The owner of the Wagner Group has turned the Russian elites against him because of his political activism.
Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as "Putin's cook" and owner of the "Wagner Group", is increasingly at odds with Russian elites - not only with the Russian Defense Ministry but even with presidential administration officials and Vladimir Putin's old St. Petersburg friends. About this writes the "Important stories".
The publication recalled that a video was widely distributed on the Web some time ago, in which a certain thief-in-law spoke about Prigozhin's prison past. In particular, the person in the video said that "Putin's cook" at that time belonged to the lowest caste of prisoners who provided sexual services to other prisoners.
“It is unknown whether the circulated video is true or false. But it is clearly made to undermine Prigozhin’s authority and complicate the recruitment of prisoners to his private military company to be sent to war in Ukraine,†the media notes.
According to the article's authors, they do not know the customer of this compromising evidence, but it is clear that Prigozhin turned many influential people against him in Russia.
Thus, the publication claims that "Putin's cook" is in a difficult relationship with old friends of the Russian president. In this context, the main owner of the St. Petersburg bank Rossiya, Yuri Kovalchuk, is mentioned.
It is noted that Prigozhin's "Wagner Group" was very useful at the front in Ukraine, and Prigozhin himself began to interfere in politics, feeling his increased importance.
"For old St. Petersburg residents, this is unacceptable; they cannot allow a person with a criminal past to play with them on the same field," the media writes.
However, sources from Kovalchuk's entourage refute the conflict and involvement in distributing a compromising video.
The media also claims that Prigozhin had a conflict with the first deputy head of the presidential administration, Sergei Kiriyenko. The reason was Prigozhin's intrusion into the sphere of responsibility of this structure - attempts to influence the appointments and dismissals of officials, in particular the governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, with whom "Putin's cook" has a long-standing public conflict.
“Prigozhin, as an independent player with his closeness to the president and media resources, is of concern to the administration since it cannot control either him or his media,†the media writes.
As for the conflict with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his generals, Prigozhin has "an information war going on with them for a long time."
“Prigozhin’s conflicts with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense are connected not only with erroneous, as he sometimes believes, orders and failed military operations. But also with the fact that his fighters are not supplied with everything necessary,†the authors of the article note.
Finally, Prigozhin's tense relations with the FSB developed since this structure was obliged to help recruit prisoners for the Wagner Group.
Sending armed prisoners to war in Ukraine with an emphasis on bandits and murderers, as well as with radical parting words to "kill", "torture" and "at least cut the throat," is not the approach that suits the FSB.
