The Wagner Group carries out everything from military operations to espionage, meddling in political processes abroad, misleading propaganda and disinformation.
On the occasion of the holiday of the People’s Unity Day, which was celebrated on Friday in Russia, the influential “Putin chef”, tycoon Evgueni Prigozhin, opened the first open headquarters of the group of mercenaries called the Wagner Private Military Company in St. Petersburg by founded him in 2014. It is a beautiful glass building at the intersection of Dalnevostochni Avenue and Zólnaya Street with the W as its logo. “The mission is to provide a comfortable environment to generate new ideas that improve Russia’s defense capabilities,” Prigozhin said in a statement the day before.
The opening ceremony was attended by numerous men dressed in camouflage uniforms, probably mercenaries employed by “Putin’s cook”, so named because his first steps into the business world were organized by organizing Kremlin catering. Now this controversial businessman owns the Concord company, whose activities range from providing services for conducting military operations to espionage, meddling in political processes abroad, misleading propaganda and disinformation. It is an essential part of the Kremlin’s underground action of what is known as Putin’s ‘hybrid war’.
Regarding the current election in the United States, Prigozhin launched Monday that they had “practised interference”. “We are doing it and will continue to do it. Carefully, precisely, surgically, in our own way.”
This oligarch, closely associated with Putin, was also the founder of the so-called ‘Farm’ or ‘Troll Factory’ and ‘hackers’, which until now operated from the Ólguino district, on the northwestern outskirts of Saint Petersburg, and which is now will certainly occupy the premises of the new glass building.
Prigozhin is the foremost of 13 accused by US special counsel Robert Mueller of meddling in the 2016 election to sink Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and enable the victory of his opponent Donald Trump. They spread negative information about Clinton and Trump’s Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, while delivering positive news for Hillary Clinton’s opponent Bernie Sanders.
The ‘Troll Factory’ was founded in 2013 by Prigozhin with the task of spreading a positive image of Putin’s Russia in the world. The following year, after the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine, the Kremlin ‘cook’ established a volunteer base near the border with Ukraine to carry out armed actions against the Kiev army. For that reason, Prigozhin was included in the sanctions lists of the United States in 2016 and of the European Union in 2020.
The experience of using paramilitaries in Crimea and the Ukrainian separatist regions of Donetsk and Lugansk led to the emergence of the Wagner group, whose presence has also been confirmed in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and other African countries. to land. The men of the Wagner group are currently fighting against Ukrainian troops in Donbas. Many of his fighters are prisoners personally recruited by Prigozhin from Russian prisons.
Prigozhin was born on June 1, 1961 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg. He spent nine years in prison for theft and other crimes before being elevated to a business star at the hands of his mentor, the nation’s supreme leader.
Prigozhin has gained influence in Putin’s entourage after the failure of the so-called Special Military Operation in Ukraine, which should have lasted no more than a week and now lasts nearly nine months, and the alleged effectiveness with which his mercenaries fight.
The Russian oligarch and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadirov are in favor of taking a hard line against Ukrainian troops, even speaking out for the use of nuclear weapons and “mass” bombing of the “center of power” in Kiev.
According to the Russian political scientist, contributor to the Carnegie Foundation and former journalist of ‘Novaya Gazeta’, Andréi Kolésnikov, “Putin needs Prigozhin (…) He recruits suicide bombers, cannon fodder, and that is exactly what the Kremlin needs now in this phase of the conflict.
In his words, “Prigozhin is satisfied with the influence he currently has, but he has a tremendously growing will to power. Like Putin, he needs the whole world.” It is estimated that Prigozhin could soon jump into politics by founding his own party.
Source: La Verdad
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