Yevgeny Prigozhin
Russian oligarch
Died when: 62 years 83 days (746 months)Star Sign: Gemini
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (Russian: ??????? ?????????? ????????; born 1 June 1961) is a Russian oligarch and close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin.Prigozhin was called "Putin's chef" because his restaurants and catering businesses hosted dinners which Putin attended with foreign dignitaries.
Prigozhin controls a network of companies including Wagner Group, a Russian state-backed mercenary group accused of war crimes in Africa, Syria, and Ukraine; and three companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections.
A video circulated on social media in September 2022 showed Prigozhin in a Mari El prison recruiting inmates, promising them freedom if they served six months with the Wagner Group.
Prigozhin himself spent nine years as a convict in prisons in the Soviet Union.Prigozhin said that he had founded the Wagner Group specifically to support Russian forces in the War in Donbas, in May 2014.
According to an investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin's operations "are tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".
Prigozhin, his companies and associates face economic sanctions and criminal charges in the United States.
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