The Concorde budget, the office behind the garages and the truck of computers
Evgeny Prigozhin's office in St. Petersburg, the headquarters of the Patriot media holding, a recruiting center and, finally, the huge building of the PMC Wagner center — the special correspondent «MK» walked through all these places in the northern capital and witnessed curious scenes — from the order «to take out the budget of Concorde» to the storage of boxes with the inscription «search».
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The first stop was the Trezzini Hotel. on University Embankment. According to media reports, the hotel itself belongs to Prigozhin, and the office of the founder of the Wagner PMC is allegedly located in its courtyard. It is in the courtyard of the «Trezzini» found a «Gazelle», in which boxes of money were found.
The hotel itself is functioning. The doorman at the entrance to the hotel confirmed that there were no problems. From questions about Prigogine and Gazelle evaded.
— What makes you think that this is Prigozhin's hotel? To listen to you, one gets the feeling that the whole of St. Petersburg belongs to him. About «Gazelle» I haven't heard of money. We don’t have any secret parking, here is one in front of you, — he pointed to the embankment.
The courtyard of the Trezzini Hotel hidden from prying eyes in Admiralteisky Lane. The same «Gazelle» parked close to the garage. The door on the front seat on the passenger side is damaged. On the ground – broken glass and a sign: “Is the car interfering? Sorry — call. The Gazelle itself whole. Everything is clean in the cabin.
«Gazelle» near Prigozhin's office, where boxes of money were found.
The yard-well, where Prigozhin's office is probably located, is located a little further. Three men came out of there on Friday morning. One of them grinned: “Estimate, everything had to be handed over – not only the weapons were taken away, but also the uniform. It is unlikely that civilians would have such conversations.
A sign hangs on the wall of the house: «Parking spaces are intended for guests and official cars of the Trezzini Palace Hotel.»
Trezzini Hotel Courtyard.
While I was looking around the yard, a man in a suit entered. “Go down, take out the Concorde budget,” he ordered by phone. At that moment, it became clear that I was not mistaken with the address.
A girl came out of one entrance. I gave the man a pack of A4 sheets.
— What should I do? – asked the lady.
— Go drink tea, just sit. If anything changes, I'll type…
Oddly enough, one of Prigozhin's offices is most likely located in this entrance.
The courtyard makes a depressing impression. The houses here seem semi-residential. Judging by the dusty windows, there are few residents. In one of the entrances, apparently, there was once a sports section: the windows are plastered with stickers of athletes, a worn inscription on the door: “I remember. I'm proud.»
The courtyard near Prigogine's office looks like this.
Next, I went to the Concord office; on the Lieutenant Schmidt embankment. The mansion is a five minute walk from the hotel. The parking lot was empty. The windows are covered with thick blinds.
Office of the Prigozhin company «Concord»
Watch – lone guard. The man was clearly not happy about my visit. When asked if the company was working, he nodded.
– I asked.
— You ask too many questions. I don't want to talk to journalists at all.
Another brainchild of Yevgeny Prigozhin is the Patriot media holding. On Friday it became known about the dissolution of the company. The media holding was located on Primorsky Prospekt, in one of the modern LCDs. Entrance to the territory with passes.
— For a long time everyone left and everything was taken out, there was no one there, — a security guard stopped me in front of the barrier and warned that filming the buildings was prohibited.
— Recently, the sun shone differently, too, — philosophically noticed the men and asked to leave the object.
One of these buildings is the office of Prigozhin's media group Patriot, which announced the cessation of work
I'm going in search of reception points at the Wagner PMC. In March, a private military company posted job advertisements. On the page in the social network indicated six addresses in St. Petersburg. Basically, these were fight clubs.
One of these clubs, Monarch, is located on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. But finding the section was not easy. Google map didn't help. But the guard who was on duty at the neighboring SPbSUT building helped.
— So just you will not find this office, — the man smiled. – You will pass through the university territory, there you will see an inconspicuous entrance in the fence, behind it there are garages, dive there…
The club is a two-story gray building. Around garages, abandoned buildings and the likeness of a stadium with rusty football goals. At the entrance to the club there are stickers of PMC «Wagner». The same sticker was on a foreign car parked here.
PMC recruitment center building in St. Petersburg
A young man approached me. Refused to show up. Didn't let me into the building. It took me a long time to find out how I found out the address and where I got the information from. When asked if Wagner was being recruited here, the man remained silent. He gave the PMC hotline number: «Call and find out.» At the other end of the wire, they explained to me: “We do not accept women, but we take men. Come to the Krasnodar Territory in Molkino. The rest of the locations are closed. Nothing else works in St. Petersburg either.
The last item on my program was the PMC Wagner Center, where searches were carried out after Prigozhin's rebellion.
It's impossible to get there just like that. The head of the press service, Anna Zamaraeva, agreed to give us a tour and tell us about the latest events.
Wagner Center Hall
I was escorted into an auditorium where young boys and girls sat at a round table. They appear to be between 18 and 23 years old. They explained to me: these are young residents of the center. Residents have the opportunity to receive free office and industrial premises for the implementation of their projects.
The audience was asked how they see their future, why they are here, how they reacted to Prigozhin's act, whether they are ready to go to the NWO. With me, out of eight people, only one guy answered rather vaguely. The rest were silent.
Then two more residents appeared to me. One of them is Dmitry. The man was in camouflage.
— I was in the NWO, now on a business trip, — Dmitry began the story. – I am one of the very first residents of the center, I have my own telegram channel. I am engaged in civil support of the NWO. I was given a computer.
I asked the man to specify his activities.
— I write to the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB about people who break the law, they write «ducks», they talk about the past of the fighters though they washed away their sins with their blood. I find publics in social networks that are subversive, undermine the situation.
Second resident – Sergei Chaulin. The man was born in Estonia, from where he was deported in February for his political activities. In the center, he helps colleagues in misfortune.
— There were three people in St. Petersburg who were deported from Estonia, — says the man. — We decided to create a call center to help those deported from the Baltic countries. They created such conditions that for the slightest offense you can get a fine, or go to jail, or you will be deported. Here we were provided with premises and the opportunity to deal with such cases.
I was deported from the country right in a work uniform, put on a bridge in winter and said: «Go.» The reason was that I collected humanitarian aid for the Donbass, was the head of the «Immortal Regiment» & hellip; Yes, he did a lot.
In Estonia, Sergei left a wife, children, and grandchildren. They are in no hurry to Russia. «They have housing there, work, where will they go,» the interlocutor explained.
Sergey himself in Russia on a bird's license. He has a gray passport of a non-citizen in his hands. Now he is preparing documents to obtain Russian citizenship.
— I did not find a job, because there is no registration. For the time being, I live on the compensation that was given to me as a victim of the terrorist attack where Vladlen Tatarsky died. I was sitting two meters from him. The surgeons did everything possible so that the scars on the face and neck were not particularly noticeable. I live economically, I don’t rent an apartment, thanks, my friends gave me shelter.
According to Sergei, the compensation amounted to 500 thousand rubles. Another part of the money was allocated by the city. The man does not name the exact amount. Hints that less than a million.
Wagner Center Residents
The next – Alexei. The man was also in the SVO. Now he teaches people how to build quadcopters. The course is a week. He says that there are many people who want to sign up for training.
Not everyone can become a resident of the center. A rigorous selection is underway.
Center Interior
— We have a lot of hits. Even psychics come, – adds press secretary Anna.
The building directly to the Wagner Center occupies 12 floors. The other wing of the building is 23 floors. There, the premises are leased to companies that are not related to the SVO.
In one of the rooms, I noticed boxes marked «search».
Boxes labeled «Search»
— The searches took place on Saturday, lasted until late in the evening. On this day, there were several people in the center – dispatcher and security guards, — says Anna. — Seized equipment, computers, hard drives, merch – flags, caps, energy. On Friday, almost everything was returned to us – a whole KAMAZ of our equipment was brought.
Anna plans to apply to Roskomnadzor about unblocking the site and the center's group on the social network, since «there is no criminal case.»
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— Owner. Prigozhin.
— The director of the center is in touch with him. He himself did not come here after the incident. But he is kept informed.
For some reason, employees are not worried about the future of the center. In the nearest plans they have – opening a cafe.