The Political Ambitions of Prigozhin, Wagner’s Boss, Are Becoming More and More Visible in Russia.
Prigozhin is about to launch a conservative movement, while leading a private armed militia with frightening actions.
In 2020, Yevgeny Prigozhin tried to enter politics. This first attempt failed. At the time, the Petersburg businessman, known since then as the founder of the mercenary company Wagner and the “troll factories” flooding social networks, had tried a rapprochement with the nationalist party Rodina (“Fatherland”), given the parliamentary elections of the following year.
The affair ended in a falling out - “a very bad experience,” he said.
The lesson was learned: it is better to be the only master on board. With this in mind, Yevgeny Prigozhin is preparing to launch a “conservative political movement” entirely at his service, according to the Meduza information site. Two people close to Vladimir Putin, the Kovalchuk brothers, two oligarchs also from St. Petersburg, would be part of the adventure, but in the obvious role of second knives and financiers.
This great leap is somewhat obvious: Yevgeny Prigozhin has everything it takes to be a politician in Russia - the Kremlin's approval, a media empire, money, and also a certain sense of provocation. To which one must now add the new legitimacy offered by his involvement in the “special operation” in Ukraine and the reputation of efficiency that his mercenaries have earned there.
There was still one obstacle, the obsessive cult of secrecy that the 61-year-old former bandit cultivates. It was precisely the conflict in Ukraine that saw him, for the first time in a long career shrouded in mystery, seek the light. The countless websites he controls have distilled images of his movements on the front, descending from helicopters, staff cards in hand, medals pinned to his chest.
In September 2022, Yevgeny Prigozhin also admitted to being the founder of Wagner, even though he had previously been filing defamation lawsuits about the subject and private military companies are still, in theory, forbidden in Russia. Seeming to take pleasure in this great unpacking, Yevgeny Prigozhin had also recognized, shortly before the American elections of November 2022, “interference” in the past elections of this country.
Washington and Brussels have placed since 2014 the character and his main company, Concord, under sanctions. The “Putin's chef” (this nickname comes from the luxury restaurants that he opened in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, then contracts with the Ministry of Defense) is especially known for its harsh criticism of the Russian military command, accused of softness in Ukraine.
By allying with the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Yevgeny Prigozhin even obtained the head of a general, Alexander Lapine, who was responsible for the disastrous retreat from Kharkiv. As a sign that his positions are very coldly calculated, he, on the other hand, welcomed the “responsible” decision to withdraw from Kherson, thus aligning himself with the demands of the Kremlin.
Yevgeny Prigozhin was imprisoned for banditry in the past
This relentless activism has allowed the entrepreneur to establish his image as the toughest of the tough, a profile for which there is a strong demand among the ultra-nationalist and radical fringe of the public. On specialized websites, commentators swear by Wagner's “efficiency” and the determination of his leader - a movement that is however difficult to evaluate, since the entrepreneur finances many of these Telegram channels, machines for spreading false information intended above all to attack his enemies.
Yevgeny Prigozhin even makes his past as a prisoner a strength. He was imprisoned from 1981 to 1990 for banditry and various thefts, and leaked images of his prison visits to recruit mercenaries for Wagner. On November 11, 2022, responding to a written question from a Siberian website, he even theorized: “Prisoners have a much higher level of consciousness than the Russian elite.”
For Meduza, such a statement also gives an indication of the direction of the future movement he is about to launch: an ultranationalist formation aimed at small-town Russia. According to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian elites have “chosen their comfort over the good of the people,” by refusing to send their children to fight.
What is the wealthy businessman looking for by exposing himself in this way?
Yevgeny Prigozhin has built his entire career on his sense of initiative, and his ability to mix public and private affairs. This is what guided the creation of “troll farms” back in 2013, with the Internet Research Agency. The same approach was behind its action abroad, from Syria and Libya to the Central African Republic, with the mercenaries of the Wagner Group or the deployment of political consultants. These consultants have also sought to extend their action in Europe and the United States, with the creation of fake human rights or anti-police violence NGOs.
A geopolitical entrepreneur
So many initiatives, under the more or less direct control of the Kremlin, which has allowed him not only to enrich himself, by taking control of Syrian oil or Central African diamonds for example but also to increase his influence with the authorities. The “geopolitical entrepreneur” Prigozhin, according to the formula of the political scientist Tatiana Stanovaya, feels perfectly the air of the time - and this one, in the Russia of the “special operation,” calls for blood.
The man wants to further strengthen his role, even to impose himself in the restricted circle of those who still have the ear of Vladimir Putin.
His messages sent just recently are clear: while he had already publicly attacked the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, his local rival, the entrepreneur went a step further on November 14, 2022, accusing him of “high treason.”
On the same day, Yevgeny Prigozhin also claimed, in a sarcastic but unambiguous comment, the execution by Wagner mercenaries of a deserter from the group with a mace. He then published a trolling-like denial, his specialty, suggesting a lead to ... the American secret services.
The name Prigozhin was already associated with episodes of violence, whether threats against journalists, the poisoning of an opponent, or the death in the Central African Republic of three Russian journalists in 2018. But this last joking message, coupled with the fact that no official investigation has been opened on the savage execution of the supposed “deserter,” sends the signal that everything is now allowed, not only in distant theaters but in Russia itself.
For several Russian political scientists, the entrepreneur is also trying to position himself in the perspective of the post-Putin era, by occupying a radical but promising niche in Russia in 2022. From there imagine him ready to go against the power in place, there is only one step.
“Yevgeny Prigozhin and Kadyrov are the force that will rule Russia after Putin,” wants to believe Alfred Koch, a former deputy prime minister of Boris Yeltsin, now in exile. “And Putin is alive and well only until this couple feels stronger than the army. As soon as that happens, they will have in their hands a snuffbox and a scarf [a reference to the assassination of Czar Paul I in 1801] and they will immediately arrive in Putin's apartments.”
Regardless of the seriousness of this prediction, Yevgeny Prigozhin's rise is indeed causing significant resentment within the Russian military, not to mention the tenacious hatred he has for many FSB agents, the Russian security services, and the fear he arouses among the elite.
However, his posture remains very opportune for power. Such profiles have always existed during Vladimir Putin's reign - radicals whose very existence is supposed to reassure, both internally and externally, the “moderate” position of the president. These characters, like Vladimir Zhirinovsky (historical leader of the ultranationalist party LDPR, who died in April 2022), were content to vociferate their fantasies of nuclear war on television. What is new is that they now have private armies, with artillery and aviation, and a blood-stained mace as their emblem.
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