Yevgeny Prigozhin: Putin’s “chef” and a man for the grunt work

A shadowy businessman and head of the powerful paramilitary, Wagner is appearing in public more and more often, criticizing the Russian General Staff and commenting on the war. Many think that Yevgeny Prigozhin has ambitions to become the head of the Kremlin.

On the eve of the start of the new war year in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin (61), as the leader of the notorious Wagner mercenary army, appeared quite confidently in public. He visited the war zone, criticising the Russian military leadership.

The head of state, Vladimir Putin, lets him do as he pleases, as if his paramilitary formation, which includes many convicted criminals, were actually in power. In the past, Putin has even claimed that the Russian state has nothing to do with Wagner’s group.

Putin and Prigozhin have known each other for a long time. When Putin, a former KGB officer, was still working in the St Petersburg city administration, he is said to have frequented Prigozhin’s restaurant. That is why this businessman, who became rich in the chaotic 1990s and has already served time for robbery, was nicknamed “Putin’s chef”.

Prigozhin is known as the head of the Concord business empire, among other things for his “bot factory”, a large organisation of people spreading disinformation online. They are suspected of interfering in the US elections.

The US FBI is therefore launching a reward for information leading to Prigozhin’s arrest.

Wagner played an important role in the war

Prigozhin has long avoided publicity, especially when his mercenary paramilitary unit started operating in the Donbas in 2014. But the longer the invasion of Ukraine lasts, Prigozhin appears more and more offensive in public.

He has been visiting Russian prisons to recruit convicted criminals, promising that their remaining sentences will be wiped out when the war is over. The Kremlin apparently does not mind that Prigozhin, without an official position, does and says whatever he wants.

“I can only say that the private military company Vagner today plays one of the most important roles in the area where the special military operation is taking place,” Prigozhin wrote on Telegram.

Putin’s man for the grunt work comments on war events almost every day. For example, he denied White House allegations that Russia is supplying weapons from North Korea and even claimed that Wagner is buying large quantities of US weapons despite sanctions.

It is not always clear when Prigozhin is making fun of the West with his Telegram posts and when he is serious.

The White House recently estimated that there are currently around 50,000 Wagners in Ukraine, 40,000 of whom were imprisoned before going to the front.

Prigozhin was recently named “Personality of the Year” by the OCCRP, an international investigative journalism network that investigates organised crime and corruption. For the first time, after rulers such as Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus) or Nicolas Maduro (Venezuela), the jury members have awarded this shameful “prize” to a person who has never held an official position.

“He is a fighter against corruption”, says investigative journalist and one of the founders of the OCCRP, Dru Sullivan. “He fights and kills to establish corruption. Wagner is nothing but an organised crime group whose activities have been sanctioned by the Russian government.”

Political ambitions?

Before Ukraine, Wagner was active in Syria, but his blood trail goes to the Central African Republic, Sudan, Somalia and Mali.

Members of this paramilitary unit are accused of murder, rape and torture, including in the suburbs of Kiev. In Africa, Prigozhine is linked to gold and diamond mines.

Prigozhine’s possible ambitions to come to power in Russia have been analysed on several occasions by the US Institute for the Study of War. His “populist” stance was pointed out when he recently suggested on Russian RT television that Russian billionaires should be stripped of everything they own so that they too could contribute to the war.

Is Prigozhin really in the game as a possible successor to Putin? Political analyst Abbas Galyamov believes that the “presidential chef” has a solid approval rating and that in a situation where everyone in Moscow, including Putin himself, has lost approval ratings.

“It seems as if the regime is being preserved mainly thanks to Prigozhin,” says Galyamov. His media involvement may give the impression that Prigozhin could take Putin’s place, this expert adds.

Russia will hold presidential elections in about a year’s time. However, Galyamov believes that Prigozhin has no real chance. He says that fear of the all-powerful Prigozhin unites the Russian elite. Galyamov is convinced that they will find a way to prevent Prigozhin’s election./DW/