{"id":48932,"date":"2023-07-14T08:55:38","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T06:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bird.bg\/?p=48932"},"modified":"2025-01-17T17:26:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-17T16:26:26","slug":"prigozhin-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bird.bg\/en\/prigozhin-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"Prigozhin left an entire empire in St. Petersburg. What’s next?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yevgeny Prigozhin is not only the founder of the Wagner Private Military Company and the organizer of the attempted military coup. He is also a billionaire who owns many different businesses. The vast majority of them operate in St. Petersburg. The local publication “Paper” spoke with Prigozhin’s partners about what is happening with the assets he left behind. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

PMC Wagner Center and its residents<\/h2>\n

In September 2022, Prigozhin admitted to the creation of the Wagner PMC, a group of mercenaries that is actively involved in the war in Ukraine. The idea for the private military company came from high-ranking officers from the Russian Ministry of Defense, according to The Bell’s investigation. It is believed that at the beginning the Wagner mercenaries took part in the fighting as part of the separatists in Donbass. And then they liquidated well-known field commanders in the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR, who “did not fit into the vertical of power.” PMC “Wagner” is also fighting in Syria and the Central African Republic. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After Prigozhin’s mercenaries stopped hiding, in November the “PMC Wagner Center” was opened in St. Petersburg on Zolnaya Street – the plan is to rent out the offices in the 23-storey building for free to “patriotic” inventors, designers and <\/span><\/span>IT<\/span><\/span><\/span> specialists.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Within half a year, dozens of residents appeared at the center, including <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Z-bloggers, the Octagon drone control school, a project for writing comments in support of the war in Ukraine “Cyberfront <\/span><\/span>Z<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>“, St. Petersburg Trade Union of Military Personnel, Wagner Youth Club, as well as the Dobrovolets Center. The latest military training workshops for orphans and “troubled children” have previously been led by “trainers” closely linked to neo-Nazi groups, The Insider found. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On June 24, PMC Wagner Center was the subject of searches with the participation of riot police, the National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and investigators, and in the evening equipment was taken out of the premises. None of the residents has so far publicly announced the termination of their cooperation with the center. The head of the Wagner Youth Club <\/span><\/span>Alexander<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span> Tronin told the newspaper that “everything is working normally”.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the curator of the department for mass media and bloggers at the center, Anna Zamaraeva, none of the residents has interrupted their membership. “On the contrary, it is the opposite, everyone rallied around us. Since Monday, June 27, we have been working in a normal mode in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation,” she told Bumaga. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now the employees of the office plan to make an inventory and write an appeal to law enforcement agencies on the occasion of the seized personal belongings, equipment, symbols of the military company and PMC Wagner Center. Zamaraeva also emphasizes that no one, at least for now, is considering severing ties with Yevgeny Prigozhin and his structures \u2013 the center believes that there is nothing illegal in this. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Recruitment at points in St. Petersburg<\/h2>\n

In April 2023, Prigozhin announced the opening of recruitment points for the Wagner PMC in 5 sports clubs in St. Petersburg. These are the MIP shooting club in the Pushkin region, as well as the local martial arts clubs “White Wolves”, “Korona”, “Puncher” and “Monarch” in the Primorsky, Frunzensky, Central and Nevsky regions. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Monarch founder Said Tikhonov told Papera that Prigozhin’s rebellion and Saturday’s raids did not affect recruitment in sports centers. In the lobby of the “Corona” club, the recruitment of mercenaries continues as before, journalists from the publication found. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Until some order is received, of course, we will continue to accept people for the Wagner PMC through the clubs. So far, nothing of the kind has been received. The Wagner PMC organization has not been liquidated, it has not been declared banned. Over the past few days, we have received frequent calls. Everything works as before. And on the occasion of rumors of passing under the control of the Ministry of Defense, I think that the Wagner PMC will retain its old status,” Tikhonov said. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The troll factory and Prigozhin’s media empire<\/h2>\n

In the beginning, Western sanctions against Yevgeny Prigozhin were imposed precisely because of his connection with the “troll factory” \u2013 this is the most common name for the Internet Research Agency, which appeared in 2013, which is accused of interfering in the 2016 US elections, propaganda and disinformation. The headquarters of the trolls was first located at 55 Savushkin Street, and later moved to other business centers in St. Petersburg. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2019, the media group “Patriot” appeared, which included some well-known publications of the “troll factory” – RIA FAN, “Economy Today”, “Politics Today”, “Nevsky News”, “Word and Deed”, “People’s News” and others. During these years, hundreds of regional media projects throughout Russia became “friendly” to this media group. Yevgeny Prigozhin headed the board of trustees of Patriot until the end of May 2023, and because of his active participation in the war, he moved to the post of deputy. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In March 2022, a new well-known project was born in the “troll factory” \u2013 the “patriotic” telegram channel “Cyberfront <\/span><\/span>Z<\/span><\/span><\/span>“, whose employees are engaged in harassment of celebrities with an anti-war position. The goal is to fail and cancel their events in Russia, while at the same time writing comments in support of the fighting. According to information from Fontanka, employers of Cyberfront <\/span><\/span>Z<\/span><\/span><\/span>” are associated with legal entities related to Prigozhin. Prigozhin himself claims that he did not create the canal, but helped him with premises. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to leaked documents analyzed by journalists in the “Dossier”, in the fall of 2022, the “troll factory” included about 400 companies. Hundreds of millions of rubles are spent on it. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to Dossier, Prigozhin’s media empire is tasked with maintaining its own news projects <\/span><\/span>(<\/span><\/span><\/span>“How do you like this, Elon Musk”, “Minced meat”, “Dirt warehouse”, “Art of war” and many others. More. <\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/span>, the creation of “oppositional” channels in relation to the city government <\/span><\/span>(<\/span><\/span><\/span>“Protest Petersburg”, “Uprising Square”, “1703”, “Before All” and others.<\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/span><\/span>, development of the social network “Ya<\/span><\/span>Rus<\/span><\/span><\/span>“, wrote comments on social networks and buying posts from bloggers and media. The leaked bills also include a payment of 750,000 rubles for the publication of an investigation in Kommersant. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The troll forces have been thrown not only in support of Putin and the war, but also in criticism of the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, with whom Prigozhin has been in conflict for several years. The reason for their controversy since 2021 is the “weakened position” of the businessman in St. Petersburg. Over the past year, criticism has grown into harassment \u2013 if before Prigozhin’s media made claims against the governor because of poor snow removal and the garbage crisis, then after the start of the war in Ukraine, they regularly created petitions for Beglov’s resignation and spread a request for a court for “high treason”. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It was only in February 2023 that Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted that it was he who invented and created the trolls, as well as that he ruled them. According to him, the “factory” was necessary to “protect the Russian information space from the gross and aggressive anti-Russian propaganda of the West.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

On June 24, during the armed rebellion, the pages of social networks and websites of publications of the Patriot media group were blocked by Roskomnadzor. The ministry said that “a number of resources are under restrictions in order to stop the spread of calls to participate in the military rebellion.” On the same day, searches were carried out in the offices of Primorsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to the checks of “Paper”, the blockages have not been lifted so far. However, Prigozhin’s largest media outlet, RIA FAN, has already presented a new website. It turns out that the editorial office of the publication took care of circumventing the blockade a month earlier. According to open data, the backup domain riafan.org was registered on May 18, 2023. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Business and investment projects<\/h2>\n

6 unliquidated companies are registered in Prigozhin’s name. Three of them are different legal entities of the catering company Concord. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n