Global Courant
STORY: Five things you should know about Russian mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin
Prigozhin served a nine-year prison sentence in the 1980s for robbery and other crimes
After he got out of jail, he started selling hot dogs
before climbing the culinary ranks to become known as ‘Putin’s chef’
because of his company’s Kremlin catering contracts
In 2014 he founded the mercenary army Wagner
It has fought in countries around the world, including Libya, Syria and Mali
(General Richard Barrons, Co-Chairman, Universal Defense and Security Solutions)
“He sees himself as a classic Russian hard nut. He became a firm favorite of President Putin, famed for catering to some of his more major events. And in setting up, overseeing and deploying the Wagner Group, has he done things around the world for which the Russian regime did not want to use the Russian military because it was undeniable, and they could be held responsible.
Prigozhin recruited thousands of Russian prisoners to fight for Wagner in Ukraine
His group was responsible for the capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in May
(Keir Giles, Senior Consulting Fellow, Chatham House Institute)
“Prigozhin is completely sympathetic to what Putin wants to do to Ukraine. The row between them, or rather between Putin and the Russian Defense Ministry, is about how to do it, not why the war started in the first place.”
In 2022, he admitted to founding and funding the Internet Research Agency
an alleged “troll farm” accused of meddling in the 2016 US election
