Russia, who was Prigozhin, “Putin’s cook” turned “traitor”

The body of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the “Putin’s cook”founder elleader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, would have been identified among the remains of the plane he was traveling on, which crashed this afternoon near the village of Kuzhenkino, in the Tver region, north of Moscow. This was reported by Russian television Tsargrad. The private jet, which Prigozhin used regularly, had departed from Moscow and was bound for St. Petersburg. He would have been shot down by Russian flak.

There would be no survivor: they are the other 9 passengers on board also died, including Dmitry Utkin, the other founder of the Wagner group, a private military company operating as an unofficial paramilitary force in the service of the Russian government. The group, confirming the deaths of both, let it be known that there will be “disastrous consequences”. “The head of the Wagner group, Hero of Russia, a true patriot Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin,” writes the group on the Telegram channel Gray Zone«died as a result of the actions of traitors to Russia. But even in hell it will be the best! Glory to Russia!».

The attempted coup

From an important ally of Putin, Prigozhin had become a “traitor to the fatherland” after having tried to get to Moscow two months ago (June 24), with what he called a “freedom march”, at the head of about 25,000 mercenaries, at the end of weeks of accusations and recriminations for the handling of the war in Ukraine. As Wagner’s involvement in the Ukrainian War increased, Prigozhin intensified his calls grievances against the Russian military commandsaccusing them of poor strategic foresight.

The revolt was soon contained with the mediation of Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko and the promise of the mercenaries to withdraw from Ukraine and transfer their bases to Belarus. But the attempted coup was described by Vladimir Putin as “a stab in the back”. And, since that day, according to experts, Prigozhin had become “a walking dead”.

“It is obvious that Putin does not forgive anyone,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak wrote in X. “He was waiting for the moment. It is obvious that Prigozhin signed a special death warrant for himself the moment he believed Lukashenko’s bizarre guarantees and Putin’s equally absurd word of honor. The demonstrative elimination of Prigozhin and Wagner’s command two months after the coup attempt is Putin’s signal to the Russian elites ahead of the 2024 elections. Attention! Disloyalty equals death».

Who was Prigozhin

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, born in 1961 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad), after being convicted of some criminal activity, had become a entrepreneur, active above all in the restaurant sector. He was nicknamed “Putin’s cook” because his main catering company, the Concord Management and Consultingprovided catering services for the Russian president and the Kremlin.

Prigozhin, however, has become better known for his involvement in political and economic activities related to the Russian government. The “Putin’s cook” allegedly set up theInternet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian “fake news factory”. which was accused of interfering in the 2016 United States presidential election, through manipulation of social media and disinformation campaigns. For his alleged involvement in these activities, Prigozhin was subject to international sanctionsincluding those imposed by the United States and the European Union.

In 2014, he founded the Wagner militia, which has operated in various conflict zones. Including Ukraine, the mission that marked the beginning of the end for him.