In U.S. elections on Monday Kremlin-connected entrepreneur Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted that he had interfered and would continue to do so, for the first time confirming the accusations that he has rejected for years.
“As we know how to do”, Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, in remarks posted on social media Prigozhin boasted. “We have interfered, are interfering and will interfere, Gentlemen. The statement said “Putin’s chef,” to earn him the nickname, came on the eve of the U.S. midterm elections, from the press service of his catering company. It was the second major admission, who has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in recent months by the 61-year-old businessman. Under the radar Prigozhin has previously sought to keep his activities and now appears increasingly interested in gaining political clout although his goal in doing so was not immediately clear. On Monday White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Prigozhin’s comments “do not tell us anything new or surprising”,. “Around the world, including the United States, with Yevgeny Prigozhin has sought to influence elections, it’s well known and well documented in the public domain that entities are associated. The U.K. and the European Union by noting that Yevgeny has been sanctioned by the United States, “To expose and counter Russia’s malign influence efforts as we discover them the U.S. has worked”, she said. “Includes promoting narratives aimed at undermining democracy and sowing division and discord as part of Russia’s efforts. About their successes on the eve of an election it’s not surprising that Russia would be highlighting their attempted efforts and fabricating a story,” she added. Something he also had previously denied and talked openly about its involvement in Russia’s 8-month-old war in Ukraine Prigozhin also publicly stated that he was behind the Wagner Group mercenary force, in September. To places like Syria and sub-Saharan Africa the military contractor also has sent its forces. To recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine video also has emerged recently of a man resembling Prigozhin visiting Russian penal colonies. Ahead of the 2016 presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump in 2018 with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord and dividing American public opinion, Prigozhin and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the U.S. They were indicted into Russian election interference as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Against two of the indicted firms the Justice Department in 2020 moved to dismiss charges, Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Concord Catering, by saying that they had concluded with no presence in the U.S. a trial against a corporate defendant and even if convicted would likely expose sensitive law enforcement tools and techniques no prospect of meaningful punishment. About Russian interference in U.S. elections in July, the State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information, including on Prigozhin and the Internet Research Agency, the troll farm in St. Petersburg that his companies were accused of funding. Prigozhin also has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department for election interference. Prigozhin had denied Russian involvement in election interference, until now. Wagner and sometimes Prigozhin personally recruited convicts to fight in Ukraine Russian media, prisoner’s rights groups and relatives of prisoners this year reported an extensive effort. Prigozhin hasn’t directly confirmed it, but said in one statement that “either (the Wagner private military company) and convicts, or your children” will be fighting on the front lines. For “increasing the defense capabilities” of Russia, last week Wagner opened a business center in St. Petersburg, which Prigozhin has described as a platform. Through Concord the creation of training centers for militias he also announced that in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions that border Ukraine, on Sunday. He said “A local resident is able to fight against sabotage and reconnaissance groups and take the first blow if necessary, Like no one else knows his territories”. Prigozhin opened a swanky restaurant in St. Petersburg that drew interest from Putin, a one-time hot dog stand owner. During his first term in office, Putin took the-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of Prigozhin’s restaurants. “He saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests, Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, because they were my guests”, in an interview published in 2011 Prigozhin recalled. His businesses expanded significantly. By a state bank in 2010 Putin attended the opening of Prigozhin’s factory making school lunches that was built on generous loans. In contracts to provide meals at public schools, in Moscow alone his company Concord won millions of dollars. Prigozhin has also organized catering for Kremlin events and to the Russian military has provided catering and utility services, for several years. Between Russian-backed separatists and Kyiv’s forces in 2014 in eastern Ukraine when fighting broke out, he was seeking to “put together a group of fighters that would go there and defend the Russians”, Prigozhin said through his spokespeople. In recent months state media have openly reported on Wagner’s involvement in Ukraine but Russian laws prohibit the operation of private military contractors.
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