Yevgeny Prigozhin (1 June 1961-23 August 2023) was a Russian oligarch and key ally of Vladimir Putin who controlled a network of pro-government companies, in addition to running the Internet Research Agency and Wagner Group. Once nicknamed "Putin's Chef" for his closeness to Putin and his history as a restauranteur and catering business owner, Prigozhin fell out with Putin and his inner circle in 2023 as a result of the botched 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, during which PMC Wagner suffered heavy losses due to a lack of supplies and support from Sergey Shoygu's Ministry of Defense. In June 2023, Prigozhin led PMC Wagner in a "March for Justice" against the military headquarters at Rostov-on-Don and then towards Moscow, demanding the removal of Shoygu and army chief-of-staff Valery Gerasimov from office, and declaring that Russia's rationale for the Russo-Ukrainian War was built on lies. While his forces posed a major threat to the Russian capital, they failed to obtain any military, political, or civilian support, and Prigozhin decided to halt his advance rather than risk unwanted bloodshed. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal under which Prigozhin could go into exile in Belarus while the criminal charges against him in Russia would be dropped, and Wagner would return to its frontline positions; this eliminated Prigozhin's influence, which had quickly risen and fallen during the war in Ukraine.
Biography[]
Yevgeny Prigozhin was born in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union in 1961. In 1981, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for robbery, fraud, and teenage prostitution, and he was released after nine years. In 1990, after his release, he and his stepfather set up a highly successful hot dog company, and he also owned the "Old Customs House" in Saint Petersburg and was nicknamed "Putin's Chef" for owning several restaurants and catering businesses which hosted foreign dinners for President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin also had several underground operations, including secretly running the Wagner Group private military company, an army of cheap mercenaries which the Russian government employed in the Central African Civil War, the Second Libyan Civil War, the Syrian Civil War, and the Donbass War. Their main base in Russia at Molkino was guarded by Russian Army soldiers and blocked off to the public; it was nominally home to an Orthodox Christian shrine (which was built by a Prigozhin company), but the complex secretly housed the Wagner Group's main base. Prigozhin also funded Russian-language programming in the Central African Republic to deepen relations between the nations and led the Internet Research Agency, which was responsible for meddling in the 2016 presidential election in the United States to derail Hillary Clinton's campaign.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Wagner Group greatly expanded in size and scope, accruing between 25,000 and 50,000 fighters through the recruitment of both Russian Army veterans and civilians such as bodybuilders and even prisoners. Wagner served as Russia's shock troops at the Battle of Bakhmut, during which Prigozhin began to criticize the Russian Ministry of Defense for failing to adequately supply his troops, and for throwing their mobilzied soldiers into a meatgrinder. In May 2023, Prigozhin even threatened to withdraw his group from Bakhmut, only to rescind his orders and oversee Russia's capture of the town. His relations with the army high command continued to deteriorate, however, as he criticized Sergey Shoygu's children for lavishly spending as other young men were being sent to their deaths.
On 23 June 2023, the Russian Air Force bombed Wagner's positions and killed 2,000 men; this was not the first time that the Russian military was said to have fired on Wagner forces. Prigozhin retaliated by leading a "March for Justice" to overthrow the Russian high command, and he declared that the rationale for Russia's invasion of Ukraine was built on lies and was meant to benefit the Russian elite, while the military concealed casualty figures as up to 1,000 Russian soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing on a daily basis. As the Wagnerites captured Rostov-on-Don and then Voronezh, Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov formally ordered Prigozhin's arrest, while Putin accused Prigozhin of attempting a coup against him and warned of the fall of Russia if Prigozhin's insurrection was to succeed. While Wagner's lightning offensive nearly reached Moscow, Prigozhin found that he lacked the military and political support he anticipated, and he accepted a deal brokered by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, under which he would go into exile in Belarus and have all criminal charges against him dropped, while PMC Wagner would return to its frontline positions (with those who did not participate in the coup attempt being allowed to sign contracts with the Russian Army). On 29 August 2023, Prigozhin, Wagner founder Dmitry Utkin, and eight others were killed when their private jet crashed in Tver Oblast during a flight from Moscow to Saint Petersburg; a Wagner-associated Telegram channel claimed the jet was shot down by Russian air defenses.