Who is the man behind the coup attempt?: The rise of Yevgeny Prigozhin

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Wagner has been the most famous mercenary group in the world since the war in Ukraine at the latest. Their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, 62, has become the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine more than any other Russian general. Russian President Vladimir Putin (70) is heavily dependent on Prigozhin and his mercenaries. Since February 24, 2022, Wagner has been supporting regular Russian troops in the war.

However, on June 24, 2023, the tide turned. Prigozhin – who has been raging against the Russian military leadership for months – has declared war on his native Russia. His supporters are already talking about becoming Russia’s next president. But who is the man who wants to dethrone Kremlin chief Putin?

Prigozhin was born in the same city as Putin: Saint Petersburg, then Leningrad. After a less successful career as a winter sports enthusiast, things went downhill for the still young Prigozhin.

He first made a name for himself as a criminal in public. In 1979, at the age of 18, Prigozhin was sentenced to two years in prison for theft. During his probation, he committed a series of burglaries and robberies. In 1981, a court sentenced him to 13 years in prison. He had just turned 20 years old.

Soviet prisons were brutal places. Criminologist Laura Piacentini confirms this to the British magazine ‘The Economist’. They were institutions dedicated to a system of “ruthless, ruthless, inhumane violence”. What his time in prison did to Prigozhin, one can only guess.

After only nine years, Prigozhin was released early. According to his own statements, his new start began with the sale of hot dogs in St. Petersburg. It was a lucrative business and he soon exchanged fast food for gastronomy. His restaurants were popular. So popular that even the then deputy mayor of St. Petersburg ate there: Vladimir Putin.

The local politician was apparently very impressed by Prigozhin’s cooking skills at the time. Putin’s rise to power put Prigozhin in his slipstream. After Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, Prigozhin became the preferred caterer for major state events.

This role brought him close to the most powerful man in the country, not to mention several heads of state in the world. Photographers captured him standing next to former US President George W. Bush (76) or the current British King Charles (74).

This feature earned Prigozhin the nickname “Putin’s cook”. A label that the die-hard Prigozhin does not like at all, as he himself repeatedly affirms: “I am not Putin’s chef, I can’t cook at all!” It soon became clear that he never saw himself as a chef, but rather as a general.

How exactly Prigozhin made it from cook and caterer to leader of a feared mercenary remains unclear. There are a number of legends about his military rise – none of which have been independently confirmed. One thing is clear: Putin played an important role in this development. In addition, Prigozhin’s connection with the Wagner group was concealed for a long time.

According to research by the “New York Times” from 2017, he – together with the Russian neo-Nazi Dmitri Utkin (53) – has been involved in the creation of the private military organization Gruppe Wagner since 2012.

The task of the group: the “implementation of Russian interests in crisis areas”. Especially if it is too risky for the Russian state to officially participate. The Wagner group is mainly active on the African continent – ​​and since 2014 in Ukraine to this day.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Prigozhin has at least presented himself as the boss of the feared mercenaries. At first, however, his men played only a marginal role in the war in Ukraine.

Until September 2022, videos surfaced of Prigozhin recruiting in a Russian prison. Hundreds of men surround him as he tells them, ‘God and Allah can get you out of here – in a coffin. I can get you out of here alive.” All they have to do is fight for Wagner in Ukraine. He made them a promise many couldn’t resist: “Under no circumstances will you return to prison.”

According to the British Ministry of Defense, there were about 50,000 Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine at one point, four out of five of them former prisoners. In January, Prigozhin announced that his “musicians” had taken the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine.

In February, his men engaged in continuous fighting around the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. In May, the ten-month battle seemed to be coming to an end: Wagner announced the capture of the city. And almost simultaneously their withdrawal from Bakhmut and the Ukraine.

Prigozhin’s announcement that he was withdrawing his troops from Ukraine and refocusing on his activities in Africa came amid fierce internal disputes between himself and the Russian high command. For weeks, Prigozhin insulted the Russian military leadership in short videos. Accused them of wrongdoing. Not supplying enough ammunition. To fail completely.

The tirades culminated in Prigozhin’s open declaration of war on the Russian government – and he announced the occupation of the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Kremlin chief Putin responded promptly — and promised retaliation, Prigozhin urgently warned. It was no use, Prigozhin made it clear on Saturday afternoon: “We are not giving up!”

According to experts, Prigozhin faces a difficult, almost impossible fight. Why isn’t he giving up? Those who know him suspect that Prigozhin’s only motivating factor was neither money nor power, according to The Guardian. And that’s despite collecting plenty of both on the way up.

Instead, they say, he is driven by the excitement of the hunt, the belief that he is fighting corrupt elites on behalf of the common man, and the desire to crush his rivals. Now he risks being destroyed by his own pride.

Source: Blick