The man from the shadows confesses everything / He threw everything in Putin’s face and said clearly what he thinks about the war: Vladimir, We are losing!

The Washington Post earlier reported that a prominent but unnamed Russian insider met face-to-face with Putin and told him that his military tactics in Ukraine were leading to defeat.

The Post also reported that the exchange was characterized as important enough to be included in U.S. President Joe Biden’s daily briefing.

Now it’s been revealed who he is.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group financier known as “Putin’s cook,” is the man who told Putin he was losing the war in Ukraine, according to U.S. officials who have read the dossier and wished to remain anonymous.

Prigozhin’s criticism only reinforces what he has been saying publicly for weeks, officials claim. But the fact that he felt comfortable and safe while criticizing Putin on his territory clearly suggests how influential he is in the Kremlin. Also, what happened between Putin and Chief Wagner demonstrates how shaky the position of the Russian defense establishment actually is, after months of mistakes and losses on the battlefield.

Prigozhin’s frustration with the Russian defence ministry and the tensions between him and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu were also the subject of a separate US intelligence report circulated among officials in Washington, sources said.

THE MAN FROM THE SHADOWS CONFESSED EVERYTHING

Prigozhin has for years operated in the shadows and denied any links to the notorious Wagner mercenary group and internet troll factory in St. Petersburg, which US authorities claim he financed to interfere in the 2016 US presidential campaign. He has also helped promote the Kremlin’s foreign policy objectives outside formal structures and has earned the nickname “Putin’s Chef” for his ownership of restaurants in St. Petersburg that Putin once frequented and catering businesses with lucrative russian state and city contracts, according to the Washington Post.

But in recent weeks, Prigozhin has been appearing in public on his own. For the first time, he has admitted to leading Wagner and publicly attacked the Russian military leadership for wrong decisions, reports Jutarnji list.

Thus, according to a US intelligence report circulating in Washington, Prigozhin expressed to Putin his opinion that the Russian defence ministry relies too much on Wagner and does not give the mercenary group enough money and resources to fulfil its mission in Ukraine. US intelligence officials believe that it was Prigozhin who posted a recent video on social media showing Wagner’s soldiers complaining about the lack of basic food and supplies, in order to use the video as a means to put pressure on the Kremlin to increase funding for his mercenary group.

– Prigozhin’s decision to confront Putin is just the latest sign of his discontent, – said a US official who read the report.

But on Monday evening, Prigozhin denied to the Washington Post that he had recently met Putin.

– I have not communicated personally with Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin recently, nor do I intend to do so in the near future. I have not criticised the management of the armed forces of the Russian Federation during the conflict in Ukraine at all. Therefore, I cannot comment on anything – he said, adding that he had no right to criticise or praise the work of the Russian Armed Forces, as he is not a military expert.

He also said that he had not seen the footage of Wagner’s forces complaining about the lack of food and supplies.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the alleged interaction between Prigozhin and Putin.

NOTORIOUS PARAMILITARY GROUP

Since the beginning of the war, his paramilitary group Wagner, made up of battle-hardened veterans accused of human rights violations and operating outside the official Russian military structure, has been leading an offensive to capture Bakhmut, a city in the Donetsk region under the control of Ukrainian forces and one of the last cities that the Russians could conquer in the near future. Some analysts see the situation in Bakhmut as an attempt to prove that the Wagners can advance even if the rest of the Russian army is lagging behind.

– Prigozhin has indeed risen up the hierarchy in recent months. The war has brought him closer to Putin than ever before. People like Prigozhin and Kremlin-appointed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov are publicly criticising the Russian military, so the shadow aspect of the Russian state is becoming more visible, said Marlene Laruelle, director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian studies at George Washington University./Oslobodjenje/