Prigozhin’s secret calendar has been leaked – he reveals this about relations with Putin’s elite Armin Laschet who ranted against the AfD – and is celebrated

Although rarely seen in public before the war in Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin has been one of the most influential people in Putin’s inner circle of power over the past decade. The head of the Wagner mercenary group often met people who are now politically close to Putin. This is especially clear with the notes from his personal appointment calendar, which hackers were able to steal at the beginning of this year.

The hacker group with the Russian name “Bogatyri”, in German “knight”, handed over the calendar to the editors of “Welt”, “Politico”, “Dossier Center” and “Business Insider” in early 2023. The data contained therein shows how well-networked the Wagner boss was in Putin’s inner circle.

Prigozhin had 75 appointments with Ruslan Zalikov over the past ten years. Zalikov has been deputy defense minister since 2012 – number four in the Russian military after all.

According to an article in Business Insider, Prigozhin had nearly as many meetings — 73 — with the chief of staff of Putin’s Executive Office, Anton Vaino.

In addition, Prigozhin often met with the Russian military leadership. The calendar is said to contain 36 appointments with the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Army. The post is held by Valeri Gerasimov, who repeatedly accused Prigozhin of making tactical mistakes in the war against Ukraine before the Wagner uprising.

In addition, the Wagner boss threatened Gerasimov’s public execution if the Wagner group took power in Russia.

Prigozhin met «General Armageddon»

33 entries in the calendar refer to appointments with Alexei Dyumin. He was one of Putin’s bodyguards before he became the governor of the Russian Republic of Tula. Until Wagner’s uprising, he was considered a close ally of the Kremlin boss – but he has since become the focus of investigations in Russia because of his close ties to Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Further mentions can be found on Sergei Surovikin, who was nicknamed “General Armageddon” by his own fighters for his brutality in the Syrian war.

Surovikin is currently under house arrest because of his connections to the Wagner group. His Wagner VIP ID number, which was allegedly assigned to him according to “Business Insider,” shows that he was a major contender in the mercenary ranks. In Prigozchin’s calendar, however, he would have been entered under his real name.

What is interesting about the report on Prigozhin’s calendar is that there is almost no information about meetings between the Wagner boss and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The “Business Insider” explains this with code names that Wagner people like to use. So there would have been meetings between Putin and Prigozhin – but according to the article it is unlikely that these would have been clearly marked as such on the calendar.

Calendar ends just before the start of the war in Ukraine

Shortly before the start of the war against Ukraine, the calendar ends. There is apparently no information about what Prigozhin did shortly before the Russian army invaded Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the Russian offensive war in February 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin has become increasingly public. Previously, his Wagner mercenaries were unofficially deployed in the Syrian civil war and conflicts on the African continent – in many places they are said to have committed horrific war crimes. In the war against Ukraine, Wagner recruited fighters from Russian prisons and was able to contribute to the invasion.

However, Wagner has fallen out of favor since the mercenary revolt on June 24, when military vehicles marched towards Moscow. Wagner fighters received an offer to sign official contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Yevgeny Prigozhin himself had to go into exile in Belarus.

Sources

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(t-online/dsc)