From a convicted legal to Putin’s chef earlier than changing into the chief of one of many world’s most infamous mercenary teams, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s destiny has been entwined with the Kremlin for many years.
A trusted authorities contractor of years, Prigozhin and his Wagner Group fought in Ukraine and has been blamed for doing Russia’s soiled work in Syria and Africa.
But when he turned his males towards Moscow two months in the past, many inside Russia and past began questioning simply how lengthy he may final after drawing the fury of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Prigozhin minimize a take care of Putin and the chief of Belarus for a secure haven for himself and the lads concerned within the insurrection. He was reported to pop up periodically in Russia, and appeared in a recruitment video earlier this week.
But then on Wednesday Russia’s civil aviation company mentioned he was aboard a airplane that crashed north of Moscow, killing all 10 individuals on board.
Prigozhin was convicted of theft and assault in 1981, and sentenced to 12 years in jail. When he received out, he opened a restaurant business in St. Petersburg within the Nineteen Nineties. Putin was the town’s deputy mayor on the time.
He used that connection to develop a catering business and gained profitable Russian authorities contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.”
He later expanded into different areas, together with media and an notorious web “troll factory” that led to his indictment within the U.S. for meddling within the 2016 presidential election.
International presence
Wagner was first seen in motion in jap Ukraine quickly after a separatist battle erupted there in April 2014, within the weeks following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
At the time, Russia denied sending its personal weapons and troops regardless of ample proof on the contrary. The personal Wagner military gave Moscow a level of deniability.
Wagner personnel additionally deployed to Syria, the place Russia supported Bashar Assad’s regime in a civil battle. In Libya, they fought alongside forces of commander Khalifa Haftar. The group has additionally operated within the Central African Republic and Mali.
But it wasn’t till September 2022 that Prigozhin acknowledged founding, main and financing Wagner. By then, his mercenaries – together with males he’d recruited in Russian prisons – had been preventing and dying by scores in Ukraine, particularly within the shattered city of Bakhmut.
Prigozhin fostered Wagner’s popularity for ruthlessness, and the mercenaries have been accused by Western nations and U.N. consultants of human rights abuses all through Africa, together with in Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
A 2017 on-line video confirmed a gaggle of armed individuals, reportedly Wagner contractors, torturing a Syrian and beating him to demise with a sledgehammer earlier than mutilating and burning his physique.
In 2022, one other video confirmed a former Wagner contractor crushed to demise with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to the Ukrainian facet and was repatriated.
Despite public outrage and calls for for investigations, the Kremlin repeatedly turned a blind eye.
Wagner took an more and more seen function within the Ukraine battle as common Russian troops suffered heavy attrition and misplaced territory in humiliating setbacks.
Prigozhin toured Russian prisons to recruit fighters, promising pardons in the event that they survived a half-year tour of entrance line obligation with Wagner.
Major losses
In the interview in May, he claimed to have recruited 50,000 convicts, with about 35,000 males on the entrance strains always. He has additionally mentioned he had misplaced greater than 20,000 males – half of them convicts – within the battle for Bakhmut.
The U.S. has estimated Wagner had about 50,000 personnel preventing in Ukraine, together with 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts.
Prigozhin claimed full credit score in January for capturing the Donetsk area salt mining city of Soledar in Ukraine, and he accused the Russian Defense Ministry of making an attempt to steal Wagner’s glory. He repeatedly complained the Russian army failed to provide Wagner with ample ammunition to seize Bakhmut and threatened to drag out his males.
After the seize of Soldear, Prigozhin more and more raised his public profile, for months boasting nearly day by day about Wagner’s purported victories, sardonically mocking his enemies and complaining in profanity-laced diatribes concerning the army brass.
On June 23, he referred to as for an armed rebellion in opposition to the protection minister and headed from Ukraine towards Moscow along with his mercenaries. His forces took management of the army headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, the town in southern Russia close to the border with Ukraine, and continued their “march of justice,” till stopping a mere 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Russian capital.
Putin branded Prigozhin a traitor because the revolt unfolded. But the legal case in opposition to the mercenary chief on insurrection fees was later dropped. Unusually, the Kremlin mentioned Putin had a three-hour assembly with Prigozhin and Wagner Group commanders days after the insurrection.
Some variety of Wagner mercenaries headed to Belarus, however the destiny of each Prigozhin and his drive remained unclear.
U.S. President Joe Biden lately prompt Prigozhin was a marked man.
“If I were he, I’d be careful what I ate. I’d keep my eye on my menu,” Biden mentioned final month.
But the person who made his first fortune as a caterer was undaunted in his newest look Monday, telling would-be Wagner recruits his group was “making Russia even greater on all continents.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com
