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Yevgeny Prigozin, a Kremlin-linked entrepreneur, admitted on Monday that he had interfered in U.S. elections and will continue to do so — the first confirmation of allegations he has rejected for years.
“We have intervened, are intervening and will continue to intervene. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way,” Prigozhin said in comments posted on social media.
The statement, from the press service of his catering company, which earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef,” came in response to a request for comment on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections.
It was the second major admission in recent months by the 61-year-old businessman with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin, who has previously tried to keep his activities private, appears to be increasingly interested in gaining political influence.
In September, he also publicly stated that he was behind the Wagner Group’s mercenaries — which he also previously denied — and spoke out about its involvement in Russia’s eight-month-long war in Ukraine. The military contractor has also sent its troops to places like Syria and sub-Saharan Africa.
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A video also recently emerged showing a man like Prigozin visiting a Russian penal colony to recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine.
In 2018, Prigozhin and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the United States with a covert social media campaign aimed at inciting discord and dividing American public opinion before Republican Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election. They are accused of being part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling.
The Justice Department began in 2020 to dismiss charges against the two indicted companies, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, saying they had concluded that a corporate defendant with no U.S. presence would be tried, even if a conviction could expose Sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques.
In July, the U.S. State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on Russian meddling in U.S. elections, including information on Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency, the St. Petersburg troll farm that his company is accused of funding.
Prigozin has so far denied involvement in election meddling.
Russian media, prisoner rights groups and prisoners’ relatives this year reported on Wagner’s (and sometimes Prigozin’s) extensive efforts to personally recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine. Prigozhin did not directly confirm this, but said in a statement that “(Wagner PMC) and criminals, or your children” will be fighting on the front lines.
Last week, Wagner opened a business center in St. Petersburg, which Prigozhin described as a platform for “improving Russia’s defense capabilities.”
On Sunday, he also announced through the Concorde Press Service the establishment of training centers for militias in the Belgorod and Kursk regions on Russia’s border with Ukraine.
“Like everyone else, local residents know their territory and are able to fight sabotage and reconnaissance groups and take the first strike if necessary,” he said.
A former hot dog stand owner, Prigozhin opened a trendy restaurant in St. Petersburg that caught Putin’s interest. During his first term, Putin took then-French President Jacques Chirac to a restaurant in Prigozin.
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“Vladimir Putin saw how I was using the kiosk to build a business, and he saw that I didn’t mind serving my valued guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011 road.
His business expanded significantly. In 2010, Putin attended the opening of the Prigozhin factory, which makes school lunches on the basis of a generous loan from a state-owned bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord has won multimillion-dollar connections to provide meals to public schools. Over the years, Prigozhin has also organized catering services for Kremlin events, as well as catering and utilities for the Russian military.
When fighting broke out between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv troops in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Prigozin said through his spokesman that he was looking to “form a team (of fighters) to go (there) to defend the Russians. “.
Russian law prohibits the operation of private military contractors, but in recent months state media has publicly reported on Wagner’s involvement in Ukraine.
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