Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin, Nicknamed Putin’s Chef, Head of the Wagner Mercenary Group, Now Calling for Armed Uprising Against Russia?

The head of private military contractor Wagner called for an armed uprising on Friday aimed at ousting Russia’s defense minister. Russian security services reacted quickly by launching a criminal investigation against Yevgeny Prigozhin. He has previously criticized the country’s military leadership for failures in the war in Ukraine, and is known for his long-running feud with the Defense Ministry. Here’s a look at 62-year-old Prigozhin and Wagner’s role in the war:

What did Prigozhin say?

Prigozhin posted a series of angry videos and audio recordings in which he accused Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of ordering Friday’s rocket attack on Wagner’s field camps in Ukraine, where his troops are fighting on Russia’s side. Prigozhin said that his soldiers would now punish Shoigu in an armed rebellion and urged the army not to resist.

Prigozhin declared, “This is not a military coup, but a march of justice.” The Defense Ministry has denied the rocket attack. The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which is part of the Federal Security Services, or FSB, said he would be investigated for calling for an armed insurrection.

The FSB urged Wagner’s contract soldiers to arrest Prigozhin and refuse to obey his “criminal and treacherous orders”. It called his statements “stabbing Russian soldiers in the back” and said they tantamount to inciting armed conflict in Russia.

Tass reported that riot police and the National Guard were deployed to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure.

Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?

Prigozhin was convicted of robbery and assault in 1981 and sentenced to 12 years in prison. After his release, he opened a restaurant business in St. Petersburg in the 1990s. It was in this capacity that he came to know the current President Vladimir Putin, who was then the deputy mayor of the city.

Prigozhin used that connection to develop a catering business and won lucrative Russian government contracts, earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef”. He later expanded into other areas, including the media and the infamous Internet “troll factory”, which led to his being indicted in the US for interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In January, Prigozhin admitted founding, leading and financing the shady Wagner Company.

Where has Wagner worked?

Wagner was first seen in eastern Ukraine shortly after the separatist conflict began in April 2014, weeks after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Supporting a separatist insurgency in the Donbass, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, Russia has refused to send its arms and troops there despite ample evidence to the contrary. Involving private contractors in the fight allowed Moscow to maintain a degree of denial.

Prigozhin’s company was called Wagner after the surname of its first commander, Dmitry Utkin, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian Army special forces. It soon established a reputation for brutality and ruthlessness. Wagner personnel were also deployed to Syria, where Russia supported the government of President Bashar Assad in the civil war. In Libya, he fought alongside the forces of Commander Khalifa Hifter. The group has also worked in the Central African Republic and Mali.

Prigozhin has reportedly used Wagner’s deployments to Syria and African countries to secure lucrative mining contracts. US Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said in January that the company was using its access to gold and other resources in Africa to finance operations in Ukraine.

Some Russian media alleged that Wagner was involved in the 2018 murder of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic who were investigating the group’s activities. The murders remain unsolved.

What is Wagner’s reputation?

Western countries and UN experts have accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights violations throughout Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali. In 2021, the European Union accused the group of “serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings” and of carrying out “destabilising activities” in the Central African Republic, Libya, Syria and Ukraine .

The video turns out to show some of the activities that have contributed to Wagner’s fearsome reputation. A 2017 online video showed a group of armed men, allegedly Wagner contractors, torturing and beating a Syrian to death with a hammer before dismembering and burning his body. Russian authorities ignored requests for an investigation by media and rights activists.

In 2022, another video showed a former Wagner contractor being beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to Ukrainian territory and was deported. Despite public outcry and calls for an investigation, the Kremlin turned a blind eye.

What is Wagner’s role in Ukraine?

Wagner played an increasingly visible role in the battle as regular Russian troops suffered heavy casualties and lost territory in humiliating setbacks. Prigozhin visited Russian prisons to recruit fighters, and promised them a pardon if they survived a half-year tour of front-line duty with Wagner. Interviewed in May, he said that he had recruited 50,000 convicts, of whom about 10,000 were killed at Bakhmut; An equal number of his own fighters have also been killed there.

He said he had 50,000 men “at the best of times”, of whom about 35,000 were on the front lines at all times. He did not say whether those numbers included convicts. The US estimated that Wagner had approximately 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. A US official says that of the 20,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since December, about half were Wagner’s troops at Bakhmut.

The US estimates that Wagner is spending about $100 million a month on the fight. In December, Washington accused North Korea of ​​supplying weapons, including rockets and missiles, to a Russian company in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Both Wagner and North Korea denied the reports.

How has Prigozhin criticized the army of Russia?

If the US allegation is true, Wagner’s access to North Korean weapons may reflect its long-running dispute with the Russian military leadership, which dates back to the company’s creation. Prigozhin took full credit for the capture of the salt-mining town of Soledar in the Donetsk region in Ukraine in January and accused the Russian Defense Ministry of trying to steal Wagner’s glory. He repeatedly complained that the Russian army had failed to provide Wagner with enough ammunition to capture Bakhmut and threatened to pull out his men.

In Ukraine, soldiers called Wagner contractors recorded a video in which they cursed General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army, and accused him of failing to provide ammunition. Prigozhin also blamed Shoigu for the criticism, accusing Russian military leaders of incompetence. His frequent complaints are unprecedented for Russia’s tightly controlled political system, in which only Putin can level such criticism.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last month that Prigozhin’s comments criticizing the war “could be his way of being kind of disgusting … for whatever he’s been able to accomplish in Bakhmut”. Claiming credit, but at the same time trying to publicly embarrass the Ministry of Defense, that the cost in blood and treasure was borne by Wagner, not the Russian military.

Prigozhin, once a shadowy figure, has rapidly raised his public profile, boasting almost daily about Wagner’s supposed victories, mocking his enemies and complaining about military officers. Asked recently by the media about comparing him to Grigory Rasputin, a mystic who made a fatal impression on the last Tsar of Russia by claiming to have the power to cure his son’s hemophilia, Prigozhin said, “I Blood doesn’t stop, but I bleed.” Enemies of our motherland.”