Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin? The Wagner Group’s leader who is in charge of a civil war in Russia

The proprietor of private defense force contractor Wagner Community, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has marched his mercenary forces into the Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don, in what many like called a declaration of civil war on the Russian pronounce. Read more right here.

After the Kremlin accused him of “armed rebel,” Prigozhin promised to take all foremost methodology to destabilize Russia’s defense force management.

Right here’s what we all learn about the Wagner Community’s leader:

Yevgeny Prigozhin, born in Russia in 1961, is a high-profile, aggressive mercenary leader who has identified Russian President Vladimir Putin since the Nineties. Accurate throughout the Ukraine war, he seen his political profile upward thrust in Russia.

Essentially based totally totally on Politico, Mr Prigozhin and Mr Putin part the the same fatherland, St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). He bought his first felony conviction in 1979, outmoded 18, and acquired a suspended two-and-a-half of-year sentence for theft. Two years later, he turned into as soon as sentenced to 13 years in prison for theft and theft, 9 of which he served on the aid of bars.

Upon his release from prison, Mr Prigozhin place up a series of stalls selling sizzling dogs. Within about a years, he turned into as soon as then in a position to begin costly eating locations in St Petersburg. It turned into as soon as there that he started mixing with the high and mighty of St Petersburg and then Russia.

The BBC reported that he extinct that connection to possess a catering alternate and obtained lucrative Russian government contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.” He later expanded into other areas, including media and an contaminated cyber web “troll factory” that resulted in his indictment in the US for meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Earlier this year in January, the 62-year-historical acknowledged founding, main and financing the dismal non-public mercenary company Wagner, an organisation that has worked alongside the Russian military at some level of the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Significantly, western international locations and United Countries experts like accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses during Africa, including in Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.

Prigozhin has been described as a billionaire with an infinite fortune constructed on pronounce contracts, although the extent of his wealth is unknown. One amongst the easiest-identified photography displays him on the Kremlin in 2011, bending down over a seated Putin and offering him a dish while the Russian leader seems aid with an approving learn about.

He turned into as soon as sanctioned by Washington which accused him of playing a job in meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, namely through his cyber web “troll factory”.

Prigozhin on the time denied any involvement and in 2020 asked for US$50 billion in compensation from the US. In July 2018, three journalists researching Wagner’s operations in the Central African Republic for an investigative media outlet had been killed in an ambush.

While gaining public acclaim in Russia as Wagner spearheaded the take hang of of quite loads of key Ukrainian cities including Bakhmut, Prigozhin has furthermore blasted what he says is systemic mismanagement and lying in the Russian defence ministry.

Prigozhin has been locked in a bitter months-long energy fight with the defence ministry as his ragtag forces spearheaded the costly battles for shrimp good points in jap Ukraine.

“The execrable that the defense force management of the country brings has to be stopped,” Prigozhin said on Friday, after claiming the defence ministry had launched strikes on Wagner bases.

Russia’s FSB security carrier spoke back by opening a felony probe into calls to stage “an armed mutiny,” even supposing Prigozhin has assured Russians he turned into as soon as calling for “justice” and “no longer a coup”.

Prigozhin who accused the Russian defense force of attempting to “rob” victories from Wagner and slammed Moscow’s “frightful paperwork” for grinding progress on the ground, instantly blamed Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other senior officials for his fighters’ deaths, claiming Moscow had no longer supplied sufficient ammunition.

The Wagner Community’s leader did no longer straggle after Putin in his tirade, as a substitute alleging that for better than a year and over 350,000 casualties into the war, a essential section of which Mr Prigozhin’s community is accountable for, the Russian president had been deceived by Mr Shoigu.

“The war turned into as soon as wanted … so that Shoigu might perhaps perhaps also become a Marshal, so that he might perhaps perhaps also obtain a 2d Hero Star… the war wasn’t for demilitarising or de-Nazifying Ukraine. It turned into as soon as wanted for another big title,” Mr Prigozhin said on Telegram.

Now not like Russia’s generals, who had been criticised for shirking the battles, the stocky and bald Prigozhin normally poses for photography alongside mercenaries allegedly on the front traces.

In a defense force front already marked by confusion and mismanagement, Wagner’s turning on the Russian defense force management spells even extra problems for the country’s war effort. The transfer might perhaps perhaps also furthermore impact the strength of Putin’s regime at house in phrases of public aid for the war effort. The mobilization of a total bunch of hundreds of younger males has been intently criticized since the war’s starting. A Russian recordsdata company reported that police forces had been working to proper government buildings in Moscow early Saturday after recordsdata of Prigozhin’s statements broke.

American officials are intently gazing the downside, in retaining with the NSC. Ukraine is conducting a counter-offensive against Russian forces. With funding for future American abet to the country in quiz, a a hit Ukrainian offensive against the Russians might perhaps perhaps also aid boost U.S. domestic aid for the war.

Before the unique faceoff with Russian officials, Prigozhin toured Russian prisons to recruit Wagner fighters, offering to pardon their crimes if they served a half of-month tour on the Ukrainian front traces.

In Might perhaps perhaps, he boasted in an interview that he recruited 50,000 fighters, about 10,000 of which had been killed at some level of the grueling and bloody take hang of of the metropolis of Bakhmut. The metropolis has been Russia’s handiest major reach since the begin up of the war.

Almost half of of the 20,000 Russian troopers killed in Ukraine since December had been Wagner’s troops in Bakhmut. The US estimates Wagner had about 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. It’s furthermore speculated that Wagner Community is spending about $100 million a month fighting in Ukraine.

With Russian presidential elections coming in 2024, many had speculated that Prigozhin would be Putin’s successor, must always the longtime leader settle no longer to bound for reelection.