Russian indicted by US seen as doing favours for Putin
Prigozhin has shown a willingness to do the ‘dirty tasks’ that others would find too risky
Thirty years ago, he was in prison. A decade ago, he was serving fancy meals to President Vladimir Putin. A week ago, he was among 13 Russians indicted in Washington on charges of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
The journey of Yevgeny Prigozhin from troubled youth to ex-con entrepreneur with companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars reflects what one expert says is a typical pathway to riches in postSoviet Russia: the willingness to do favours and “dirty tasks” for Putin that find too risky.
On February 16, Prigozhin was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller in an elaborate plot to disrupt the 2016 election. The indictment said he funded the internet Research Agency, a “troll factory” that used social media accounts to “sow discord in the US political system.”
Prigozhin had other projects on his plate. He has been linked to a shadowy military firm that has sent private Russian contractors to fight in Ukraine and Syria on the side of Moscow’s allies.
The 56-year-old is an “ideal villain who gets asked to handle various delicate and dirty tasks,” said Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Moscow Centre.
A graduate of a boarding school for promising athletes, others would Prigozhin ran into problems with the law at age 18, when he was convicted of robbery and running a prostitution ring. He served nine years in prison.
After prison, Prigozhin and his stepfather took advantage of Russia’s nascent market economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union and opened hot dog stands.
By the late 1990s, Prigozhin was operating swanky restaurants that were frequented by Putin and visiting foreign dignitaries, earning his nickname from the Russian media.
His proximity to Putin really started to pay off in the 2010s, when companies associated with Prigozhin began getting lucrative Defence Ministry contracts ranging from catering to cleaning services.