Who Is Yevgeny Prigozhin? 10 Facts About Wagner Chief Who Rebelled Against Putin

Yevgeny Prigozhin profile: Russian mercenary group Wagner's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash on Wednesday.

Russian mercenary group Wagner's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash

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Yevgeny Prigozhin profile: Russian mercenary group Wagner's chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was reported dead on Wednesday in a plane crash in Russia. He was said to be among the ten people on board a jet flying from Moscow to St Petersburg. All seven passengers and three crew members were reported killed in the crash. Earlier, Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone reported the Embraer aircraft was shot down by air defences in the Tver region, north of Moscow, as reported by BBC. Prigozhin was in news earlier this year after he rebelled against Russia, after supporting in its invasion of Ukraine.

He had vowed to "go to the end" to topple the Russian military leadership. President Putin had called the armed rebellion a ‘stab in the back’ and threatened punishment for the ‘traitors’.  Responding to this, Prigozhin had said Putin was "deeply mistaken" in calling rebelling Wagner fighters "traitors", and ruled out surrender. After the failed mutiny on June 24, it was reported that Prigozhin was headed to Belarus. According to reports in BBC and other international media, however, Wagnor was said to be active in Africa too later.

Here are ten facts about Prigozhin, a close aide of Putin against whom he rebelled. 

Yevgeny Prigozhin: From A Hotdog Seller To Mercenary Group Boss

1. Prigozhin was a hotdog seller from a modest background and a native of Putin's hometown, Saint Petersburg, according to news reports. During the Soviet-era, he had reportedly been jailed for nearly a decade after being convicted of fraud and theft. 

2. In 1990s, he started a moderately successful fast-food company and opened a luxury location in Saint Petersburg. It has been widely reported that his customers included Putin. 

3. Prigozhin was known as "Putin's chef" because his catering business hosted dinners for the Russian preisdent and fed the Kremlin's armed forces. 

4. The 61-year-old ex-convict was believed to be behind the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a troll farm that was accused of meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. 

5. He is said to have hired fighters for Wagner from Russian prisons promising them pardons If they survive half-year tour of front-line duty with Wagner.

6. For years, Prigozhin had reportedly denied his links to Wagner. But he later said he founded Wagner to support Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas conflict. 

7. Prigozhin had a history of suing Russian and Western news outlets that alleged his ties to the group. He earlier claimed that his secretive stance was to protect the Wagner soldiers. 

8. Since founding the Wagner mercenary group in 2014, Prigozhin had become a key instrument in Putin's ambition to restore Russian influence globally, as repirted by BBC. 

9. The United States and the European Union had sanctioned Prigozhin for his activities and he was under investigation by the US Department of Justice for possible criminal charges.  

10. “I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself and found specialists who could help me with this,” a report in The Independent quoted Prigozhin to have said, adding: “From that moment, on 1 May 2014, a group of patriots was born, which later came to be called the Wagner Battalion.”