Slain Wagner chief Prigozhin lives on as symbol of Putin's fragility
A few months before he died in a plane crash after his aborted mutiny against Moscow in the summer of 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries, laughed when asked about his attitude to death. 'We will all go to hell, but we will be the best in hell,' he said.
Two years later, if Prigozhin is observing from the underworld, he is unlikely to approve of the fate that has since befallen his private mercenary group, which was once praised by President Putin for its role in the war in Ukraine. It has been largely dismantled and brought under the control of the Kremlin, while any mention of Prigozhin's name is now taboo on state television. Wagner's headquarters in St Petersburg, Prigozhin's home town, has also been closed down.
'What we understood as the Wagner Group ceased to exist at the very moment when the plane carrying Prigozhin crashed,' said Denis Korotkov, a Russian opposition journalist and co-author of Our Business is Death: The Story of the Wagner Group.
'All the scraps and fragments that remain from this organisation, what remains of its brand, are being used [by Moscow] for an array of purposes, but it can't be compared in any respect to what it used to be: Wagner is no longer an independent entity. It was able to exist solely because of Prigozhin's special relationship with Putin and with some others in power,' Korotkov said.
Wagner after Prigozhin
A catering tycoon who was once known as 'Putin's chef', Prigozhin rose from owning hot dog stands in St Petersburg in the early 1990s to worldwide notoriety. He attempted to meddle in the 2016 US presidential elections that brought President Trump to power and his thugs targeted Kremlin critics.
His Concord company provided dinners for schools and nurseries in Moscow as well as the Russian defence ministry. But it was Wagner that made him a household name in Russia.
Tens of thousands of convicts were freed from Russian prisons to swell Wagner's ranks at the front in Ukraine, often after a personal visit by Prigozhin, who served nine years for assault and robbery during the Soviet era. The group was instrumental in some of Russia's biggest successes of the war, including the capture of Bakhmut, the town in eastern Ukraine that became known as the 'meat grinder'.
Prigozhin's rebellion in June 2023, during which his heavily armed mercenaries came within striking distance of Moscow, was sparked by a vicious row with Russian defence chiefs. It was an unprecedented c hallenge to Putin's rule and one that signalled the beginning of the end for Prigozhin.
After retreating from the Russian capital having made a deal with the Kremlin, thousands of Wagner fighters headed to neighbouring Belarus, where they were allowed to set up training camps for new operations in Africa. The camps are long gone, although some of Wagner's former fighters are believed to be training the Belarusian security services as private contractors.
Wagner also said last year that it was no longer in action in Ukraine. However, many returned to the front as part of the regular Russian army after Putin urged them to swear an oath of allegiance to Moscow.
Pavel Prigozhin, the late Wagner leader's 27-year-old son, was believed to have inherited the leadership of the mercenary group, as well as more than £100 million in assets, yet there are few, if any, indications that he plays an active role in its remaining operations.
A potent brand
While there is no direct evidence that Putin was involved in Prigozhin's death, it is believed that his plane was blown up on the Kremlin's orders as revenge for his rebellion. All ten people on board, including Dmitry Utkin, Prigozhin's right-hand man, were killed when the plane plummeted to the ground in the Tver region, about 200 miles from Moscow in August 2023, exactly two months after the Wagner mutiny.
Putin has suggested that the crash was caused by Prigozhin and other commanders drinking and using drugs while handling grenades on board the luxury jet. However, Marat Gabidullin, a former Wagner commander, told The Times that he had never seen Prigozhin or Utkin drink or take drugs.
Despite the neutralisation of Wagner as an independent force, the group's name remains a rallying symbol for supporters of the war in Ukraine, both in Russia and in the West, said Candace Rondeaux, the author of Putin's Sledgehammer, a new book about Prigozhin and his mercenary group.
'The [Wagner] brand remains very potent, especially for young men who are disaffected, who are looking for a way to prove themselves,' she told Times Radio. Russia's GRU military intelligence service had sought to 'rebrand and relabel the Wagner Group' as an instrument for recruiting disaffected westerners for sabotage attacks, she added.
This month two British men admitted setting fire to warehouses in London that were holding aid for Ukraine on behalf of the Wagner Group. Korotkov said, however, that it was extremely unlikely that there were any independent figures within Wagner who would be able to give the orders for such an operation. 'It's likely the brand is just being used by various [Russian] security structures,' he added.
The scramble for Africa
Three weeks before his death, Prigozhin shared a video address filmed — pointedly — in Africa, the jewel of the Wagner empire. Wearing camouflage and clutching a rifle, he told the camera: 'We are working, the temperature is 50 degrees — everything we love.' Shared on Wagner-linked Telegram channels, the footage was both a recruitment pitch and a bullish statement of intent.
After Wagner's arrival in Africa in 2017, beginning in Sudan, it became a powerful tool of Russian influence. It offered military training, regime protection and anti-western disinformation that often outpaced even Moscow's ambitions. In return, Wagner was paid not just in cash but in gold and mining concessions — a model so lucrative it helped bankroll Russia's war in Ukraine and prompted the US to designate it an organised crime group.
After Prigozhin's death, Moscow moved quickly to replace his mercenaries with the newly minted Africa Corps, under GRU control. Commanders were ordered to swear loyalty to the state or face consequences. By January 2024, Africa Corps had boots on the ground — its first confirmed deployment was to Burkina Faso. The shift is more than cosmetic. Wagner offered deniability; Africa Corps signals a bolder, state-backed approach.
However, Russians show no sign of forgetting Prigozhin or Wagner: memorials and even statues have been unveiled across Russia, while online shops sell Wagner-themed children's toys, pillows, cups and T-shirts. The memory of his rebellion, while unsuccessful, has also provided a shred of hope to Russia's exiled opposition movement.
'As long as Putin is in power, we are unlikely to find out what exactly happened to Prigozhin. But does it really matter? The question of who and when someone will decide to follow in his footsteps is much more important,' said Daria Firyan, a presenter for the Khodorkovsky Live opposition media outlet.
'Such rebellions are possible … those people who were sent to Kyiv yesterday can turn around tomorrow and head to Moscow. And the authorities will not be able to do anything.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Russia warns Trump he has opened 'Pandora's box' with strike on Iran as regime holds talks in Moscow and fears grow that the UK will now face terror backlash
Russia last night warned Donald Trump had opened 'Pandora's box' after the US President launched a 'bunker buster' raid on Iran. Trump said the audacious attack by a squadron of stealth bombers in the early hours of yesterday had 'taken the bomb right out of [Tehran's] hands'. But Moscow 's United Nations ambassador Vassily Nebenzia issued an ominous warning at an emergency meeting of the Security Council as he said: 'No one knows what new catastrophes and suffering it will bring.' And he claimed Russia had offered mediation talks to find a peaceful and mutually agreeable solution to Iran's nuclear program, but the US, especially its leaders, are 'clearly not interested in diplomacy today'. 'Unless we stop the escalation,' Nebenzia warned, 'the Middle East will find itself on the verge of a large scale conflict with unpredictable consequences for the entire international security system, plus the entire world might end up on the verge of a nuclear disaster.' Trump has sensationally called for a regime change in Iran as he held crisis talks with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday. The US president took to his Truth Social page to share updates about the country's military attacks on Iran, when he suggested that the current regime 'is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.' 'Why wouldn't there be a regime change,' Trump asked, rhetorically - even as he and Starmer urged Ayatollah Khameini to 'return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.' Russian ex-president Dmitriy Medvedev claimed in a post on X/Twitter early on Sunday that the US strikes on three sites in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow had backfired and led to the opposite result from what Trump had set out to achieve. In a taunting post, Medvedev claimed: 'Enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue.' Medvedev, who has served as President of Russia from 2008 to 2012, further stated that 'Iran's political regime has survived — and in all likelihood, has come out even stronger'. He continued to claim that Iranians are 'rallying around the country's spiritual leadership, including those who were previously indifferent or opposed to it'. His anti-US and pro-Iran social media rant was posted in English and broken down into ten points - gathering more than three million views. Medvedev, who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020, has been regarded by some as a potential potential successor to Putin. There are fears Britain and other allies could face a terror backlash from the regime's supporters. Seven B-2 stealth bombers swept into Iranian airspace undetected yesterday, dropping 14 'bunker-buster' bombs on nuclear facilities as the US joined Israel in the biggest Western military action against the Islamic Republic since its 1979 revolution. The UK was informed of the mission, codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, but played no part. Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds last night warned that Iranian activity in the UK was already substantial, and it was 'naive' to think it won't escalate. Britain's military bases in the region, such as RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus, were on the highest state of alert last night for revenge attacks, including by Iranian swarm drones. Defence Secretary John Healey said: 'The safety of UK personnel and bases is my top priority. Force protection is at its highest level and we deployed additional jets [to Cyprus] this week.' Other experts warned of a 'new era of terrorism' and US Vice President J D Vance said the FBI and law enforcement were on alert for threats on American soil. Sir Keir Starmer and President Trump discussed the need for Iran to return to the negotiating table in a phone call last night, No 10 said. A spokesman said: 'The leaders discussed the situation in the Middle East and reiterated the grave risk posed by Iran's nuclear programme to international security. 'They discussed the actions taken by the United States last night to reduce the threat and agreed that Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. 'They discussed the need for Iran to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible. They agreed to stay in close contact in the coming days.' The Prime Minister urged all sides to return to negotiations but said he had taken 'all necessary measures' to protect British interests in the region if the conflict escalates. Before and after pictures of Fordow underground complex, taken on June 20 (left) and June 22 (right) In an address to the nation as the B-2s were flying home, Mr Trump said: 'Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror. 'Tonight, I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle East, must now make peace. 'If they do not, future attacks would be far greater and a lot easier.' President Trump boasted the US had 'taken the bomb right out of their hands (and they would use it if they could!)', while his Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed the US had offered Iran a civil nuclear programme but 'they rejected it'. He added: 'They played us. They wouldn't respond to our offers. They disappeared for ten days. The President had to take action as a response. 'We are not declaring war on Iran. We're not looking for war in Iran. But if they attack us, I think we have the capabilities they haven't even seen yet.' Last night, despite widespread calls to de- escalate, Iran president Masoud Pezeshkian said the US 'must receive a response for their aggression'. And a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, warned: 'There will no longer be any place for the presence of the United States and its bases' in the region. Abbas Araghaci, Iran's foreign minister who described the US government as 'lawless and warmongering', is expected to meet Putin in Moscow today to discuss how to respond. Speaking hours after the US strikes, Business Secretary Mr Reynolds told Sky News the risk from Iran in the UK was 'not hypothetical'. He said: 'There is not a week goes by without some sort of Iranian cyber-attack on a key part of the UK's critical national infrastructure. 'There is Iranian activity on the streets of the UK, which is wholly unacceptable. 'It's already at a significant level. I think it would be naive to say that that wouldn't potentially increase.' A statement of the E3 group, with the UK alongside France and Germany, said: 'We call upon Iran to engage in negotiations leading to an agreement that addresses all concerns associated with its nuclear programme. 'We stand ready to contribute to that goal in coordination with all parties. 'We urge Iran not to take any further action that could destabilise the region.' But Iran threatened to hold the world hostage by closing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway in the region and a chokepoint for world trade and oil transit. Last night, the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Iran's Natanz enrichment site was 'completely destroyed'. The extent of the damage at the Fordow site, built into a mountainside and reinforced with layers of concrete, is unclear. Discussing Fordow, Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: 'There are clear indications of impacts. But, as for the assessment for the degree of damage underground... no one could tell you how much it has been damaged. One cannot exclude that there is significant damage there.'
Times
5 hours ago
- Times
Slain Wagner chief Prigozhin lives on as symbol of Putin's fragility
A few months before he died in a plane crash after his aborted mutiny against Moscow in the summer of 2023, Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group of Russian mercenaries, laughed when asked about his attitude to death. 'We will all go to hell, but we will be the best in hell,' he said. Two years later, if Prigozhin is observing from the underworld, he is unlikely to approve of the fate that has since befallen his private mercenary group, which was once praised by President Putin for its role in the war in Ukraine. It has been largely dismantled and brought under the control of the Kremlin, while any mention of Prigozhin's name is now taboo on state television. Wagner's headquarters in St Petersburg, Prigozhin's home town, has also been closed down. 'What we understood as the Wagner Group ceased to exist at the very moment when the plane carrying Prigozhin crashed,' said Denis Korotkov, a Russian opposition journalist and co-author of Our Business is Death: The Story of the Wagner Group. 'All the scraps and fragments that remain from this organisation, what remains of its brand, are being used [by Moscow] for an array of purposes, but it can't be compared in any respect to what it used to be: Wagner is no longer an independent entity. It was able to exist solely because of Prigozhin's special relationship with Putin and with some others in power,' Korotkov said. Wagner after Prigozhin A catering tycoon who was once known as 'Putin's chef', Prigozhin rose from owning hot dog stands in St Petersburg in the early 1990s to worldwide notoriety. He attempted to meddle in the 2016 US presidential elections that brought President Trump to power and his thugs targeted Kremlin critics. His Concord company provided dinners for schools and nurseries in Moscow as well as the Russian defence ministry. But it was Wagner that made him a household name in Russia. Tens of thousands of convicts were freed from Russian prisons to swell Wagner's ranks at the front in Ukraine, often after a personal visit by Prigozhin, who served nine years for assault and robbery during the Soviet era. The group was instrumental in some of Russia's biggest successes of the war, including the capture of Bakhmut, the town in eastern Ukraine that became known as the 'meat grinder'. Prigozhin's rebellion in June 2023, during which his heavily armed mercenaries came within striking distance of Moscow, was sparked by a vicious row with Russian defence chiefs. It was an unprecedented c hallenge to Putin's rule and one that signalled the beginning of the end for Prigozhin. After retreating from the Russian capital having made a deal with the Kremlin, thousands of Wagner fighters headed to neighbouring Belarus, where they were allowed to set up training camps for new operations in Africa. The camps are long gone, although some of Wagner's former fighters are believed to be training the Belarusian security services as private contractors. Wagner also said last year that it was no longer in action in Ukraine. However, many returned to the front as part of the regular Russian army after Putin urged them to swear an oath of allegiance to Moscow. Pavel Prigozhin, the late Wagner leader's 27-year-old son, was believed to have inherited the leadership of the mercenary group, as well as more than £100 million in assets, yet there are few, if any, indications that he plays an active role in its remaining operations. A potent brand While there is no direct evidence that Putin was involved in Prigozhin's death, it is believed that his plane was blown up on the Kremlin's orders as revenge for his rebellion. All ten people on board, including Dmitry Utkin, Prigozhin's right-hand man, were killed when the plane plummeted to the ground in the Tver region, about 200 miles from Moscow in August 2023, exactly two months after the Wagner mutiny. Putin has suggested that the crash was caused by Prigozhin and other commanders drinking and using drugs while handling grenades on board the luxury jet. However, Marat Gabidullin, a former Wagner commander, told The Times that he had never seen Prigozhin or Utkin drink or take drugs. Despite the neutralisation of Wagner as an independent force, the group's name remains a rallying symbol for supporters of the war in Ukraine, both in Russia and in the West, said Candace Rondeaux, the author of Putin's Sledgehammer, a new book about Prigozhin and his mercenary group. 'The [Wagner] brand remains very potent, especially for young men who are disaffected, who are looking for a way to prove themselves,' she told Times Radio. Russia's GRU military intelligence service had sought to 'rebrand and relabel the Wagner Group' as an instrument for recruiting disaffected westerners for sabotage attacks, she added. This month two British men admitted setting fire to warehouses in London that were holding aid for Ukraine on behalf of the Wagner Group. Korotkov said, however, that it was extremely unlikely that there were any independent figures within Wagner who would be able to give the orders for such an operation. 'It's likely the brand is just being used by various [Russian] security structures,' he added. The scramble for Africa Three weeks before his death, Prigozhin shared a video address filmed — pointedly — in Africa, the jewel of the Wagner empire. Wearing camouflage and clutching a rifle, he told the camera: 'We are working, the temperature is 50 degrees — everything we love.' Shared on Wagner-linked Telegram channels, the footage was both a recruitment pitch and a bullish statement of intent. After Wagner's arrival in Africa in 2017, beginning in Sudan, it became a powerful tool of Russian influence. It offered military training, regime protection and anti-western disinformation that often outpaced even Moscow's ambitions. In return, Wagner was paid not just in cash but in gold and mining concessions — a model so lucrative it helped bankroll Russia's war in Ukraine and prompted the US to designate it an organised crime group. After Prigozhin's death, Moscow moved quickly to replace his mercenaries with the newly minted Africa Corps, under GRU control. Commanders were ordered to swear loyalty to the state or face consequences. By January 2024, Africa Corps had boots on the ground — its first confirmed deployment was to Burkina Faso. The shift is more than cosmetic. Wagner offered deniability; Africa Corps signals a bolder, state-backed approach. However, Russians show no sign of forgetting Prigozhin or Wagner: memorials and even statues have been unveiled across Russia, while online shops sell Wagner-themed children's toys, pillows, cups and T-shirts. The memory of his rebellion, while unsuccessful, has also provided a shred of hope to Russia's exiled opposition movement. 'As long as Putin is in power, we are unlikely to find out what exactly happened to Prigozhin. But does it really matter? The question of who and when someone will decide to follow in his footsteps is much more important,' said Daria Firyan, a presenter for the Khodorkovsky Live opposition media outlet. 'Such rebellions are possible … those people who were sent to Kyiv yesterday can turn around tomorrow and head to Moscow. And the authorities will not be able to do anything.'
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Doubters slam U.S. bunker busting blitz on Iran as a BUST, failing to cripple nuclear program
Iranian and Russian officials have been quick to assert that the U.S. strikes in Iran were ineffective. While Top Pentagon brass said in a Sunday morning press conference that the sites were 'obliterated' and 'severely damaged,' an Iranian official downplayed the impact. 'From Iran's perspective, nothing particularly surprising has happened. Iran has been expecting an attack on Fordow for several nights,' claimed Mehdi Mohammadi, an adviser to the chairman of the Iranian parliament. 'The site was evacuated long ago and has not sustained any irreversible damage in the strike.' In a daring nighttime operation, dubbed 'Operation Midnight Hammer,' U.S. B-2 stealth bombers, along with other planes and with assistance from U.S. submarine forces, fired missiles at three Iranian nuclear sites. Iran's mountainous Fordow nuclear enrichment site was targeted by seven B-2 bombers that dropped 14 30,000-pound bunker buster bombs, officials said. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said the degree of damage inside Iran's enrichment falls 'can't be determined with certainty.' 'It could be important; it could be significant, but no one … neither us nor anybody else could be able to tell you how much it has been damaged,' Grossi cautioned. But Russian officials soon repeated the claim that the sites only were partially impacted. 'Critical infrastructure of the nuclear fuel cycle appears to have been unaffected or sustained only minor damage,' Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev posted on X. 'The enrichment of nuclear material — and, now we can say it outright, the future production of nuclear weapons — will continue.' 'A number of countries are ready to directly supply Iran with their own nuclear warheads,' he added. Iranian officials are reportedly heading to Moscow to brief Kremlin officials on the extent of the U.S. strikes. Game isn't materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain. Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei 'Even if nuclear sites are destroyed, game isn't over, enriched materials, indigenous knowledge, political will remain,' Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sunday. The existing 'enriched materials, local expertise and political will' remain despite the strikes, he added. Iran was originally struck by Israeli forces over a week ago, but Israeli officials said that U.S. bombs would be needed to completely disable the sites. The U.S. was reportedly considering the strikes on Iran's nuclear sites for days after Israel's initial salvos. This theoretically gave the Middle Eastern country some time to move important nuclear material and machinery before the U.S. stealth attack this weekend. When asked by NBC'S Kristen Welker if he was confident that Iranian nuclear sites were completely destroyed, Vice President JD Vance hedged, saying the strikes 'substantially delayed their development of a nuclear weapon.' Since the attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has advised Americans that the U.S. homeland is now a potential target. 'It is our duty to keep the nation safe and informed, especially during times of conflict,' DHS Sec. Kristi Noem told the Daily Mail in a statement. 'The ongoing Israel-Iran conflict brings the possibility of increased threat to the homeland in the form of possible cyberattacks, acts of violence, and antisemitic hate crimes.'
