Once a businessman with a catering empire friendly with Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin manoeuvred himself into a position so powerful that, as Russia’s war in Ukraine progressed, he could openly question his paymasters’ strategy.
The owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, the mercenary force that has fought some of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine – most notably the drawn-out pursuit of Bakhmut – the 62-year-old stepped into his most dangerous role yet this summer: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership.
Now, two months after his men’s attempted uprising ended in uneasy peace talks, Prigozhin is presumed dead in a suspicious plane crash just outside of Moscow.
On 23 August, it was reported that a private plane he had boarded was brought thudering to earth in the Tver region after taking off from the capital en route to St Petersburg, killing 10 people on board.
While it has not been confirmed that he was on board, Prigozhin and his deputy Dmitry Utkin were on the passenger list for the flight.
The “accident” looked like retribution for the events of 23 June, when the Wagner chief finally escalated what had been months of scathing criticism of Russia’s conduct of the war by calling for an armed uprising to oust Russia’s defence chiefs Valery Gerasimov and Sergei Shoigu.
His men occupied Rostov-on-Don and marched on Moscow, shooting down a number of military helicopters, killing their pilots as they advanced. Russian security services reacted immediately, opening a criminal investigation and demanding Prigozhin’s arrest.
In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took the threat posed, riot police and the National Guard scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in the Russian capital, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, Tass reported. Mr Putin branded the rebellion an act of treachery.
Prigozhin urged Russian civilians to join his “march to justice” and the situation remained extremely volatile throughout the following Saturday before peace talks, seemingly mediated by Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko, brought the standoff to a peaceful conclusion.
The Kremlin said that to avert bloodshed, Prigozhin and some of his fighters would leave for Belarus and a criminal case against him for armed mutiny would be dropped.
Yevgeny Prigozhin repeatedly condemned Russia’s regular army leaders
(AP)
Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed that a three-hour meeting had taken place five days after the mutiny, on 29 June with 35 people in attendance, including Wagner unit commanders, who reiterated their loyalty to their leader.
But confusion subsequently surrounded the implementation of that deal and it was not clear whether the mercenary leader ever made it to Minsk.
Before long, he was seen back in his homeland, appearing at the Trezzini Palace Hotel in St Petersburg, apparently on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa Summit.
On 5 July, state television said an investigation against him was still being pursued and broadcast footage showing cash, passports, weapons and other items it said were seized in a raid on one of his properties.
In August, he appeared in a video that he suggested was shot in Africa, where Wagner has operations in several countries.
‘Putin’s chef’
The relationship between Prigozhin and Mr Putin went way back, both having been born in Leningrad, now St Petersburg, the former born on 1 June 1961.
During the final years of the Soviet Union, while the president was then a lowly KGB agent, Prigozhin served nine years in prison for crimes including robbery and fraud.
After his release in 1990, he launched a career as a caterer in his home town, owning a hot dog stand and then a string of upmarket restaurants that attracted Mr Putin’s interest. In his first term in office, the Russian leader took then-French president Jacques Chirac to dine at one of them.
“Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview in 2011.
Prigozhin showing Mr Putin his school lunch factory outside St Petersburg in 2010
(Sputnik/AFP/Getty)
His businesses expanded significantly into catering. Leveraging political connections, Prigozhin was awarded major state contracts and, in 2010, Mr Putin helped him open his own factory, built on generous loans from a state bank.
In Moscow alone, school meals contracts for his company Concord were worth millions. He also organised catering for Kremlin events for several years – earning him the nickname…
Read More: Who is Prigozhin? Wagner Group mercenary chief presumed dead in plane crash