Yevgeny Prigozhin accumulated wealth, influence and international intrigue through his relationship with Vladimir Putin, but he now appears to have turned his Wagner mercenary force against Putin's regime.
The big picture: After Russia invaded Ukraine, Prigozhin's Wagner forces became a key part of the war effort, particularly in the long and brutal battle for Bakhmut. But Putin has now accused the mercenary boss of treason for organizing what Kremlin officials have described as an "armed rebellion" inside Russia.
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
A former convict, Prigozhin has known Putin since the 1990s in St. Petersburg, when he was running a restaurant and Putin was a rising politician.
- After Putin took power, Prigozhin won so many government contracts that he was nicknamed “Putin’s chef."
- His interests soon stretched far beyond catering. He was indicted in the U.S. in 2018 for his role in running the Internet Research Agency, which spread disinformation online during the 2016 election campaign.
- For years, Prigozhin denied any links to Wagner, but he has become the group's public face — and the Russian military's most vicious critic — since the invasion.
What role has the Wagner group played in Ukraine?
Prigozhin has toured Russian prisons, offering freedom to those willing to fight. The U.S. said earlier this year that it believed Wagner had deployed 50,000 mercenaries to Ukraine, of whom 40,000 were convicts.
- Prigozhin claimed in May that 20,000 of his fighters had died in the fight for Bakhmut. He declared that Russia's generals were incompetent and had left Wagner fighters to be slaughtered without sufficient ammunition.
- After declaring victory in Bakhmut, Prigozhin announced he was pulling his forces out of the area, forcing Moscow to send in its own reinforcements.
Prigozhin's frequent video addresses have in recent weeks appeared increasingly bellicose and, at times, unhinged.
- He has demanded a harsher "total war" approach and attacked nearly everyone involved in the war effort except Putin himself.
- However, Putin seemed to be siding against him and with the military brass, leading to speculation that he'd lost a high-stakes power struggle.
The Prigozhin and Russian military feud
Prigozhin on Friday accused the Russian military of striking a Wagner camp and killing “a huge amount” of his fighters, which Moscow denied.
- Prigozhin said he had a 25,000-strong force that was ready to "end this debacle." Wagner forces entered the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, with others reportedly marching toward Moscow.
- Without naming him, Putin accused Prigozhin of mounting an "armed rebellion," which he vowed to crush.
- Prigozhen responded in a message posted to Telegram, saying "this is not a military coup, but a march of justice."
When did Wagner form and where has it operated?
The rupture between Wagner and the Kremlin comes after nearly a decade in which the group — which first emerged in 2014 during Russia's annexation of Crimea — seemed to be both enriching Prigozhin and furthering Putin's global aims.
- Analysts have long believed the group could not have been formed and deployed all over the world — including in several unstable countries in Africa and the Middle East, such as the Central African Republic, Libya, Mali and Syria — without Putin's blessing.
- The group's activities appear to have won Russia some supporters in unstable West African countries such as Burkina Faso. During a coup there last October, several civilians could be seen waving Russian flags.
- The group's emergence coincided with a rise in Russia's use of private military companies in the mid-2010s, when Moscow made "a conscious decision that it is going to start competing with other countries, including the U.S., for influence" in the Middle East, Europe, Africa and parts of Latin America, Seth Jones, the director of the international security program at CSIS, told Axios.
- Wagner has also exploited natural resources in many of the countries in which it operates, Jones said, including by guarding mines and oilfields or securing transport routes. Those interests have included oil and gas in Syria and Libya; gold, diamonds, and uranium in the Central African Republic; and weapons in Venezuela, according to Jones.
Wagner group accused of human rights abuses
Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Wagner mercenaries of abuses.
- Human Rights Watch last year accused Wagner forces of planting mines and booby traps near Libya's capital, Tripoli.
- The group has also been accused of mounting deadly attacks on gold mines in Sudan and the Central African Republic. Wagner mercenaries have also been accused of being involved in carrying out massacres in Mali.
- In the Central African Republic, UN experts have accused Wagner forces of committing torture, disappearances, mass summary executions, and arbitrary detentions. UN experts have also said the group has been known to violently harass and intimidate civilians.
- Russian and local officials have disputed some of those claims.
What to watch: It remains to be seen whether Wagner's global activities can survive the war in Ukraine, and Prigozhin's very public split with Putin.
