Yevgeny Prigozhin

Yevgeny Prigozhin (born June 1, 1961, Leningrad, Russia, U.S.S.R. [now St. Petersburg, Russia]—died August 23, 2023, near Kuzhenkino, Russia) was a Russian oligarch, best known as the leader of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit.

Prigozhin grew up in difficult neighborhoods of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 1981 a Soviet court found the 20-year-old Prigozhin guilty of having been involved in drunkenness, fraud, and numerous robberies, and it sentenced him to 13 years in prison. After being released from prison in 1990, Prigozhin launched a food business in St. Petersburg. He started small, selling hot dogs, and then expanded with business partners, buying a stake in a supermarket chain and opening a wine shop and high-end restaurants. Vladimir Putin, then the first deputy to St. Petersburg’s mayor Anatoly Sobchak, was a frequent client of Prigozhin’s restaurants, the Old Customs House and New Island. Prigozhin found in Putin an important patron for his catering business. Putin turned to Prigozhin to cater his birthday parties as well as important state dinners, including those held for the visits of U.S. Pres. George W. Bush and French Pres. Jacques Chirac. Prigozhin’s catering company—Concord—continued to expand, thanks to his connection to Putin (leading to his moniker “Putin’s Chef”), and he became an important caterer of the Russian army and the country’s public schools.

In the 2010s Prigozhin’s career took another turn, and his support of Putin’s government shifted from the culinary sphere to that of propaganda and warfare. First, Prigozhin is widely believed to have played a leadership role in the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a “troll farm” based in St. Petersburg responsible for a number of disinformation campaigns. The IRA spread false news, sowed division, and sought to shape political outcomes, most notably during the 2016 Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The U.S. government responded by imposing sanctions on Prigozhin and, in 2018, issuing a warrant for his arrest.

In 2014 a Russian mercenary group named PMC (private military company) Wagner was created (although its legal foundation was only formalized in 2022), with Prigozhin acting as its director and the main channel between the group and the Kremlin. At its peak, Wagner forces are estimated to have reached over 50,000 fighters. The group fought, for profits and Russian interests, in many armed conflicts, notably in the Syrian Civil War and the Russia-Ukraine War, and provided security services in a number of African countries, including Libya, Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Mali.

It was during the Syrian Civil War that the Wagner Group became widely known internationally, in part for its brutal tactics. Prigozhin remained in the shadows, however; he had previously denied any ties with Wagner, going as far as to sue investigative journalist Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat for revealing evidence of his role in the group. In September 2022, video footage surfaced of Prigozhin conducting a Wagner recruiting drive at a Russian prison, and, from this point on, Prigozhin became the de facto spokesperson for the Wagner Group on social media. During the Russia-Ukraine War, his regular video commentaries were published on social media platforms, and he was often critical of the Russian military leadership. Prigozhin’s denunciation of the regular Russian army intensified in June 2023, going beyond criticizing military tactics to denouncing the war itself and the rationale advanced by the Kremlin to justify it. Although the direct targets of Prighozin’s criticism were the top military leaders, such as the Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu, his public repudiation of the war’s motives was a clear challenge to Putin’s authority.

During the evening of June 23, 2023, Prighozin’s critical tirades rapidly turned into an armed insurrection. After accusing the Russian military leadership of having attacked a Wagner camp in occupied Ukraine, Prigozhin reported that his troops were ready to take on the Russian military itself. Russia’s security services reacted by announcing that Prigozhin was being investigated for organizing an armed rebellion. Prighozin denied that he was leading a coup or an armed rebellion, insisting that his movement was a march for justice. Nonetheless, Prighozin and a Wagner detachment went on to take control of the Russian regional military headquarters, and indeed of the whole city, of Rostov-on-Don, encountering no apparent resistance. Hours later an armed Wagner column left Rostov-on-Don to advance northward toward Moscow, reinforced by a second detachment, which was crossing occupied Ukrainian territory. Despite encountering only limited resistance, the Wagner column stopped 120 miles (roughly 200 km) south of Moscow. Belarusian Pres. Alexander Lukashenko announced that a deal had been brokered, and Prighozin himself declared that his forces were turning back.

As described by Lukashenko, the deal entailed a choice for Wagner Group fighters: integrate with the Russian military, disband, or move to Belarus. As for Prighozin himself, the criminal charges previously announced would be dropped, and he would move to Belarus. However, two months following the failed Wagner insurrection, Prighozin died in suspicious circumstances along with nine others (including some of his top Wagner lieutenants) when his private plane crashed halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.