Who is Evgueni Prigozhin, this ex-seller at the controls of the Wagner mercenary group?

A former prisoner who became an oligarch after retraining as a hot-dog seller, Evgueni Prigozhin is now the head of the Wagner mercenary group, which the United States has designated as an “international criminal organization”.

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In the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the battlefield involvement of the Wagner Group, dubbed Vladimir Putin’s “shadow army,” was only a rumor. Experts described it as a secret paramilitary enterprise affiliated with Moscow, accused of raping and killing civilians in numerous African countries and in Syria.

Evgueni Prigozhin, the man suspected of being behind the group and reputed to be close to the Russian president, was equally enigmatic. But he has quietly come out of the shadows in recent months, confirming his status within Wagner.

Last September, the 61-year-old appeared in a video as he spoke to inmates in a Russian prison to convince them to join his mercenaries to fight in Ukraine.

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Then, in November, he solidified his reputation as the most cruel commander of all who led the Russian invasion. In one video, he was seen applauding the sadistic, clubbing murder of a Wagner deserter recently freed by Ukrainian forces. “A dog’s death for a dog,” he commented.

Regularly present at the front, Evgueni Prigozhin is also one of the only Russian leaders to be able to openly criticize the army. In early January, when Wagner’s troops cemented Moscow’s first territorial gain since late summer at Soledar, he released a video in which he said the mercenary group is “probably the most experienced army in the world.

AFP

Bloodstained helmets of Ukrainian soldiers found not far from Soledar.

Western intelligence services estimate that they are today 50,000 to respond to the orders of the so-called “Putin’s leader”.

But how could a man who spent 10 years in prison before building his fortune in the sausage industry become Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man?

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Prisoner, hot dog seller, oligarch

Like Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin was born in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg. Sentenced to 13 years in prison for various thefts in the early 80s, he was finally released in 1990. It was then that his meteoric rise began.

At the time, the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. Capitalism is beginning to show its face and business opportunities are plentiful for those with flair, even for ex-convicts.

Prigozhin opens a hot-dog stand, then a grocery store, before jumping into the restaurant business. One of its restaurants, the New Island, became the landmark of the elite of Saint Petersburg and of Vladimir Putin, who brought international leaders there.

AFP

Never far from the president’s table, over the years Prigozhin obtained many lucrative catering contracts from the authorities, such as that of the schools of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, in addition to obtaining that of feeding the Russian army.

He then becomes a rich, powerful, and feared man. His fortune, like those of many Russian oligarchs, raises several questions.

Mercenary, troll factory and political interference

While he is credited with founding the Wagner Group in 2014, when Russia was carrying out its Crimean annexation operation, Yevgeny Prigozhin really began to attract international attention when the United States accused him of interfering in the 2016 elections with the help of a company described as a “troll factory”.

AFP

In 2016, Donald Trump won the US presidential election over Hillary Clinton.

The European Union and the United Kingdom also accuse him of manipulating public opinion in various countries, particularly in Africa, where Russia is trying to extend its influence.

The Russian has never denied the facts. Last November, he admitted having damaged the American electoral process. He also promised his companies would continue to do so “carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way.”

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