chef”. Later, he ventured into other fields, such as media and the infamous “troll factory” on the internet, which resulted in his arrest in the US for interfering with the 2016 presidential election.
Prigozhin acknowledged creating, running, and providing the funding for the mysterious Wagner company in January.
He claimed to have 50,000 men available to him “in the best times,” with about 35,000 of them always on the front lines. He did not specify if these figures included prisoners, but it is known that he visited Russian prisons to find fighters, offering them pardons in exchange for surviving a six-month stint serving alongside Wagner in the front lines.
Why did Prigozhin rise to prominence?
Prigozhin’s scarred face, clean-shaven head, and uneven, tobacco-stained teeth are well known, as is his expletive-filled vocabulary.
According to polls, he is now the fifth most recognizable person after Vladimir Putin, Mikhail Mishustin, Sergey Lavrov, and Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister.
He carved out a political niche among traditionalist Russians who venerate former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and are hell-bent on winning the war in Ukraine.
In support of the death penalty for service members and officials who “fail” to support the waning war effort, Prigozhin declared in May, “Comrade Stalin was absolutely right.”
Such a law would resemble Stalin’s World War II regulations.
Prigozhin added that his Wagner Group will need to expand its membership and “transform into an army with an ideology” after losing tens of thousands of mercenaries in eastern Ukraine.
Prigozhin’s transformation may be a component of the Kremlin’s power-transfer strategy, according to some outside observers, in the event of a collapse akin to the “Times of Troubles” that occurred between the demise of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and the rise of the Romanov dynasty four centuries ago.
What is the Wagner Group?
The name Wagner was given to Prigozhin’s company in honour of the first commander, retired Russian military special forces lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin. It quickly gained a reputation for ruthlessness and brutality.
Soon after a separatist conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine in April 2014, in the days that followed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, Wagner was first observed in action there.
Despite ample evidence to the contrary, Russia denied sending its own troops and weapons to the separatist uprising in the Donbas, the eastern industrial hub of Ukraine. By involving independent contractors in the conflict, Moscow was able to maintain some level of denial.
Personnel from Wagner was also sent to Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad’s government was backed by Russia in a conflict. They battled alongside Khalifa Haftar’s renegade forces in Libya. The group may also be active in Mali and the Central African Republic.
According to reports, Prigozhin has benefited financially from Wagner’s deployment to Africa and Syria. Using its access to gold and other resources in Africa, the company is funding operations in Ukraine, according to US Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s statement in January.
Wagner was allegedly involved in the 2018 killings of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic who were looking into the group’s activities, according to some Russian media. The murders have not been solved.
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