Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (b.1961) is a Russian oligarch and
close confidante of Putin who controls "a network of companies",
including Wagner Group, a Russian government backed mercenary group
accused of war crimes in the Africa, Syria, and Ukraine, and 3 companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections. According
to an investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel,
Prigozhin's operations "are tightly integrated with Russia’s Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU". Prigozhin, his companies
and associates face economic sanctions & criminal charges in the United States.
Prigozhin was once called "Putin’s chef" in an Associated Press article because his restaurants and catering businesses hosted dinners which
Putin attended with foreign dignitaries.
Prigozhin was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) 1 June 1961, to Violetta Prigozhina. He graduated from an athletics boarding school in
1977 & was engaged in cross-country skiing. His father & stepfather were
of Russian-Jewish descent, while his mother is of ethnic Russian descent.
In Nov 1979, Prigozhin was given a suspended sentence for stealing
(in Leningrad). In 1981, he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment
under articles of robbery, fraud, and involving teenagers in crime.
Prigozhin spent 9 years in prison before he was released.
Casino, restaurant, and catering career -------------------------------------------
In 1990, after his release, he and his stepfather set up a network
to sell hot dogs. Soon, according to a New York Times interview with
him, "the rubles were piling up faster than his mother could count them."
He also became a 15% stakeholder and manager of a "Contrast," started
by Boris Spektor, a classmate from his boarding school, which was the
first grocery store chain in Saint Petersburg. Also, Prigozhine as CEO
and Spektor and Igor Gorbenko founded the first casinos in St Petersburg
under Spectrum CJSC. They founded Viking CJSC, too. In 1995, when revenues began to fall, Prigozhin persuaded a director at Contrast, Kiril Ziminov,
to open a restaurant with him. The two men opened the "Old Customs House"
in Saint Petersburg. In 1997, inspired by waterfront restaurants on the
Seine in Paris, Prigozhin and Ziminov spent $400,000 remodeling a rusting
boat on the Vyatka River and started the floating restaurant called New Island, which became one of the most fashionable dining spots in Saint Petersburg. He said his patrons "wanted to see something new in their
lives and were tired of just eating cutlets with vodka." In 2001,
Prigozhin personally served food to Putin and Jacques Chirac when they
dined at "New Island". He also hosted George W. Bush in 2002. In 2003,
Putin celebrated his birthday at New Island. By 2003, Prigozhin had left
his business partners, established his own independent restaurants, and
had become a confidante of Putin, apparently free to engage in illicit activities without fear of prosecution.
His company, Concord Catering, received hundreds of millions in govt
contracts for feeding school children and government workers. In 2012,
he received a contract to supply meals to the Russian military worth
US$1.2 billion over one year. Some of the profits from this contract
are alleged to have been used to start & fund the Internet Research Agency.
In 2012 he moved his family into a St. Petersburg compound with a basketball court and a helicopter pad. He has a private jet and a 115-foot yacht.
The Anti-Corruption Foundation accused Prigozhin of corrupt business practices. They estimated his illegal wealth to be worth more than
one billion rubles. Alexei Navalny has alleged that Prigozhin was
linked to a company called Moskovsky Shkolnik (Moscow schoolboy) that
had supplied poor quality food to Moscow schools which had caused a
dysentery outbreak.
According to Novaya Gazeta in Oct 2018, Evgeny Arkadievich Gulyaev is
the head of the security service for Prigozhin.
On 11 Dec 2019, which is "Heroes Day" or "Heroes of the Fatherland Day",
Msk LLC which has the same phone number as Concord Catering, was paid
4.1 million rubles for a Kremlin banquet. In 2018, Msk LLC was paid
only 2.5 million rubles from the Presidential Administration for the
same banquet at the Kremlin.
Wagner Group
------------------------
Prigozhin has been linked to a mercenary group known as the Wagner
Group which has been involved in various actions as a private military contractor. In Feb 2018, Wagner attacked US-backed Kurdish forces in
Syria in an attempt to take an oil field. Wagner and their allies
suffered dozens of casualties when the US responded with airpower.
The Washington Post reported Prigozhin was in close contact with
Russian and Syrian military officials before the 7 Feb action. The
connections between Prigozhin and Wagner have been the subject of
press coverage in Russia and the United States. Wagner is led by
Dmitry Utkin, who was once head of security for Prigozhin. A person
by the name of Dmitry Utkin was also listed as director general of
Prigozhin's Concord Management. Since 2011, Prigozhin's mother
Violetta Prigozhina has been the owner of Concord. Concord and
Prigozhin denied any connection to Wagner, however in Nov 2016 the
company confirmed to Russian media that the same Dmitry Utkin leading
the Wagner Group was now in charge of Prigozhin's food businesses.
Wagner has also been reported to be fighting in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russia forces.
In July 2018, 3 Russian journalists working for a news organization
often critical of the Russian government were murdered in the Central
African Republic, where they had been attempting to investigate the
activities of the Wagner Group in that country. The Russian govt had
begun a collaboration with the president of the Central African
Republic in Oct 2017. In its response to the killings, Russia's
foreign ministry stressed that the dead journalists had been
traveling without official accreditation.
In April 2022, during Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it was
reported that Prigozhin travelled to the Donbas to oversee personally
Wagner Group's campaign. He was pictured wearing military fatigues with Russian Duma member Vitaly Milonov who had travelled to the front line.
Internet Research Agency
------------------------
Prigozhin is alleged to have financed and directed a network of
companies including a company called the Internet Research Agency
Ltd., Concord Management and Consulting Company and one other related
company. The 3 companies are accused of Internet trolling and attempting
to influence the 2016 US presidential elections and other activity to influence political events outside Russia.
Russian journalist Andrey Soshnikov reported that Alexey Soskovets,
who had participated in Russian youth political community, was directly connected to the offices of Internet Research in Olgino. His company, North-Western Service Agency, won 17 or 18 (according to different
sources) contracts for organizing celebrations, forums and sport
competitions for authorities of Saint Petersburg. The agency was the
only participant in half of those bids. In the summer of 2013 the agency
won a tender for providing freight services for participants of Seliger camp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Prigozhin
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