Russian businessman Evgeny Prigozhin in 2017 before the war in Ukraine Photo: Sergey Ilnitsky
On a frosty night in March 1980, 19-year-old Evgeny Prigozhin and three of his friends came out of a restaurant on the outskirts of Leningrad and saw a young woman in leather boots.
One of the men asked her for a light, and before she had time to recover, Prigozhin stood behind her and began to choke her. Moments later, she collapsed onto the pavement, unconscious. Prigozhin and his friends took off her leather boots and gold earrings and fled the scene.
The Leningrad teenager, who served 10 years for his crime, later became one of the most reliable allies in the war with Ukraine.
But setbacks on the front lines in Ukraine, where Progozhin is said to control some 20,000 soldiers through his once-secret Wagner militia, have caused him to break down again.
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Now he faces the Russian president in an extraordinary showdown that threatens to undermine Putin's power and throw Russia's war on Ukraine off course.
Evgeny Prigozhin speaks at the headquarters of the military command post of Russia's southern army, which he claims is now controlled by the Wagner group, in a video released on June 24. Photo: PRESS SERVICE "CONCORD" /via Reuters
For years, 61-year-old Progozhin has been one of Russia's most enigmatic influencers: not only did he find Wagner, he also funded a secret project to disrupt the 2016 US presidential election. All the while, he hosted gala dinners for the Russian president, earning him the nickname of Chef Putin.
His motley early history, including a robbery in Leningrad, resurfaced in a 1981 Soviet court decision. “Prigozhin strangled (the victim) until she lost consciousness,” the order about his attack reads.
He was released from prison just as the Soviet Union collapsed, and despite his criminal past, it was not known that he was involved in the then wealthy city mafia.
His time in the colony, which in the 1980s, he still bore the features of a totalitarian Gulag, leaving, according to the biographer, an imprint on his worldview.
“A cruel, quick-tempered man”
Former employees describe “Chef Putin” as cruel and short-tempered. Denis Korotkov, who documented Prigozhin's rise to fame, called him “a crude, petty tyrant who holds his business tight and knows it inside and out, prone to wrong ideas.”
Prigozhin, who was raised by a single mother , started his business in the early 1990s, as he said in an interview, selling hot dogs at a street market in St. Petersburg, earning an enviable thousand dollars a month.
Just 12 years later, a former drug school dropout was mysteriously seen hovering behind Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila as they dined with George W. Bush and his wife at Prigozhin's floating restaurant downtown. hometown of Mr. Putin.
In later years, Prigozhin personally brought a plate to Mr. lucrative government contracts his catering company has won all over Russia, from school canteens to canteens of the Ministry of Defense.
Meanwhile, his Wagner militia has grown in recent years, first gaining experience in Syria and then spreading to Africa, targeting unstable states like Mali and the Central African Republic, where his men are never far from lucrative mining projects and arms deals.
However, Prigozhin admitted his ties to Wagner only last year at the height of the Ukrainian conflict.
He has been suing numerous journalists for years over allegations of his criminal past and links to the group, only to have Ukraine lift the smokescreen.
His increasingly constant stream of frontline video has gone from anger at Ukraine to open accusations of Russian military inadequacy.
The insignia of his Wagner mercenaries were first seen sporadically in the early months of the war.< /p>
But it wasn’t until the summer of 2022 that they began to make significant progress.
They took an active part in the breakout from the city of Popasna, which led to the fall of Severodonetsk and Lysichansk in eastern Ukraine.
Disappointment turned to anger
It is believed that Prigozhin's private army then led an offensive to capture Bakhmut, a long and bloody battle , which would claim thousands of lives on each side.
As his troops poured into the city, Prigozhin began again touring the Russian colonies in search of new recruits in the “leaked” videos. widely published on the Internet.
Is there anyone else who can get you out of this prison? you can hear him speaking to the prisoners in one video.
“It's just that God and Allah are in the coffins. I'll take you out of here alive, but I won't necessarily bring you back alive.”
He would send countless people to their deaths by forcing them to cross the front line in “human waves” that would be mowed down. ruthlessly. But they continued to advance until the Ukrainian positions were captured.
But Prigozhin was disappointed that his poorly trained and equipped men were dying in droves, and he turned his anger on the Kremlin for not being able to supply better weapons.
He began to wind up the Kremlin, praising General Sergei Surovikin . , whose notoriety in Syria has earned him the moniker “Armageddon General” through social media channels linked to his media empire. The general has been appointed to lead the Russian military operation in Ukraine, a sign of Prigozhin's growing influence.
“This war has greatly expanded and strengthened his mandate and, in fact, forced him to share responsibility with Putin for what is happening in Ukraine: Prigozhin is investing resources in the war and incurring losses, which gives him a special status [in the Kremlin],” Tatyana Analyst Stanovaya told The Telegraph at the time.
A string of successful counteroffensives last September forced Russia's ruling elites to finally consider military defeat.
It also brought to the fore figures once considered too radical, such as Prigozhin and the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whose influence also grew beyond his usual remit.
The couple went so far as to lash out at Russians. generals for allowing the Ukrainians to retake their territory – a level of public criticism that would have been unthinkable before the war.
“This is a symptom of the new times, when power players in Russia are testing the limits of what is permitted,” Stanovaya said then .
Soldiers of the Wagner private mercenary group pose for a photo during deployment near the headquarters of the Southern Military District in Rostov-on- Don, 24 June. Photo: Reuters
The action of these forces culminated in Prigozhin's direct challenge to Putin. A petty thief turned chef, turned military leader, now claims to control the Russian city.
Whatever the end of the story of Progozhin's bright life, she has already left her indelible mark on Russia.< /p>
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