The chef who “kicked open” Putin’s door

“The elected head of Russia’s second largest city is a fraud,” said the press release of the St. Petersburg company “Concord Catering and Management” on October 31.

The company’s statement addressed to the General Prosecutor’s Office says that the prosecutor’s office should “investigate the fact that Governor Beglov created an organized criminal group in the territory of St. Petersburg in order to embezzle the state budget and enrich corrupt officials around him.”

Time to attack a public official

RFE/RL’s Mike Ekel writes that considering the constant intersection of politics and business in Russia, it would be better not to pay attention to it. However, this time, the businessman who attacked the elected state official, who owes his entire fortune to catering contracts with the Kremlin, and “Wagner” is a private military Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known as the owner of the company and the “troll factory”.

The history of Prigogine’s conflict with Beglov goes back several years. However, this latest attack is Prigogine’s, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine. Russia it coincides with his coming into the limelight in politics.

Russia under its law, it is currently forbidden to criticize, “discredit” the armed forces or employ private mercenary companies. However, Prigozhin has been criticizing the attitude of the country’s command to the occupation for months, and has been leading the “Wagner” group for years.

Opportunist

“It seems clear that Prigozhin found a favorable opportunity to expand his public profile. He is nothing but an opportunist. His career shows it. Any activity that supports war can be rewarded,” says Candace Rondeaux, a researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington and author of the 2019 report “Decoding The Wagner Group.”

“He is right now political is at the peak of its power and influence. Because the essence of this phase of the war gives him the opportunity to play the role of the captain of the villainous state,” he says.

Russia to Andrey Kolesnikova, a political expert and leading researcher at the Washington-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a mystic who had influence over the last tsarist family in Russia in the 1910s monk Gregory drew an analogy between Rasputin and him. “Now many people think that this person can be the next candidate for the presidency, or a figure who can enter the highest levels of politics,” Kolesnikov said in an interview to “Nastoyasheye Vremya”.

Although Prigozhin began his career in restaurant and catering business in his hometown of St. Petersburg, his financial success was linked to the Kremlin. food started after concluding contracts for services. The word “Concord” appears in the names of several related companies.

“Wagner”

While Wagner’s origins are unclear, Russian journalists and researchers such as Rondo say the company originated from a network of private security companies run by former special services fighters.

The group’s soldiers created a hotbed of conflict in Russia in 2014 of Ukraine It is believed that he fought in the Donbas region.

After the Kremlin’s large-scale intervention in Syria in 2015 to protect the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the cruelty of “Wagner” soldiers echoed around the world. In Syria, they are diplomats, oil-gas they guarded their establishments and trained local armed groups. It is also reported that “Wagner” mercenaries work in mines where diamonds and precious minerals are extracted in the Republic of South Africa (CAR).

Russian journalists Russia military they revealed that a former employee of the intelligence service named Dmitry Utkin was the head of “Wagner”. Prigogine’s ownership of the “Wagner” group remained an open secret for years. However, in September, Prigozhin himself “VKontakte” Russian social confirmed this fact on the media platform.

Troll factory

Another company financed by Prigogine and whose origins are mysterious is the “Internet Research Agency” in St. Petersburg. The company known as the “Russian troll factory”Facebook” and others social specializes in creating fake accounts, disinformation and propaganda on media platforms. Company name 2016 USA the president became famous in the context of allegations related to election interference.

Two years later USA The court indicted Prigozhin, 12 other Russian citizens and the Internet Research Agency. Last year, the FBI put Prigozhin on the wanted list.

Putin Wagner mercenaries were one of several irregular units fighting alongside the Russian army when they invaded Ukraine. “Wagner” mercenaries played an important role in the occupation of the cities of Mariupol and Severodonetsk. It is reported that they participated in the ongoing attack on Bakhmut settlement in Donetsk region.

A promise of freedom to prisoners

During the summer, when the war did not go the way the Russians wanted, the Russian military bloggers began voicing their displeasure with the command, accusing the Kremlin of not wanting to declare full mobilization or send more men into battle.

In September, Prigozhin took the initiative. “Telegram” shows that he promised freedom to prisoners in a state prison on the condition that they fight in Ukraine for six months video spread.

Putin appointed as the new commander of the occupying forces general Sergey Surovikin was previously the commander of the Russian forces in Syria. Prigogine welcomed his appointment. Surovik’s appointment was immediately followed by missile, aircraft and drone strikes on civilian targets in Ukraine.

“Surovik’s Prigogine is the man who created the conditions to become Prigogine,” says Rondo.

“Novaya Gazeta Europe” writes that Prigozhin’s bad relationship with the current elected governor of St. Petersburg was related to the financing of Beglov’s election campaign and the construction of residential complexes in the Gulf of Finland.

In September, Prigozhin announced the opening of a new business center called “Wagner Center” in St. Petersburg.

Does he express his displeasure directly to Putin?

Prigogine’s growing fame political It is not yet clear whether he will be able to turn it into a career. But Rondo says that if Prigogine becomes a politician, it will start from St. Petersburg, not from Moscow or anywhere else.

“He used his status and his association with Wagner to criticize his rivals in elite circles and strengthen his own authority,” said a report from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War last week.

“The Washington Post” writes that Prigozhin expressed his dissatisfaction with the progress of the war directly to Putin. Newspaper and information about his secret conversation with Putin USA He also writes that he found his way into the intelligence reports.

“Their words are not true,” Kolesnikov told “Nastoyasheye Vremya”.

“Prigoghin is clearly a power-hungry. He is a very strict and quite cruel man. He has the charisma of a negative devil, and this charisma can compete with that of Putin. But now Putin needs him in this face, in this form. This [Priqojinə] it gradually gives more power and many different tasks,” he says.