Yevgeny Prigozhin

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Viktorovich and the family name is Prigozhin.

Yevgeny Prigozhin
Prigozhin in 2023
Native name	Евгений Пригожин
Birth name	Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (Евгений Викторович Пригожин)
Nickname(s)	"Putin's chef"
Born	1 June 1961 Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Died	23 August 2023(2023-08-23) (aged 62) (unconfirmed) Bologovsky District, Tver Oblast, Russia
Allegiance	Russia
Commands held	Wagner Group
Battles/wars	Russo-Ukrainian War Russian invasion of Ukraine Battle of Bakhmut Battle of Soledar Wagner Group rebellion
Awards	Hero of the Russian Federation Hero of the Donetsk People's Republic Hero of the Luhansk People's Republic
Alma mater	Leningrad Chemical and Pharmaceutical Institute
Spouse(s)	Lyubov Valentinovna Prigozhina
Children	3
Business information
Organizations	Wagner Group Internet Research Agency Concord Management and Consulting
Criminal information
Criminal status	Wanted by the FBI for electoral interference
Criminal charge	1979: theft 1981: robbery, fraud, involving minors in crime 2018: conspiracy to defraud the United States 2023: incitement to armed rebellion in Russia (dropped)
Penalty	Suspended sentence (1979) 12-year imprisonment (served 1981–1990)

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (Russian: Евгений Викторович Пригожин, IPA: [jɪvˈɡʲenʲɪj ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ prʲɪˈɡoʐɨn]; 1 June 1961 – presumed dead 23 August 2023) was a Russian oligarch and mercenary leader who was formerly a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin until he launched a rebellion in June 2023. Prigozhin was sometimes called "Putin's chef", as he owned restaurants and catering companies that provide services for the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies, notably the Wagner private military company, which was supported by the Russian state, as well as three companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 US elections. According to a 2022 investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin's activities "are tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".

After years of denying links to the Wagner Group, in September 2022 he confirmed that he was its founder. He stated that he founded it in May 2014, to support Russian proxy forces in the Donbas War against Ukraine. This admission was prompted by a viral video in 2022 in which Prigozhin was shown at a Russian prison recruiting inmates, promising them freedom if they served six months with the Wagner Group. His Wagner Group played an important role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It also supported Russian interests in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and several other countries. In November 2022, Prigozhin also admitted his role in Russian interference in US elections, saying such operations would continue. In February 2023, he stated he was the founder and long-time manager of the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company accused of online propaganda and disinformation.

Prigozhin's companies and associates (and formerly Prigozhin himself) face economic sanctions and criminal charges in the United States, and in the United Kingdom he remained a designated person under sanctions. The FBI offered a reward of up to $250,000 for information leading to the arrest of Prigozhin. In October 2020, the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against Prigozhin in connection with his financing of the activities of Wagner Group in Libya. In April 2022, new sanctions were imposed on him by the EU because of his role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Prigozhin openly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for corruption and for mishandling the war against Ukraine. On 23 June 2023, he used the Wagner Group to launch a rebellion against the Russian military leadership, accusing the Defense Ministry of shelling Wagner soldiers. Wagner captured the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and headed for Moscow. Negotiations led to the rebellion being called off the following day. Prigozhin agreed to move to Belarus and criminal charges against him for rebellion were dropped. Wagner mutineers would not be prosecuted if they agreed to either sign contracts with the Defense Ministry or move to Belarus.

On 23 August 2023, Prigozhin was "presumed dead" in a plane crash in Tver Oblast, north of Moscow, along with nine other people. Some speculated the plane was shot down by Russian forces.

Early life and education

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was born an only child on 1 June 1961 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia). His mother, Violetta Kirovna Prigozhina, was a hospital nurse. His father, Viktor Yevgenyevich Prigozhin, was a mining engineer who died when Yevgeny was nine. His grandfather, Yevgeny Ilyich Prigozhin, was a captain in the Red Army during World War II, who fought in the Battles of Rzhev and received a medal "For Courage". Prigozhin sponsored the 2020 war film Rzhev, based on a 1991 novel by Vyacheslav Kondratiev that mentions his grandfather.

His father and stepfather were Jewish. His great-uncle was Soviet scientist Yefim Ilyich Prigozhin. He settled with Yefim for several years during his childhood in the Ukrainian city of Zhovti Vody, where he worked in an open-pit uranium mine.

His stepfather, Samuil Fridmanovich Zharkoi, was a ski instructor and introduced Prigozhin to cross-country skiing. Aspiring to be a professional skier, he graduated from Leningrad Sports Boarding School No. 62 in 1977. However, he abandoned his sports career after an injury. He later worked as a fitness trainer at a children's sports school.

Criminal history and imprisonment

In 1979, 18-year-old Prigozhin was caught stealing and was given a suspended sentence of two years and six months in prison. He served his sentence working at a chemical plant in Veliky Novgorod.

In 1980, he returned to Leningrad and joined a gang. He participated in a burglary spree around Leningrad, before being caught after choking a woman on the street during a robbery, with him and accomplices then stealing the woman's earrings and boots. In 1981, he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment in a high-security penal colony for robbery, theft, fraud, and involving minors in criminal activity.

According to Prigozhin, he violated the terms of his solitary confinement "on a regular basis" until he was sent to general population in 1985, where he started to "read intensively" and worked as a lathe operator, tractor driver, and cabinet maker after receiving training at a vocational school. In 1988, the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union reduced his sentence to ten years on good behavior, noting that he had begun "corrective behavior". He was sent to a medium-security penal colony and was released in 1990.

In total, Prigozhin spent nine years in detention. Immediately after his release, he started attending the Leningrad Chemical and Pharmaceutical Institute to get a pharmaceutical degree, but failed to complete his studies. Prigozhin would later flaunt his prison past to convince prisoners to join the Wagner Group.

Early career and rise to prominence

Prigozhin (standing in background) hosted Russian President Putin and US President George W. Bush on his floating restaurant New Island in St. Petersburg on 25 May 2002

After his release from prison in 1990, Prigozhin began selling hot dogs alongside his mother and stepfather at the Apraksin Dvor open-air market in Leningrad. Soon, according to a New York Times interview with him, "the rubles were piling up faster than his mother could count them." After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin followed the entrepreneurial spirit of the times and founded or became involved in many new businesses.

From 1991 to 1997, Prigozhin was heavily involved in the grocery store business. He became 15% stakeholder and manager of Contrast, which was the first grocery store chain in Saint Petersburg and founded by his former classmate Boris Spektor.

Around the same time, Prigozhin became involved in the gambling business. Spektor and Igor Gorbenko brought Prigozhin on as CEO of Spectrum CJSC (Russian: ЗАО «Спектр»), which founded the first casinos in Saint Petersburg. This trio went on to create many other businesses together throughout the 1990s across various industries, including construction, marketing research, and foreign trade. Novaya Gazeta notes that this may be when Prigozhin met Vladimir Putin for the first time, as Putin was chairman of the supervisory board for casinos and gambling since 1991.

In 1995, Prigozhin entered the restaurant business. When revenues of his other businesses began to fall, Prigozhin persuaded a director at Contrast, Kiril Ziminov, to open a restaurant with him. They opened Prigozhin's first restaurant: Old Customs House (Russian: Старая Таможня) in Saint Petersburg. In 1997, they founded a second restaurant, New Island, a floating restaurant that became one of the most fashionable dining spots in the city. Inspired by waterfront restaurants on the Seine in Paris, Prigozhin and Ziminov created the restaurant by spending US$400,000 to remodel a rusting boat on the Vyatka River. He said his patrons "wanted to see something new in their lives and were tired of just eating cutlets with vodka." In 2001, Prigozhin personally served food to Vladimir Putin and French president Jacques Chirac when they dined at New Island. He hosted US president George W. Bush in 2002. In 2003, Putin celebrated his birthday at New Island.

Touring the Concord Catering factory in 2010. Left to right: Presidential envoy to the Northwestern Federal District Ilya Klebanov, Chief Sanitary Inspector Gennady Onishchenko, Leningrad Region Governor Valery Serdyukov, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Concord factory director Yevgeny Prigozhin

Over the course of the 2000s, Prigozhin grew closer to Vladimir Putin. By 2003, he left his business partners and established his own independent restaurants. Notably, one of Prigozhin's companies, Concord Catering, began winning numerous government contracts. He received hundreds of millions in government contracts for feeding school children and government workers. In 2012, he received a contract to supply meals to the Russian military worth US$1.2 billion over one year. Some of the profits from this contract are alleged to have been used to start and fund the Internet Research Agency.

On 11 December 2018, a company claimed to be unaffiliated with Concord Catering called Msk LLC (Russian: ООО "Мск") was paid 2.5 million rubles for an annual "Heroes of the Fatherland Day" banquet held at the Kremlin. However, Msk LLC shares the same contact phone number with Concord. On 11 December 2019, the company received another 4.1 million rubles for another banquet.

In 2012, he moved his family into a Saint Petersburg compound with a basketball court and a helicopter pad. By this point he owned a private jet and a 115-foot (35 m) yacht. Prigozhin was later linked to several aircraft, including two Cessna 182s as well as Embraer Legacy 600, British Aerospace 125, and Hawker 800XP jets.

The Anti-Corruption Foundation accused Prigozhin of corrupt business practices. In 2017, they estimated his illegal wealth to be worth more than one billion rubles. Alexei Navalny alleged that Prigozhin was linked to a company called Moskovsky Shkolnik (Moscow Schoolboy) that had supplied poor-quality food to Moscow schools, which had caused a 2019 dysentery outbreak. Prigozhin was declared the 2022 Corrupt Person of the Year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Wagner Group

Main article: Wagner Group

Prigozhin was the self-reported founder of the controversial Kremlin-affiliated private military contractor Wagner Group. On 26 September 2022, Prigozhin stated that he founded the Wagner Group specifically to support Russian forces in the war in Donbas, in May 2014. Since then, their activities have expanded to cover many regions in Africa and the Middle East.

Even before it was confirmed, there was already relative consensus amongst Russian and foreign media that Prigozhin was either the founder of or strongly linked to Wagner. The group was publicly led by Dmitry Utkin, who was once head of security for Prigozhin. A person by the name of Dmitry Utkin was also listed as director general of Prigozhin's Concord Management. In November 2016 the company confirmed to Russian media that the same Dmitry Utkin leading the Wagner Group was now in charge of Prigozhin's food businesses. In February 2018 Concord and Prigozhin denied any connection to Wagner.

In February 2018, Wagner attacked US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria in an attempt to take an oil field. During the retaliatory air strike by US armed forces, 10 to 100 of its mercenaries were killed.

In July 2018, three Russian journalists working for a news organization often critical of the Russian government were murdered in the Central African Republic, where they had been attempting to investigate the activities of the Wagner Group in that country. The Russian government had begun a collaboration with the president of the Central African Republic in October 2017. In its response to the killings, Russia's foreign ministry stressed that the dead journalists had been traveling without official accreditation.

Involvement in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

See also: Wagner Group § Ukraine

Wagner has also played a significant role during and prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Prigozhin even travelled to the Donbas to personally oversee the group's progress. He was pictured at the frontline wearing military fatigues alongside Russian Duma member Vitaly Milonov.

In August 2022, Wagner Group began using billboards to recruit new members in Russia. Former journalist and observer of the Group Denis Korotkov said "It looks like they have decided that they will no longer try to hide their existence."

In September 2022, a leaked video exposed Prigozhin attempting to recruit convicts to bolster the Russian forces on the front lines in the war against Ukraine. He said to the convicts "nobody goes back behind bars" and to those uncomfortable with the idea "it's either prisoners or your children—you decide". While the video was filmed at a penal colony in Yoshkar-Ola to recruit shock troops, there is evidence that convicts from a penal colony in Saint Petersburg had been recruited previously.

On 26 September, Prigozhin walked back his previous claims that he had no connection with the group, releasing a statement on the Russian social media website VK wherein he admitted that he had founded it in May 2014 to "protect the Russians" when "the genocide of the Russian population of Donbas began." He explained that he played a personal role from the start, claiming that he "found specialists who could help" after "[cleaning] the old weapons and [sorting out] the bulletproof vests" himself. He confirmed allegations, previously denied by the Russian government, that the group had been involved in other countries aligned with Russian overseas interests, stating that the Wagner mercenaries who "defended the Syrian people, other people of Arab countries, destitute Africans and Latin Americans have become the pillars of our motherland".

On 23 October 2022, Prigozhin said his forces were making advances of 100 to 200 metres (330 to 660 ft) per day, which he claimed is the norm for modern warfare. He praised the Ukrainian defenders of Bakhmut, saying that "Our units are constantly meeting with the most fierce enemy resistance, and I note that the enemy is well prepared, motivated, and works confidently and harmoniously."

On 13 November 2022, Wagner Group released a video depicting its mercenaries using a sledgehammer to execute Yevgeny Nuzhin, a deserter who had reportedly been returned to the Russians in a prisoner exchange. Prigozhin commented, "It seems to me that this film should be called: 'A dog dies a dog's death'." "It was an excellent directional piece of work, watched in one breath. I hope no animals were harmed during filming."

Bakhmut in April 2023. At the end of April, Prigozhin said that his forces were losing around 100 men a day.

Retired Ukrainian colonel Serhiy Hrabskyi suggested the Wagner Group was seeking glory in capturing Bakhmut, as Prigozhin was poised to reap significant monetary and political rewards if Wagner captured the city on behalf of the Russian government. Prighozhin himself had previously suggested Wagner was deliberately turning Bakhmut into a "meat grinder" to inflict heavy attritional casualties on Ukrainian forces. One Western official gave an inverse view, saying the battle is "giving Ukraine a unique opportunity to kill a lot of Russians", due to purportedly poor Russian tactics.

On 9 April, Ukraine claimed that the Wagner Group was losing around 100 people a day, "counting only the dead", and that Russia was forced to deploy paratroopers and motorized brigades into the city because of the heavy losses that the group had suffered. Prigozhin himself later admitted on 30 April that his forces had lost 94 men killed in the city that day alone, with another 99 deaths the following day's offensive actions. He once again underscored that they were taking more than five times as many losses as he expected.

On 4 May 2023, Prigozhin cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons in response to the 2023 Kremlin drone attack, saying that "We look like clowns threatening to use nuclear weapons in response to a child's drone."

Complaints and conflicts

Further information: Wagner Group–Ministry of Defense conflict

Prigozhin was in a public feud with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

On 1 October 2022, he said about the commanders of the Russian army that "All these bastards ought to be sent to the front barefoot with just a submachine gun." He called members of the Putin-controlled Russian parliament "useless" and said that the "deputies should go to the front", adding that "Those people who have been talking from tribunes for years need to start doing something." The Washington Post reported that Prigozhin was one of the few people who dared to tell Putin about the "mistakes" of Russian military commanders in the war in Ukraine.

On 5 May 2023, he announced that, due to a lack of ammunition, his fighters would leave Bakhmut on 10 May 2023 and hand over their positions to units of the Russian Defense Ministry if they did not receive more ammunition. He blamed Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the Russian armed forces Gen. Valery Gerasimov for "tens of thousands" of Wagner casualties, saying "They came here as volunteers and are dying so you can sit like fat cats in your luxury offices."

In May 2023, he condemned the luxurious lifestyle of the children of Russia's top officials and in particular singled out Shoigu's son-in-law Alexey Stolyarov for not joining the Russian army. Prigozhin complained that "the children of the elites smother themselves with creams and show this on Instagram, YouTube and so on, while ordinary people's kids return home torn apart in zinc-lined coffins."

On 27 May 2023, Igor Girkin accused Prigozhin of plotting to use the Wagner group to stage a coup within Russia and that Prigozhin was actively violating Russian 2022 war censorship laws by complaining about the Russian high command, and that his forces were practically in an active state of mutiny. On 29 May, Prigozhin stated that Wagner did not have the forces necessary to stage a coup. Instead he suggested that Shoigu might be plotting to stage a coup.

June 2023 rebellion

Main article: Wagner Group rebellion

Earlier in June, Prigozhin defied orders to sign a contract placing his troops under Defence Ministry command. In a video released on 23 June 2023, Prigozhin said that Russian government justifications for the Russian invasion of Ukraine were based on lies. He accused the Defense Ministry under Shoigu of "trying to deceive society and the president and tell us how there was crazy aggression from Ukraine and that they were planning to attack us with the whole of NATO." Prigozhin said the war was not needed to "demilitarize or denazify Ukraine".

On 23 June 2023, Prigozhin claimed that regular Russian armed forces had launched missile strikes against Wagner forces, killing a "huge" number. He called for a response, stating, "The council of commanders of PMC Wagner has made a decision – the evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped." In response, criminal charges were filed against Prigozhin by the Federal Security Service (FSB) for inciting an armed rebellion. PMC Wagner subsequently withdrew from Ukraine, occupied the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and began an advance on Moscow. During the scuffle, Wagner shot down an Ilyushin Il-22M airborne command post plane and several military helicopters. President Putin decried the action as treason, and vowed to quash the uprising.

Following talks between Prigozhin and Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, charges were dropped and Wagner ceased its march on Moscow. As part of the agreement, Prigozhin moved to Belarus and Wagner troops were slated to return to Ukraine, but those plans were cancelled in the wake of Wagner refusing to sign military contracts. Despite his charges being dropped, Prigozhin still remains under investigation for treason.

The BBC tracked Yevgeny Prigozhin's private jet flying from Belarus to Russia in late June. The jet made several flights between St Petersburg and Moscow, but whether Prigozhin was on board was unknown. Lukashenko said on 6 July that "As for Prigozhin, he's in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus."

In July 2023, Prigozhin told his fighters to prepare for "a new journey to Africa".

On 28 July 2023, a confirmed sighting of Prigozhin in the aftermath of the failed mutiny emerged, showing him meeting with Freddy Mapouka, a presidential advisor in the Central African Republic, and the head of the Cameroonian pro-Russian media outlet Afrique Média, at the Trezzini Palace hotel in St Petersburg during the 2023 Russia–Africa Summit. Prigozhin told Afrique Média that Wagner Group is ready to increase its presence in Africa.

Africa interests

Throughout 2018, Prigozhin established numerous interests in Africa via the Wagner Group and approximately 100–200 political consultants. He became involved in such countries as Madagascar, the Central Africa Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Senegal, Rwanda, Sudan, Libya, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, South Sudan, and South Africa. Pyotr Bychkov (Russian: Петр Александрович Бычков) is allegedly responsible for coordinating Prigozhin's "Africa expansion". According to a 20 April 2018 Kommersant article, Yaroslav Ignatovsky (Russian: Ярослав Ринатович Игнатовский; born 1983, Leningrad) heads Politgen (Russian: "Политген") and is a political strategist that has coordinated the trolls' efforts for Prigozhin in Africa.

In March 2020, it was revealed that Prigozhin had financially assisted Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the late overthrown Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, in his bid for the next Libyan presidential election.

Central African Republic

Since early 2018, the Prigozhin-associated company Lobaye Invest has mined diamonds, gold, and other minerals in the prefecture of Lobaye. Faustin-Archange Touadera, the President of the Central African Republic, traveled to Russia in the fall of 2017 to meet with Sergey Lavrov in Sochi and in June 2018 to meet with Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg. Touadera's national security advisor Valery Zakharov (Russian: Валерий Захаров), Touadera increased the Russian presence in the CAR by allowing five Russian military advisors and 170 Russian contractors to work starting in January 2018 near Bobangui at Berengo, which is the former palace of Jean-Bédel Bokassa and is 60 kilometres southwest of Bangui.

Since December 2017, the Kimberley Process allowed diamonds to be mined in the southwest of CAR. Under managing director Evgeny Khodotov (Russian: Евгений Ходотов) who is associated with security for Touadera through the firm Sewa Security Service, Lobaye Invest was founded through M-Invest by Dmitry Syty (Russian: Дмитрий Сытый) and is a subsidiary of M-Finance which were founded by Prigozhin. On the night of 31 July 2018, three Russian journalists, Alexander Rastorguev, Orhan Dzhemal, and Kirill Radchenko (Russian: Кирилл Радченко), who were sent by the Mikhail Khodorkovsky-sponsored Investigation Management Center (SDG) (Russian: Центр управления расследованиями (ЦУР)), were killed north of Sibut while they were investigating the operations of Lobaye Invest and Russians' interests in the east of the CAR at the Ndassima gold field for an upcoming film.

On 15 April 2019, Putin sent 30 Russian troops as part of a UN mission in the CAR to support Lobaye Invest interests. Beginning 18 December 2020, several hundred Russians with heavy weapons supported an offensive on Bangui which included contingents of troops from Rwanda. On 27 May 2021, three Russians were killed when a roadside bomb exploded. From 2012 until May 2021 according to DW, an estimated 800 to 2,000 Russian mercenaries have fought in the CAR.

Niger

Further information: 2023 Nigerien coup d'état and 2023 Nigerien crisis

Prigozhin supported the 2023 Nigerien coup d'état, writing on Telegram "What happened in Niger is nothing other than the struggle of the people of Niger with their colonizers ... who are trying to foist their rules of life on them and their conditions and keep them in the state that Africa was in hundreds of years ago ... It effectively means winning independence. The rest will depend on the people of Niger, on how efficient they could govern".

Internet Research Agency

Main article: Internet Research Agency

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin on the Internet Research Agency, United States indictment

Prigozhin financed and directed a network of companies including a company called the Internet Research Agency Ltd. (Russian: ООО «Агентство интернет-исследований»), Concord Management and Consulting Company and one other related company. The three companies are accused of Internet trolling and attempting to influence the 2016 US presidential elections and other activity to influence political events outside Russia.

Russian journalist Andrey Soshnikov reported that Alexey Soskovets, who had participated in Russian youth political community, was directly connected to the offices of Internet Research in Olgino. His company, North-Western Service Agency, won 17 or 18 (according to different sources) contracts for organizing celebrations, forums and sport competitions for authorities of Saint Petersburg. The agency was the only participant in half of those bids. In the summer of 2013, the agency won a tender for providing freight services for participants of a Seliger camp.

In February 2023, Prigozhin stated that he founded the IRA: "I've never just been the financier of the Internet Research Agency. I invented it, I created it, I managed it for a long time." The admission came months after Prigozhin had admitted to Russian interference in US elections.

Spin-offs

Campaigns against opposition in 2013 involved Dmitry Bykov and the then head of RIA Novosti, Svetlana Mironyuk, while a homepage claiming to fight fake news (Gazeta O Gazetah) was used to spread fake news.

International sanctions

"Yevgeny Prigozhin's expanding network" per US Treasury Department (2021)

See also: International sanctions during the Ukrainian crisis

In December 2016, the US Treasury Department designated Prigozhin pursuant to E.O.13661 for sanctions for providing support to senior officials of the Russian Federation.

In June 2017, US sanctions were imposed on one of Prigozhin's companies, Concord Management and Consulting, in connection with the war in Eastern Ukraine.

In January 2018, the US Treasury Department also designated Evro Polis Ltd for sanctions. Evro Polis is a Russian company that has contracted with the Government of Syria to protect Syrian oil fields in exchange for a 25 percent share in oil and gas production from the fields. The company was designated for being owned or controlled by Prigozhin. The sanctions require that any property or interests in property of the designated persons in the possession or control of US persons or within the United States must be blocked. Additionally, transactions by US persons involving these persons (including companies) are generally prohibited.

In September 2019, three more Prigozhin companies (Autolex Transport, Beratex Group and Linburg Industries) were sanctioned in connection with the Russian interference in the 2016 United States election.

In February 2022, the Internet Research Agency was added to the European Union sanctions list for running disinformation campaigns to manipulate public opinion and "actively supporting actions which undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."

According to the United States Prigozhin's activities of interfering in elections and subverting public opinion are extended to Asian and African countries.

Prigozhin is also subject to sanctions imposed by Australia, the European Union, Canada, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In response to sanctions issued by New Zealand against 51 oligarchs and 24 Kremlin-backed officials (including Prigozhin's own children), Prigozhin went on a racist rant against Māori people in October 2022. He called Foreign Affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta a "petuh" (Russian: петух, meaning "cock" or loosely "faggot"), referred to her as a man, and said that her moko kauae made her and Māori women look like "criminals". A spokesperson for Mahuta dismissed the comments as "petty vitriol".

US criminal charges

Main article: Mueller special counsel investigation

On 16 February 2018, Prigozhin, the Internet Research Agency, Concord Management, another related company, and other connected Russian individuals were indicted by a US grand jury. He was charged with funding and organizing operations for the purpose of interference with the US political and electoral processes, including the 2016 presidential election, and other crimes including identity theft. Charges against Concord Management were dismissed with prejudice on 16 March 2020.

In February 2021, Prigozhin was added to the wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In February 2022, the United States imposed visa restrictions and froze assets of Prigozhin and his family, due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In July 2022, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information about Prigozhin, the Internet Research Agency, and other entities involved in 2016 U.S. election interference.

On 7 November 2022, Prigozhin said he had interfered in U.S. elections and would continue to interfere in the future.

Financial support for Maria Butina in 2019

In May 2019, Maria Butina (who had earlier pled guilty to acting in the United States as an unregistered agent of a foreign government; specifically the Russian Federation) appealed for help in paying her lawyer fees. In February 2019 Valery Butin, Butina's father, told Izvestia that she owed her U.S. attorneys 40 million rubles ($US 659,000). Through Prigozhin's Fund for the Protection of National Values, which is managed by Petr Bychkov, 5 million rubles were donated to Butina's defence lawyer costs.

Personal life

Prigozhin was married to Lyubov Valentinovna Prigozhina, a pharmacist and businesswoman. She owns a network of boutique stores known as the Chocolate Museum («Музей шоколада») in Saint Petersburg. In 2012, she started the Crystal Spa & Lounge, a day spa located along Zhukovsky Street in Saint Petersburg, which won a third place award in 2013 for the Perfect Urban Day Spa. She owns a wellness center in the Leningrad region and a boutique hotel called the Crystal Spa & Residence which won the Perfect Spa Project award in 2013. She owns the New Technologies SPA LLC (ООО «Новые технологии СПА») which is located at plot 1, Granichnaya street in Lakhta Park, Sestroretsk, Kurortny District, Saint Petersburg. She is also the owner of Agat, part of the Concord group (Russian: Агат).

The couple had two daughters: Polina (Полина), born 1992 and Veronika (Вероника), born 2005, and a son Pavel (Павел), born in either 1996 or 1998. Until the invasion of Ukraine, Prigozhin's children were able to move freely across the European Union. On 20 February 2022, Prigozhin's daughter Veronika took part in equestrian competitions in Spain.

Prigozhin's mother, Violetta Prigozhina, is a former doctor and educator, and the current legal owner of Concord Management and Consulting LLC (ООО "Конкорд менеджмент и консалтинг") since 2011, Etalon LLC (ООО "Эталон") since 2010, and Credo LLC (ООО "Кредо") since 2011.

All above family members were sanctioned by the European Union, the United States, Ukraine, and many other countries due to Prigozhin's involvement in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Plane crash

Main article: 2023 Tver plane crash

According to Russia's emergency ministry, Prigozhin died in a plane crash on 23 August 2023. The flight was en route from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. Reportedly, all 10 people on board the plane died. Russian state-owned media agency TASS reported that Prigozhin had been on the passenger list of the flight. Prigozhin's press secretary refused to confirm if he was on the plane. A Wagner-associated Telegram channel claimed the jet that Prigozhin was in was shot down by Russian air defenses over Tver Oblast. Russian media reports say that the plane may have been shot down.

The New York Times said there were so many conspiracy theories, rumors, and misinformation across the Internet about Prigozhin's presumed death, the Times was unable to verify any of it.

Awards

Prigozhin received a number of Russian awards, particularly the title of Hero of the Russian Federation in 2022. He also received Sudan's Order of the Republic in 2018 and Order of the Two Niles in 2020.

See also

• Elena Khusyaynova
• Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
• Timeline of investigations into Donald Trump and Russia (January–June 2018)
• Arkan

External links

• Profile from ABC
• Profile from The New York Times
• Explainer from Reuters
• "Putin's Crisis". FRONTLINE. Season 41. Episode 19. 11 July 2023. PBS. WGBH. Retrieved 13 July 2023.