85 Facts About Yevgeny Prigozhin

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch.

Yevgeny Prigozhin led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a rebellion in June 2023.

Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Yevgeny Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies whose operations, according to a 2020 investigation, were "tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".

In 2014, Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly founded the Wagner Group to support Russian separatist forces in Ukraine.

In November 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin acknowledged his companies' interference in United States elections.

Yevgeny Prigozhin openly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for corruption and mishandling the war against Ukraine.

The rebellion was called off the following day, and the criminal charges against Yevgeny Prigozhin were dropped after he agreed to relocate his forces to Belarus.

On 23 August 2023, exactly two months after the rebellion, Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed along with nine other people when a business jet crashed in Tver Oblast, north of Moscow.

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was born an only child on 1 June 1961 in Leningrad, Soviet Union.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's mother, Violetta Kirovna Prigozhina, was a hospital nurse.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's father, Viktor Yevgenyevich Prigozhin, was a mining engineer who died when Yevgeny was nine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's 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".

Yevgeny Prigozhin 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.

Yevgeny Prigozhin's stepfather, Samuil Fridmanovich Zharkoi, was a ski instructor and introduced Prigozhin to cross-country skiing.

Yevgeny Prigozhin later worked as a fitness trainer at a children's sports school.

In 1979,18-year-old Yevgeny Prigozhin was caught stealing and was given a suspended sentence of two years and six months in prison.

Yevgeny Prigozhin served his sentence working at a chemical plant in Veliky Novgorod.

Yevgeny Prigozhin participated in a burglary spree in 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.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was sent to a medium-security penal colony and was released in 1990.

From 1991 to 1997, Yevgeny Prigozhin was heavily involved in the grocery store business.

Around the same time, Yevgeny Prigozhin became involved in the gambling business.

Novaya Gazeta notes that this may be when Yevgeny Prigozhin met Vladimir Putin for the first time, as Putin had been chairman of the supervisory board for casinos and gambling since 1991.

When revenues of his other businesses began to fall, Yevgeny Prigozhin persuaded a director at Contrast, Kirill Ziminov, to open a restaurant with him.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said his patrons "wanted to see something new in their lives and were tired of just eating cutlets with vodka".

Yevgeny Prigozhin was reportedly known to punish poor performance or misconduct of employees of his catering businesses with physical violence.

In 2001, Yevgeny Prigozhin personally served food to Vladimir Putin and French president Jacques Chirac when they dined at New Island.

Yevgeny Prigozhin hosted US president George W Bush in 2002.

Yevgeny Prigozhin received hundreds of millions in government contracts for feeding school children and government workers.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was later linked to several aircraft, including two Cessna 182s as well as Embraer Legacy 600, British Aerospace 125, and Hawker 800XP jets.

Alexei Navalny alleged that Yevgeny Prigozhin was linked to a company called Moskovsky Shkolnik that had supplied poor-quality food to Moscow schools, which had caused a 2019 dysentery outbreak.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was declared the 2022 Corrupt Person of the Year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly denied links to the Wagner Group, but during the 2022 Russian invasion he travelled to Ukraine to oversee the group's progress and was pictured at the frontline wearing military fatigues alongside Russian Duma member Vitaly Milonov.

Yevgeny Prigozhin 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.

Yevgeny Prigozhin confirmed allegations, previously denied by the Russian government, that the group had been involved in other countries aligned with Russian overseas interests, saying 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".

Yevgeny Prigozhin was chosen to run the company and he was tasked with operational and logistical aspect due to his pre-existing service relationship with the Defense Ministry and close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Three different sources claim that initially Yevgeny Prigozhin objected to such a high-risk role, although he could not refuse it.

Utkin was once head of security for Yevgeny Prigozhin and was listed as director general of Concord Management.

Yevgeny Prigozhin rose to prominence during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was allocated substantial resources, including his own aviation assets.

On 4 May 2023, Yevgeny 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".

Yevgeny Prigozhin held no official position and was neither appointed nor elected, meaning that he technically had no authority to answer to.

Furthermore, Yevgeny Prigozhin gained international recognition and abandoned his previously secluded personal life.

Yevgeny Prigozhin frequently reported news from the frontline while wearing military fatigues.

On 1 October 2022, during Ukraine's Kharkiv counteroffensive, which expelled Russia from most of the region, Yevgeny Prigozhin 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".

The Washington Post reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin was one of the few people who dared to tell Putin about the "mistakes" of Russian military commanders in the war in Ukraine.

In February 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin began to complain about the "shell hunger" of Wagner during the battle for Bakhmut.

Yevgeny Prigozhin then published a photo with the bodies of dead Wagner fighters, saying that, lack of ammunition meant that his squads were suffering heavy losses.

Yevgeny Prigozhin 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.

Yevgeny 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 5 May 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin 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.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said that the Ministry of Defense was more focused on internal power struggles and "intrigues" than actually fighting.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has been described as being member of the "war party" within Russia's leadership, a group of hardliners in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but critical of what they see as ineffective or incompetent prosecution of the war by the Russian government.

However, Yevgeny Prigozhin declined to sign the agreement, alleging incompetence on the part of Shoigu.

Reports from the independent Russian news outlet Meduza indicated that this development would undermine Yevgeny Prigozhin's hold over Wagner and jeopardize the group's profitable operations in Africa.

Yevgeny Prigozhin unsuccessfully attempted to circumvent the order for Wagner's subordination while intensifying his criticism of the Ministry of Defence.

On 23 June 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed that regular Russian armed forces had launched missile strikes against Wagner forces, killing a "huge" number.

Yevgeny Prigozhin declared the start of an armed conflict against the Ministry of Defence in a message posted on his press service's Telegram channel.

Yevgeny Prigozhin called upon individuals interested in joining the conflict against the Ministry, portraying the rebellion as a response to the alleged strike on his men.

Yevgeny Prigozhin alleged that Shoigu and the "oligarchic clan" had personal motives for initiating the war.

Yevgeny Prigozhin stated the situation threatened the existence of Russia itself.

Yevgeny Prigozhin said the situation on the Ukrainian frontline was not affected.

Yevgeny Prigozhin stated that his main goal was to remove Shoigu and Gerasimov from office and reiterated his accusations of corruption against the Ministry of Defence.

Yevgeny Prigozhin allegedly made personal efforts to establish contact with the presidential administration on the afternoon of 24 June 2023, including reaching out to Putin himself, who refused to speak with him.

The jet made several flights between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, but whether Yevgeny Prigozhin was on board was unknown.

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

Yevgeny Prigozhin told Afrique Media that Wagner Group was ready to increase its presence in Africa.

Yevgeny Prigozhin became involved in such countries as Madagascar, the Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Senegal, Rwanda, Sudan, Libya, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, South Sudan, and South Africa.

In March 2020, it was revealed that Yevgeny 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.

Since early 2018, the Yevgeny Prigozhin-associated company Lobaye Invest has mined diamonds, gold, and other minerals in the prefecture of Lobaye of the Central African Republic.

Yevgeny Prigozhin financed and directed a network of companies including a company called the Internet Research Agency Ltd.

Yevgeny Prigozhin was designated for being owned or controlled by Prigozhin.

In September 2019, three more Yevgeny Prigozhin companies were sanctioned in connection with the Russian interference in the 2016 United States election.

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

Yevgeny Prigozhin called Foreign Affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta a "petuh", referred to her as a man, and said that her moko kauae tattoo made her and Maori women look like "criminals".

Yevgeny Prigozhin 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.

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

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

Yevgeny Prigozhin owns a network of boutique stores known as the Chocolate Museum in Saint Petersburg.

Yevgeny Prigozhin owns the New Technologies SPA LLC which is located at plot 1, Granichnaya street in Lakhta Park, Sestroretsk, Kurortny District, Saint Petersburg.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is the owner of Agat, part of the Concord group.

In 2004, Yevgeny Prigozhin published a children's picture book, with his children listed as co-authors.

Until the invasion of Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin's children were able to move freely across the European Union.

Russian state-owned media agency TASS reported that Yevgeny Prigozhin had been on the passenger list of the flight.

Yevgeny Prigozhin received a number of Russian awards, particularly the title of Hero of the Russian Federation in 2022.

Yevgeny Prigozhin received Sudan's Order of the Republic in 2018 and Order of the Two Niles in 2020.