Russia-Wagner Group: Mr Prigozhin has identified Russian President Vladimir Putin because the 1990s.
Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has vowed to take all mandatory steps to topple Russia’s navy management, hours after the Kremlin accused him of “armed rebellion”.
Here are 5 information on Yevgeny Prigozhin:
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Born in 1961 in Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin is a high-profile, provocative mercenary chief, who has identified Russian President Vladimir Putin because the 1990s. He noticed his political star rise in Russia in the course of the Ukraine warfare.
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According to Politico, Mr Prigozhin and Mr Putin share the identical hometown, St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). He obtained his first felony conviction in 1979, aged 18, and acquired a suspended two-and-a-half-year sentence for theft. Two years later, he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for theft and theft, 9 of which he served behind bars.
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Upon his launch from jail, Mr Prigozhin arrange a series of stalls promoting scorching canine. Within just a few years, he was then capable of open costly eating places in St Petersburg. It was there that he started mixing with the excessive and mighty of St Petersburg after which Russia.
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As per the BBC, Mr Prigozhin used that connection to develop a catering enterprise and gained profitable Russian authorities contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.” He later expanded into different areas, together with media and an notorious web “troll factory” that led to his indictment within the US for meddling within the 2016 presidential election.
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Earlier this 12 months in January, the 62-year-old acknowledged founding, main and financing the shadowy personal mercenary firm Wagner, an organisation that has labored alongside the Russian military in the course of the nation’s invasion of Ukraine. Notably, western international locations and United Nations specialists have accused Wagner mercenaries of human rights abuses all through Africa, together with in Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.