Yevgeny Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
FILE - In this image taken from video released by Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram channel on Aug. 21, 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company speaks to a camera at an unknown location. Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putins rule.
As an instrument to project Russian power globally, his soldiers-for-hire were deployed to Africa to provide security for warlords and fought in Syria to shore up the regime of President Bashar Assad. On June 23, his forces left Ukraine and seized the military headquarters in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. He ordered them to roll toward Moscow, saying it was “not a military coup, but a march of justice” to unseat Shoigu.
Prigozhin lived most of his life in the shadows. The owner of a high-end restaurant, he won Kremlin catering ventures that earned him the nickname of “Putin’s chef,” but he was mostly known only in the rarefied circles of the elite. A recruitment video released earlier this week showed him at an undisclosed desert site in military fatigues and holding an assault rifle as he said his company was seeking “real warriors” and “continuing to fulfill the tasks” it had promised to carry out.During the final years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin was in prison — a decade by his own admission — although he never said for what crimes.
He also organized catering for Kremlin events and provided meals and utility services to the Russian military. An online video surfaced in November 2022 that showed a former Wagner contractor, who allegedly had gone over to the Ukrainian side but was later recaptured by Russia, beaten to death with a sledgehammer. The Kremlin turned a blind eye to it, despite public outrage and demands for an investigation.
“These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin said. “The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.”
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin challenged the Kremlin in a brief mutinyYevgeny Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule
Read more »
Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin challenged the Kremlin in a brief mutinyYevgeny Prigozhin made his name as the profane and brutal mercenary boss who mounted an armed rebellion that was the most severe and shocking challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.
Read more »
Yevgeny Prigozhin: Sweet Revenge, or Another Kremlin Coincidence?As I write this, we know very little about what happened to the Wagner mercenary group's boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, but we know a little something about coincidence.
Read more »
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was on passenger list of crashed business jet, authorities sayThe crash in Russia killed 10, authorities said. Unconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company.
Read more »
Russian dissident Yevgeny Prigozhin reported dead after a plane crash outside MoscowRussian military dissident Yevgeny Prigozhin has been reported dead in a fiery private jet crash north of Moscow. Prigozhin, the leader of the controversial Wagner paramilitary group, was on the pa…
Read more »
Mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on list of those aboard crashed Russian planeUnconfirmed media reports said the jet belonged to Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private military company.
Read more »