Then, just as suddenly, the coup was off. As Wagner forces seized a city and military headquarters and advanced on Moscow, Putin took to state television to denounce for treason the man once known as his loyal “fixer”. If he’d succeeded in his extraordinary June 23 coup attempt against Russia’s army chiefs, he might have also done what has been thought next to impossible for two decades: unseat Russian President Vladimir Putin.įootage of a bombed Wagner base was again in play, only this time Prigozhin was accusing Russia itself of firing on his mercenaries, not Ukraine.

Now, for one day in 2023, the world thought Prigozhin was something else altogether: rebel. Until he popped up at a high-profile funeral in Moscow. After the site was reduced to rubble, rumours swirled that Prigozhin’s rise from a hot dog seller ex-con to one of the most influential tycoons in Russia might be at an end. The oligarch known as “Putin’s chef” had finally admitted he owned the fearsome mercenary group Wagner and was photographed at its base in Ukraine, head to toe in tactical gear, shaking the hands of troops.īut the photo op also unwittingly gave away the position of that Wagner base to Ukrainian bombers. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.įor one week in 2022, the world thought Yevgeny Prigozhin was dead.

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