Prigozhin: From hot dog vendor to ruthless Putin ally

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner Group mercenaries and a fierce critic of the Russian military leadership's actions amid the war in Ukraine, who launched a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin in June, has been confirmed dead in a plane crash at the age of 62.

Russian aviation authorities had already confirmed that all 10 people on board the plane, which was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg, were killed in the crash. The jet went down near the village of Kuzhenkino in Tver, a region over 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Russian capital.

After days of speculation, Russian investigators have now confirmed the death of Prigozhin on the doomed flight.

Prigozhin's death sent shockwaves around the world, given the outsize role he and his Wagner Group have played in Russia's efforts in Ukraine and their pushback against Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority.

News of the crash came just days after Prigozhin, who had been out of the public eye since the attempted rebellion in June, resurfaced in a video reportedly from an unnamed country in Africa. 

From caterer to 'Bakhmut conqueror'

Prigozhin's career has been guided by an unspoken rule in Russian politics: the closer you are to the president's body, the more money you make. He quickly picked up on this tacit code.

In the 1990s, following the fall of the USSR and the arrival of capitalism in Russia, Prigozhin began his entrepreneurial journey after having spent nine years in a Soviet prison for robbery and fraud.

After earning his first capital on hot dog sales, he opened a luxurious restaurant in his hometown of St. Petersburg, which quickly became a beloved dinner spot for the city's elite, including future Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Later, that connection would allow his catering company, Concord, to get lucrative state contracts. His company would feed not just the Russian army but also organize dinners for foreign presidents and prime ministers on official visits to Russia.

With the creation of the private military company Wagner Groupand a troll farm aimed at spreading disinformation both domestically and abroad, Prigozhin's importance reached a new level. He was now crucial for Putin's political goals as well as those of the Russian state, which wished to avoid being openly and formally involved in conflicts and civil wars in the Middle East and Africa.

Given Prigozhin's involvement in conflicts like Syria, where he supported dictator Bashar Assad and advanced Russian interests in the region, his troops' fighting experience was needed when Putin launched a full-scale offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

Months into the conflict, with a high death toll among fighters, authorities went so far as to allow Prigozhin to recruit from among imprisoned convicts who would be pardoned for fighting in Ukraine, even though mercenary groups like Wagner are illegal under Russian law.

When the Russian army proved unable to advance in certain regions of Ukraine, Wagner emerged as an important military asset for the Kremlin. Prigozhin's group seized the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut in May 2023 after a long and bloody fight, making it the war's biggest military accomplishment for Moscow.

Wagner Group's confrontation with the Russian army

With the Russian invasion floundering after more than a year, Prigozhin launched a humiliating campaign against the Russian Defense Ministry in the spring of 2023. The warlord slammed the Kremlin's military leadership for corruption and incompetence, blaming it for hindering advancements in Ukraine. He went so far as to accuse senior Russian military officials of treason and of deliberately starving Wagner forces of ammunition.

Criticism of the Russian army leadership raised questions about how much control Putin had over Prigozhin. Some observers believed the president tolerated Prigozhin's outbursts to keep military officials on their toes.

But with time, his unpredictability became more of a headache for the Kremlin, which wanted to use Prigozhin's fighters in Ukraine but did not want to completely untie his hands. Wagner's chief was already barred from recruiting convicts in February 2023, losing one of Wagner's main sources of personnel.

In early June 2023, after months of intense back-and-forth between Russian top brass and the Wagner Group, Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov said "volunteer formations" would be required to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry until the end of the month. Experts suggested the initiative was aimed at toppling Prigozhin and bringing his fighters under the control of the Russian army.

March on Moscow

On June 23, Prigozhin's conflict with the Russian army erupted into an attempted coup, which started as a Telegram voice note. 

"The evil being spread by the country's military leadership must be stopped," Prigozhin said in the message.

When the Wagnerites reached the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, taking control of buildings belonging to the military and Federal Security Service, they announced a "march of justice on Moscow." Prigozhin claimed that 25,000 Wagner fighters were moving toward the Russian capital.

Reaction from the Kremlin followed the next morning. In a rare televised appearance, Putin looked furious and firm. Without mentioning Prigozhin's name, the Russian president said the organizers of the rebellion had "allowed their personal interests to lead them to treason."

The march on Moscow abruptly ended with the dramatic intervention of Belarusian dictator and Putin ally Alexander Lukashenko, who acted as a peace broker between Prigozhin and the Kremlin. Lukashenko agreed to relocate Prigozhin and its mercenary group to Belarus. As part of the deal, Wagnerites were given the choice to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry or move to neighboring Belarus.

However, about a week after the proclaimed deal, the Belarusian leader told the media that Prigozhin was still in Russia, not Belarus. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed the government was not following Prigozhin's whereabouts.

Earlier, commenting on his failed march to Moscow, Prigozhin had insisted that the short-lived rebellion had not been aimed at overthrowing Putin.

"We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow power in the country," he said.

Edited by: Nicole Goebel