Mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose death was announced by Russia following a plane crash near Moscow, was a Kremlin confidant catapulted to infamy by Russia's offensive in Ukraine before he turned his troops on Russia's capital.
Prigozhin's order in June that his private fighting group march on Moscow to unseat Russia's top brass presented the most serious challenge to President Vladimir Putin's hold on power over more than two decades.
