He is perhaps the Russian oligarch most sanctioned by the United States. On Monday, September 30, Evgeny Prigojine was again targeted by the US Treasury, which froze some of its assets. This billionaire close to Vladimir Putin had already been sanctioned by Washington in 2016, and several of his companies were blacklisted in 2017 and 2018. He was even charged, in absentia, by a popular jury in February of the same year. last year.
Evgeny Prigojine owes his relentlessness to his role as chief financial officer of the famous Internet Research Agency (IRA). This Russian organization was at the origin of the vast operation of misinformation and propaganda carried out during the campaign for the American presidential election of 2016. The Treasury affirms that the IRA has recidivated while trying to influence the elections of mid-term of 2018.
From hot dogs to luxury restaurants
But Evgeny Prigojine is much more than the billionaire behind the thousands of fake Twitter or Facebook accounts dissected by all US intelligence services. Over the years, this native of St. Petersburg has emerged as the man of confidence and the low works of Vladimir Putin. Its influence is not only exercised in small circles of Muscovite power or on the Internet, but also beyond Russian borders - and especially in Africa.
Yet this 58 year old man started from scratch. In Soviet-era St. Petersburg, Evgeny Prigojin first became known to the authorities as a delinquent. At the age of 20, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for taking part in a robbery and was also found guilty of belonging to organized crime. He benefits from early release ten years later then seeks to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the fall of the communist regime by embarking on ... the sale of hot dogs. He quickly abandons this branch to take over a chain of groceries then decides to devote himself to the restoration.
Towards the end of the 1990s, he opened "New Island" in St. Petersburg, which became the favorite luxury restaurant of the business world and the local political elite. Among St. Petersburg's ediles is a certain Vladimir Putin, who begins to frequent the establishment.
In 2001, newly elected President of Russia, Vladimir Putin chose to take his French counterpart Jacques Chirac to the restaurant of Evgeni Prigojine. According to the legend maintained by the businessman, the former delinquent reconverted to enjoy this meal to connect with the Kremlin master.
From then on, Evgeny Prigojine interfered in the circle of relatives of the Russian president to the force of the fork. So much so that Evguéni Prigojine wins a nickname: that of "leader" of Vladimir Putin. His proximity to the Russian president allows him to win very lucrative contracts to ensure the restoration of all schoolchildren in Moscow and the Russian army. Opportunities that will enable him to raise his first billion in the early 2010s. Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, offered a loyal soldier with very well filled pockets.
The Wagner Group and Africa
If, abroad, Evgeny Prigojine is first and foremost known as the man of large-scale digital propaganda, in Russia he has been especially successful in his creativity in trying to discredit opposition movements. "He is not afraid to get his hands dirty to get his way," Liubov Sobol, an activist with the opposition anti-corruption organization Alexei Navalny, told the New York Times. As a result, Evgeni Prigojine's holding company, Concord Group, has interests in media that spread rumors about a particular opponent. The man is also suspected of having staged media kicks such as organizing a pro-LGBT pro-gay rally to welcome US President Barack Obama in 2013 at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg. The aim, according to the Russian research website Meduza, was to go in the direction of the official speech of the Kremlin, tinged with homophobia, on the defense of "family values" against a West presented as "decadent".
And then there is the paramilitary group Wagner. This Russian militia, which has been active in Ukraine, Syria or Libya, is often seen as a parallel army to the pay of the Kremlin, even though private military groups are officially banned in Russia. Several investigations, including the Guardian and New York Times, indicate that Evgeny Prigojine is the real boss, even if the principal denies the existence of this paramilitary force.
The Wagner group is in any case the financial interests of the businessman in Africa, where these soldiers appear as the armed arm of Russian diplomacy. In Syria, Yevgeny Prigojin obtained from the regime 25% of revenues from oil and gas fields that Russian paramilitary forces helped to recover the militants of the Islamic State Jihadist organization, the daily Liberation reported in an investigation devoted to the Moscow barbouzes , published in 2018. In Sudan, men of the Wagner group protect a gold mine suspected of being exploited by a company under indirect control of Evgeny Prigojine.
Rivalry with France
In Africa, the former hot dog salesman is not just interested in business. It also helps Moscow to advance its geopolitical pawns. The countries of the French sphere of influence seem particularly in the sights of this man of confidence of Putin, according to documents internal to the Wagner group consulted by the British newspaper The Guardian. A map indicates the African countries where there is a "rivalry with France" and other documents highlight the success of Russian agents to oust, in particular, "pro-Paris politicians" in the Central African Republic. There is also mention of an operation in the Comoros where "Envoys of Prigojine tested" technological tools "to see if it was possible to stir up tensions between the local authorities and Paris," says the Guardian, who took over this information from the Dossier Center, a Russian investigative journalism initiative based in London.
Vladimir Putin's "boss" is showing an ogre's appetite that goes well beyond the misinformation business on the Internet. And being in Washington's sights does not seem to bother him. After being indicted in 2018, he said, "It does not bother me, if the United States wants to see the devil in me, do it."