‘Putin’s chef ’ denies cooking up murky deals
Restaurateur wanted by the FBI, who won favour with Russia’s president, breaks his silence to
‘I have never served in the Russian government and, it bears repeating, I am not closely acquainted with President Putin’
‘I can say with confidence that I have no connection whatsoever to Wagner Group or any other mercenary groups’
A RUSSIAN businessman dubbed “Putin’s chef ” who is wanted in the US for alleged electoral fraud has broken cover to insist he is a “pacifist” with “no connection whatsoever” to Moscowbacked mercenary groups.
In his first interview with the Western press, Yevgeny Prigozhin sought to set the record straight and rebut allegations that he is the financial backer of Russian internet troll farms and paramilitary forces.
The 60-year-old said the West “cannot seem to grasp” what motivates Russia, but that his country and Britain can’t move closer diplomatically as Washington would see it as “driving a wedge” between the allies.
Speaking exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, he spoke of the diplomatic relationship between Russia and the West and said it was currently not possible to rebuild trust with Britain.
Mr Prigozhin, who has lucrative catering contracts with the Kremlin, said he had been to events with Vladimir Putin on several occasions, but has “no relationship whatsoever” with him and has “no insights” into the Russian president’s thoughts.
He denied in the strongest terms any link between him and Russian paramilitary forces, specifically the shadowy Wagner Group, thought to be active in Ukraine, Syria and Africa.
“Relations between the citizens of the United Kingdom and Russia, in my view, are quite friendly and warm,” Mr Prigozhin said. “However, I think relations between countries are always difficult to characterise because they depend heavily on each country’s political position and the political landscape at a particular moment.
“As far as I can tell, the UK and Russia do not have an independent state-tostate relationship, except in a purely formal, diplomatic sense. UK policy towards Russia always follows US foreign policy towards Russia.
“The US has defined its relationship with Russia, and also China, as one of ‘great power competition’.
“So the relationship between the UK and Russia is this: the US and Russia are great powers in competition with each other, and the UK has volunteered to help the US in that competition.”
Mr Prigozhin grew up in Mr Putin’s home city of Leningrad.
In 2001 he personally served Mr Putin and Yoshirō Mori, the visiting prime minister of Japan, at his restaurant. He subsequently won numerous catering contracts with the Kremlin, including for Mr Putin’s birthday celebrations in 2003.
He said he hopes relations between the UK and Russia “do not get any worse” but wondered “how would it be possible for Russia to rebuild trust with the UK as long as the US defines Russia as its great-power competitor?”
He said: “My personal view is that it makes no sense even to try, as any attempt by Russia to improve relations with the UK will be interpreted by the US as Russia driving a wedge between the US and its ally. If and when Russia and the United States find an accommo
dation to coexist and trade peacefully, the UK will inevitably follow suit.”
The recent Aukus submarine deal between the US, UK and Australia was an example of Britain’s subservient relationship with Washington, he said.
“France withdrew its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra in protest, but did not take any action against London because there was no point. The British joined the deal because the Americans asked them to join,” he said.
Mr Prigozhin has been linked to the Leningrad-based Internet Research Agency, widely seen by Western security officials as a troll farm and source of disinformation.
In April this year the FBI sanctioned Mr Prigozhin, saying the agency was responsible “for interfering in the 2016 presidential election”.
The FBI offered a reward of $250,000 (£215,000) for information leading to the arrest of Mr Prigozhin.
The FBI wanted poster states: “Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin is wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the Federal Election Commission, the US Department of Justice, and the US
Department of State.” US authorities allege Mr Prigozhin has “evolved from simply providing financial support to his global disinformation network to also writing content to denigrate the US electoral process”.
Mr Prigozhin strongly denies the allegations and told The Telegraph: “I have never served in the Russian government and, it bears repeating, I am not closely acquainted with President Putin.”
Relations with Russia are at their lowest point since the Cold War, due mainly to the 2014 annexation of Crimea and sponsorship of separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The West accuses Russia of interference in issues, such as the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit vote. The Kremlin is also believed to be behind several politically motivated assassinations.
Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in 2006 in the UK after drinking tea laced with polonium-210, a lethal radioactive substance. A non-judicial public hearing in 2014-15 said it was highly likely Russia was responsible.
In March 2018, a former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the nerve agent
novichok, which had been smeared on the front-door handle of their Salisbury home. The pair became seriously ill, along with Nick Bailey, a police officer who entered the house. All survived, but a local woman, Dawn Sturgess, died after exposure to the discarded nerve agent.
Britain said Russian military intelligence officers Alexander Mishkin and Anatoliy Chepiga, of Unit 29155 of the GRU, the Russian military intelligence organisation, were responsible for the attack. In response London expelled 23 Russian intelligence officers working in the UK under diplomatic cover.
Mr Prigozhin said the West fundamentally does not understand Russia.
“The Russian state exists to protect the interests of the people of the Russian Federation and Russian people.
“The Russian Federation is not trying to spread democracy, authoritarianism, communism, Sharia law, or any other ideology. This is something that people in the West cannot seem to grasp.
“If you want to understand what Russia will do in a particular situation, ask yourself, what is in the interests of the Russian people, in a real, material sense: sovereignty, prosperity, independence and security.”
Addressing the allegation that he finances the Wagner Group, Mr Prigozhin said the last news he heard of the Russian paramilitary outfit was an article in Foreign Policy magazine saying it does not exist.
However, he questioned why he had been linked to the Wagner Group.
“I ‘have been linked’ by whom?” he asked.
“By the US government? By the Russian opposition press which receives US funding? By academics who receive US grants? By a UN ‘panel of experts’ in which the deputy spokesperson of the US State Department is a member?
“I do not know why I have become a minor character in America’s geopolitical fairy tales.
“Perhaps you will also ask me why the US government thought the kids they droned a few weeks ago in Afghanistan were terrorists. I have no idea. I am actually very surprised that anyone links me with Wagner Group because I am not connected with any groups.
“I can say with confidence that I have no connection whatsoever to Wagner Group or any other mercenary groups”.
However, he admitted it “worries me greatly that some people think I have such a connection”.
“I am a pacifist,” he added.