Yevgeny Prigozhin

Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (Alternatively: Yevgeniy Vicktorovich Prigozhin, Russian: Евгений Викторович Пригожин; 1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian oligarch and former close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin was nicknamed "Putin's chef" because his restaurants and catering businesses hosted dinners which Putin attended with foreign dignitaries.

Prigozhin controlled a network of companies including Wagner Group, a Russian state-backed mercenary group operating in Africa, Syria, and Ukraine; and three companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections. Prigozhin long denied any connection to Wagner, however, a video in September 2022 showed Prigozhin in a Mari El prison recruiting inmates, promising them freedom if they served six months with the Wagner Group. On 26 September 2022, Prigozhin further admitted that he had founded the Wagner Group specifically to support Russian forces in the War in Donbas, in May 2014. Prigozhin also long denied his role in Russian interference in U.S. elections, but in November 2022, he admitted his role in such operations, saying they would continue.

Prigozhin himself spent nine years as a convict in prisons in the Soviet Union. According to an investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin's operations "are tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU". Prigozhin, his companies and associates face economic sanctions and criminal charges in the United States. In June 2023, he launched a short-lived rebellion against Russian Armed Forces, but a truce was agreed within 24 hours negotiated by President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and it was said Prigozhin would move to the country.

2022

 * Gentlemen, we interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere.
 * Comments about interfering in US elections, quoted in "Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections", The Guardian (7 November 2022)


 * Carefully, precisely, surgically and the way we do it, the way we can.
 * Comments about interfering in US elections, quoted in "Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin admits interfering in US elections", The Guardian (7 November 2022)


 * I will answer you very subtly, and delicately and I apologize, I will allow a certain ambiguity. Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere [...] Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once.
 * Prigozhin quoted in "Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin appears to admit to US election interference", CNN (7 November 2022)


 * Don’t booze too much, don’t take drugs, don’t rape women — only for love or for money as they say.
 * Commenting to former convicts, being released after serving 6 months as mercenaries in Wagner Group during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, quoted in "Putin ally Prigozhin grants freedom to first Russian convicts who fought in Ukraine", NBC News (5 January 2022)


 * You have learned a great deal — first of all: how to kill the enemy.
 * Commenting to former convicts, being released after serving 6 months as mercenaries in Wagner Group during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, quoted in "Putin ally Prigozhin grants freedom to first Russian convicts who fought in Ukraine", NBC News (5 January 2022)

March–April 2023

 * Putin has "cut off communication with me to get me to stop asking for ammunition"
 * "After losing more than 30,000 soldiers, the brutal Wagner Group is now recruiting in Russian schools", Business Insider (12 March 2023)


 * In a legal sense, Bakhmut has been captured.
 * "Wagner Claims Capture of Ukraine’s Bakhmut 'in Legal Sense'", The Defense Post (2 April 2023)


 * We will kill everyone on the battlefield. Take no more prisoners of war!
 * "Wagner Boss Says Forces Won't Take Any More Prisoners in Ukraine", Moscow Times (24 April 2023)


 * Russia is on the brink of catastrophe.
 * We need to stop deceiving the population and telling them that everything is fine.
 * What have we even done? We’ve turned the Russian army – the second army in the world – into what? Who the **** knows. … What kind of army are we if we couldn’t even manage with itty bitty Ukraine?
 * It’s a complete mess everywhere, there’s no discipline. The army has everything, but there is absolutely no control, while there is an absolute paranoid gap between that which is happening in the trenches, and that which they know and think about in headquarters
 * "‘Stop Deceiving the Population’: Russia’s Mercenary Boss Threatens Full-Blown Mutiny", The Daily Beast (29 April 2023)

May 2023

 * Shoigu, Gerasimov, where the **** is our ammunition?
 * You **** sit there in your expensive clubs. Your kids are all getting off on life, recording their little YouTube videos.
 * I will make sure they will bear responsibility for it.
 * These are Wagner lads who died today. The blood is still fresh. They came here as volunteers and are dying so you can sit like fat cats in your luxury offices.
 * "Wagner chief rages at Russia’s generals and threatens Bakhmut pullout", The Guardian (5 May 2023)


 * What do you need to do with an organization that you consider a terrorist group? You must destroy the leader of the organization, basically me, of course.
 * "Wagner Boss Dares the West: If I’m a Terrorist, Come and Kill Me", The Daily Beast (10 May 2023)


 * We are in such a condition that we could ******* lose Russia - that is the main problem. We need to impose martial law.
 * This divide can end as in 1917 with a revolution - first the soldiers will stand up, and after that - their loved ones will rise up. There are already tens of thousands of them - relatives of those killed - and there will probably be hundreds of thousands.
 * "Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russia risks revolution unless elite get serious about war, Wagner chief says Updated 13 minutes ago", The Telegraph (24 May 2023)


 * We came in boorishly, trampling all over Ukraine’s territory in search of Nazis. And while we searched for Nazis, we ****** up everyone we could. We came up to Kyiv and — I’ll put it in plain Russian — **** the bed and retreated. Then on to Kherson — we **** the bed and retreated. And somehow things aren’t working out for us.
 * The special military operation was done for the purpose of “denazification,” while we’ve made Ukraine into a nation that’s known throughout the world. They’re like the Greeks or the Romans at their peaks. And as far as “demilitarization,” if they had some 500 tanks at the start of the special military operation, now they have 5,000. If they had 20,000 capable fighters before, now they have 400,000. What kind of demilitarization is that? Now it looks more like we did the opposite, somehow or other, and militarized Ukraine.
 * Wagner Group is currently the best army in the world. Of course, out of propriety, I have to say that the next best one is the Russian army, but I think the Ukrainians today are one of the strongest armies. They’re highly organized and highly trained, they have good intelligence, and they have a diverse arsenal. They work equally well on any systems, whether Soviet ones or NATO ones.
 * [Russian Defense Ministry Sergei] Shoigu's son-in-law walks around, shaking his ass, while his daughter is opening the Kronstadt forts. Did you make money from these forts? Are you spending your money on these forts? Spend your fucking money on ammunition.
 * It turns out that the real men are fighting while some people just like to mess around.
 * While the kids of the elite are smearing creams on themselves and showing it on the Internet, ordinary people’s kids are coming home in zinc, blown to bits, and mothers are crying over their sons.
 * The main problem is Shoigu and Gerasimov. It was the decisions of those two that blocked us from getting everything, despite the president saying that the ammunition was there.
 * There’s an optimistic scenario and a pessimistic one. I have little faith in the first one. [It looks like this]: Europe and America get tired of the Ukrainian conflict. China sits everyone down at the negotiating table. We agree that everything we’ve already snatched is ours and everything we haven’t snatched isn’t ours. The odds of this are slim.
 * Here’s the pessimistic scenario: the Ukrainians are given missiles, they train their troops, they no doubt continue their offensive, and they try to counterattack. It’s possible that this counteroffensive is successful in some places and they restore the borders to where they were in 2014 — that could easily happen. They’ll attack Crimea, they’ll try to blow up the Crimean Bridge, they’ll cut off our supply routes. So we need to be ready for a difficult war.
 * We’re currently in a state where there’s a danger of just pissing away Russia. So we should declare martial law, we should declare new waves of mobilization, and we need to transfer everybody we can to work on ammunition production. We need to cut the fat, stop building new roads and new infrastructure, and work only on the war.
 * Russia needs to take a page out of North Korea’s book for a certain number of years: close all our borders, stop pulling punches, bring back all our boys from abroad, and work hard. Then we’ll see some kind of result.
 * The place to prove you’re right is on the battlefield.
 * "‘We need to take a page from North Korea’s book’ Evgeny Prigozhin speaks even more frankly than usual in new 77-minute interview", interview with Meduza (24 May 2023)


 * First the soldiers will stand up, and after that – their loved ones will rise up. It is wrong to think that there are hundreds of them – there are already tens of thousands of them – relatives of those killed...And there will probably be hundreds of thousands – we cannot avoid that.
 * We are in a situation where we can simply lose Russia...We must introduce martial law. We unfortunately … must announce new waves of mobilization; we must put everyone who is capable to work on increasing the production of ammunition...Russia needs to live like North Korea for a few years, so to say, close the borders … and work hard.
 * My advice to the Russian elites — get your lads, send them to war, and when you go to the funeral, when you start burying them, people will say that now everything is fair.
 * Said about the status in 2023 of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, quoted in "Prigozhin says war in Ukraine has backfired, warns of Russian revolution", The Washington Post (24 May, 2023)


 * I have never been a chef; I used to be a restaurateur and quite successful. I can't cook myself. They should have just come up with 'Putin's butcher' instead.
 * Said about his nickname "Putin's chef" as quoted in 'Wagner Group boss, "Putin's butcher," says Russia at risk of losing Ukraine war and facing a "revolution"', CBS News (25 May 2023)


 * You stinking wretches, what are you doing? You’re bastards! Get your asses out of the offices you've been put in to defend this country. You are the Defense Ministry. You didn’t do a damn thing to advance. Why the fuck are you allowing these drones to fly to Moscow?
 * As a citizen, I am deeply indignant that these scum [Russia's Defense Ministry] are sitting quietly and wearing out their seats with their fat asses smeared with expensive creams.
 * Said about drone attacks on Moscow, quoted in "How Are They Reaching Moscow?!’ Russians Panic as Drones Attack", The Daily Beast (30 May 2023)


 * Penalties for war crimes should be seriously toughened.
 * I believe that capital punishment should be returned. Otherwise, the war cannot be won. Comrade Stalin was absolutely right.
 * Then there will be a hard war. I don't know how long it will last. If you do it right, then my forecast is to liberate Donbas in two years, to reach Kiev in three or four. If we mobilize the whole of society now, turn on the production of all ammunition, weapons and everything that is required, make planned production, declare a general mobilization. After all, when we come to mobilization, the mobilized will again prepare for an hour and then go to the front.
 * The recipe for victory in the NWO: general mobilization for two million people, good army management and discipline, shooting deserters. It is necessary to make all the heads of defense enterprises military personnel so that the death penalty can also be applied to them. It is necessary to make the country a military monster so that there are more weapons than in North Korea.
 * We have to finish building beautiful bridges, we have to finish making big theaters, new stages, we have to have everything focused on defense now.
 * «Если мы воюем дальше, надо объявлять мобилизацию уже сейчас», Meduza (31 May 2023)

June 2023



 * The Russian Defense Ministry is trying to deceive the President and the public and tell them there was insane aggression on the part of Ukraine and they were going to attack us together with the entire NATO bloc. So, the so-called "special operation" on February 24 was launched for completely different reasons. Why was the war needed? The war was needed so that a handful of scumbags could have a blast and get PR attention showing how strong the army is … The war was not started … in order to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine.
 * Address over the Telegram app (23 June 2023), as quoted in "Thoughts, questions and suspicions about Prigozhin’s revolt" in Oakland Socialist (25 June 2023) · Alternate translation in "Wagner chief's bombshell accusations: Prigozhin says Russian army deliberately attacked his forces" on France24

The war was needed... so that [Sergei] Shoigu could become a Marshal, so that he could get a second Hero Star… the war wasn't for demilitarising or de-nazifying Ukraine. It was needed for an extra star.
 * On 24 February [2022] there was nothing extraordinary happening there. Now the Ministry of Defence is trying to deceive the public, deceive the president and tell a story that there was some crazy aggression by Ukraine, that - together with the whole Nato bloc - Ukraine was planning to attack us.
 * Video released via Telegram (23 June 2023), as cited in "Yevgeny Prigozhin: Wagner chief blames war on defence minister" BBC News (23 June 2023).


 * Today, seeing that we aren’t broken, they decided to launch rocket attacks on our rear camps. A huge number of fighters were killed, our comrades in arms.
 * 23 June 2023 at 21:09, quoted in "Wagner’s ‘march of justice’ All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup", Meduza


 * Shoigu just fled Rostov like a coward. At 21:00 he ran like a coward, like a girl. In order to not explain that, he ordered helicopters to destroy our guys, that’s why the rocket strike happened. This creature will be stopped.
 * 23 June 2023 at 21:41, quoted in "Wagner’s ‘march of justice’ All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup", Meduza


 * We’re 25,000 strong, and we’re going to get to the bottom of the lawlessness in this country.
 * 23 June 2023 at 21:49, quoted in "Wagner’s ‘march of justice’ All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup", Meduza


 * The details are becoming clear. The Defense Minister went to Rostov specially to conduct an operation to destroy Wagner Group. He used artillery and helicopters by dark to destroy us.
 * 23 June 2023 at 22:15, quoted in "Wagner’s ‘march of justice’ All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup", Meduza


 * This is no military coup. This is a justice march. Our actions in no way interfere with the troops.
 * 23 June 2023 at 22:29, quoted in "Wagner’s ‘march of justice’ All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup", Meduza


 * The majority of the troops support us strongly. We get messages like “Thanks, guys! Finally justice is coming to the army. You’ll finally get it so they give us ammunition and stop throwing us out like dead meat.” The information has just come in that the defense minister tried to hide 2,000 bodies stored in the Rostov morgue, so as not to show losses.
 * 23 June 2023 at 22:39, quoted in "Wagner’s ‘march of justice’ All of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s posts about his apparent military coup", Meduza


 * [About his rivals in the Russian military] [W]e are going to figure out why the chaos is happening in the country. Anyone who wants should join. We need to end this mess.
 * Everyone who will try to resist, we will consider them a danger and destroy them immediately, including any checkpoints on our way. And any aviation that we see above our heads.
 * I'm asking everyone to remain calm, do not succumb to provocations, and remain in their houses. Ideally, those along our way, do not go outside. After we finished what we started, we will return to the frontline to protect our motherland.
 * Audio statements as cited in "Russia investigates Wagner chief for ‘armed mutiny’ after call for attack on military" The Guardian (23 June 2023)


 * We are moving forward and will go until the end. All of us are ready to die. All 25,000, and then another 25,000. We are dying for the Russian people.
 * Said when launching a convoy against Moscow and taking control over Rostov on Don and Voronezh, quoted in "What did Vladimir Putin say? Russian leader calls Wagner Group move a ‘betrayal’ in new speech", London World, 24 June 2023

Therefore, realising all the responsibility for the fact that Russian blood will be shed from one side, we will turn our convoys around and go in the opposite direction to our field camps.
 * Now the moment has come when blood can be shed.
 * Prigozhin announcing his mercenaries were to return to their bases in Southern Russia rather than march to Moscow, as cited in "Prigozhin calls off march on Moscow to avert 'Russian bloodshed'" The Guardian (24 June 2023). For a Wikipedia article on this incident, see Wagner Group rebellion.

About Prigozhin

 * In alphabetical order by author or source.


 * Soon, he was cooking up a lot of trouble: His Internet Research Agency became a tool of Russian disinformation, helping to attack the 2016 U.S. election, and his Wagner Group became a tool for Putin to project power in Africa and the Middle East with a patina of implausible deniability. When Putin decided in 2014 to seize Crimea and foment an insurgency in eastern Ukraine, Wagner — full of former special forces operatives from the Russian military — was one of the instruments he used.
 * Max Boot "Putin is learning a lesson many tyrants have before him" The Washington Post (24 June 2023)


 * In recent months Prigozhin, former robber, convict, hot-dog seller, entrepreneur, Putin chef, Kremlin caterer, supplier of food to the Russian army, state-sponsored troll farmer, Trump and Brexit booster, who as recently as 2021 avoided attention and denied his involvement with Wagner, has pushed himself into the limelight. This is partly the result of the role Wagner has played in battles with the Ukrainian army in the small towns north-west of Donetsk, where well-equipped, experienced veterans of Russia's recent interventions in Africa and the Middle East alternate with squads of convicts used as human consumables to absorb Ukrainian fire with their bodies. And it’s also down to Prigozhin’s adept use of the social media platform Telegram to promote his evolving brand: the ruthless patriot, the rueful butcher, the hands-on manager of the people’s dirty work.
 * James Meek "'That's my tank on fire'" London Review of Books Vol. 45 No. 8 (13 April 2023)


 * I am firmly convinced that during wartime, traitors have to be destroyed! Today, no matter who says what, whatever fairy tales they are telling, a bullet to the forehead is the sole salvation for Prigozhin and Utkin.
 * Russian State Duma member Andrey Gurrlyov, retired deputy Commander of the 58th Combined Arms Army of the Southern Military District, quoted in "Russian State TV Anchors Aghast That Putin Didn’t Kill Prigozhin", The Daily Beast (26 June 2023)


 * Prigozhin has earned a reputation as the cruellest commander among those leading Russia's grim invasion [of Ukraine]. He appeared to tacitly endorse a video showing the murder, with a sledgehammer, of a Wagner defector who had apparently been handed back by the Ukrainians in a prisoner exchange. "A dog’s death for a dog," Prigozhin said in a statement at the time.
 * Shaun Walker and Pjotr Sauer "Yevgeny Prigozhin: the hotdog seller who rose to the top of Putin’s war machine" The Guardian (24 June 2023)