Selected passages from the biography of the founder of PMC Wagner
There are so many biographies of Yevgeny Prigozhin that at first glance nothing new can be added here. But to close the topic does not allow, firstly, the very variety of versions, which indicates that an accurate, consistent and impartial portrait of this not so long ago hero, and now, perhaps, the anti-hero of our time, has not yet been created. And secondly, the end of his life is far from over yet.
The anti-hero has three Stars of the Hero: Russia, DPR and LPR. Photo: YouTube/Olga Serova
To be very brief, the life path of Yevgeny Viktorovich repeats the tragic story reflected in the famous comedy toast: “And when the whole flock flew south for the winter, one small but proud bird said:“ Personally, I will fly right into the sun. And she began to rise higher and higher, but very soon she burned her wings and fell to the very bottom of the deepest gorge. Well, with the difference that no one feels sorry for our inglorious bird today — even his like-minded people. But the moral is the same: no one, no matter how high he takes off, should not break away from the team.
Now for the less poetic details. Our hero/antihero was born on June 1, 1961. That is, at the time of the “June coup” he arranged, Prigozhin was 62 years old. He graduated from a sports boarding school and was engaged in cross-country skiing. Actually, this is where the only indisputably bright spot in his life ends. The next 45 years have, to put it mildly, a more complex color scheme.
A year after school, in 1979, 18-year-old Eugene was caught stealing and received his first conviction: he was sentenced to two years in prison on probation. A few years later — a new case and a new sentence: 13 years in the camps — now unconditional.
This time, Prigogine was charged with a whole bunch of criminal acts: robbery, theft, fraud, involvement of a minor in criminal activity. Here is one of the episodes incriminated to Prigozhin in the description of the Leningrad City Court:
“March 20, 1980 in the evening, Bushman, Prigozhin, Kopaev and Makeko were in the Ocean restaurant. Leaving the restaurant at about 24:00, they met a previously unfamiliar Queen. Prigozhin offered to take away her property … After which they caught up with the Queen at the house 7 on the street. M. Zheleznyak, where Prigozhin and Makeko approached the Queen, and Makeko asked her for a cigarette in order to distract the Queen.
When the Queen opened her purse, Prigozhin grabbed her by the neck from behind and began to choke her, while Makeko threatened the Queen with a knife and helped drag the Queen away from the road. Prigozhin continued to choke the Queen until she lost consciousness, after which Bushman removed her boots, one of which he handed over to Kopaev, and Prigozhin and Makeko removed gold earrings worth 50 rubles from the victim. With the stolen property, everyone fled the scene of the crime.”
Prigozhin did not stay until the “bell” — for good behavior he was released four years ahead of schedule, in 1990. He returned to his native St. Petersburg and immediately took up entrepreneurial activity. Starting with the production and sale of hot dogs, he rapidly went up the hill. In 1993, he became the manager of the Contrast supermarket chain, and in 1996 he opened the elite restaurant Staraya Customs.
In the same 1996, he founded the Concord Catering company. The next milestone is 1998: Prigozhin opens the New Island floating restaurant, which is quickly gaining popularity among the St. Petersburg elite. And then not only in St. Petersburg. In 2001, the presidents of Russia and France dined aboard Prigozhin's New Island. In May 2002, George W. Bush was received here.
Prigozhin's closeness to power is growing every year. The company «Concord» opens a restaurant in the Government House, «covers the glade» at the celebrations on the occasion of the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev (2008) and Vladimir Putin (2012) … Actually, after this, Prigozhin received the nickname «Putin's cook» (variant — «Kremlin chef»).
Putin himself, however, denied Prigozhin's involvement in his kitchen: “All my cooks are employees of the Federal Security Service. They are military men, are in different ranks. I don't have other chefs… There is even such a concept as «safe food». We don’t give this food to anyone, except for FSO employees … ”Vladimir Vladimirovich denied his friendship with Prigozhin just as categorically:“ I know such a person, but he is not listed among my friends.
Be that as it may, Prigozhin's business empire was gaining more and more footholds: in 2011, the «cook» became the «breadwinner» of Moscow schoolchildren, in 2012 — the military personnel of the Ministry of Defense. And in 2013, there is a qualitative leap in Prigozhin's activities: the interests of the «cook» are no longer limited to the gastronomic sphere. Yes, perhaps, and the sphere of business as a whole. For such projects as the Internet Research Agency (also known as the «troll factory») and the private military company Wagner can hardly be called purely commercial enterprises.
Here, for example, is how Vladimir Putin answered the question why Prigozhin “spends millions of dollars on the troll factory” (interview with the Austrian television and radio company ORF, June 4, 2018): “Ask him. The Russian state has nothing to do with this… This is Mr. Prigozhin's personal matter.»
And this is the president's answer to a question about the activities of Prigozhin and his PMC in Syria: «This person can have a variety of interests , including, for example, interests in the fuel and energy complex in Syria. But we do not support it, we do not interfere with it and we do not contribute to it. This is his personal initiative, private … We do not interfere in this ”(interview with NBC, March 10, 2018).
If we assume that all this is just business, then the costs of Prigozhin's foreign commercial activity were very high. In 2016, he fell under US sanctions, in 2018 the District Court of the District of Columbia issued a warrant for his arrest (on charges of interfering in the 2017 presidential election), in 2022, the sanctions were extended to his family and all his business .. .
Prigozhin's work ceased to be hidden only after the start of a special military operation. At least as far as PMCs are concerned. “The head of state congratulated the Wagner assault detachments, as well as all military personnel of the units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, who provided them with the necessary support and flank protection, on the completion of the operation to liberate Artemovsk,” reads a message on the presidential website dated May 21, 2023. “All those who distinguished themselves will be presented for state awards.”
And the owner of the PMC was awarded even earlier — according to available information, a year ago he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. True, the decree about this was classified. On the other hand, the title of anti-hero was awarded to him quite publicly: in his Saturday address to the citizens of Russia, Vladimir Putin called the rebellion arranged by Prigozhin a betrayal. Didn't even mention it. But this, knowledgeable people assure, is rather a bad sign for Evgeny Viktorovich. Putin, they say, does not abandon his own, but he does not forgive traitors. Yes, in fact, Putin himself said this more than once. In a word, it seems that this is not the end of the story. To be continued.