Will PMC Wagner Target Russia’s Corrupt Elites?
Prigozhin calls out Russia’s fat cats, bureaucrats and corrupt officials
A few weeks ago, the head of Russia’s private military contractor, PMC Wagner, gave an interview which is being called “scandalous” and “the most frank” on the Internet.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, speaking with Russian blogger/journalist Semyon Pegov, described the growing rift between high-ranking officials and ordinary people: “Such a chasm that even a rocket can’t go over it.”
Those officials, according to Prigozhin, don’t care about the fate of regular folks and deflect away from important topics. “Well, how can an official with a salary of a hundred million rubles a year understand the common man?” he said.
Asked if he was worried about destabilizing Russia with such divisive language, Prigozhin replied, “No. I’m not afraid of anything. And who could be destabilized by this? Just the people of Rublyovka? So let them go to Paris.”
Rublyovka is like the “Martha’s Vineyard” of Moscow; a prestigious suburban paradise lined with lavish and opulent mansions which are home to many of Russia’s wealthiest elites and oligarchs. And Prigozhin blames them for the growing corruption in his country. “Russia is really on the verge of catastrophe today. Only officials do not see it, they do not see it there on Rublyovka. Their daughters, wives and mistresses choose which island to fly to.”
“Our country can fall apart from bureaucracy if it’s not eradicated,” he went on. “They will spend three weeks shifting their paperwork. This is just a machine for humiliating people.”
Before concluding the interview, Wagner’s chief even called out Russia’s oil barons, whom he referred to as “terrorists.” “We all know very well that terrorists exist solely on the sale of oil. Cut off this channel of income for them and they will disappear.”
Prigozhin named one of these “terrorists.” “So, there is such a character in Rublyovka as George Haswani and he has been buying and selling oil for a long time. Naturally, it’s clear from whom he bought this oil. The question is, why didn’t we shut down his ‘business’? Because there are only traitors sitting in our offices. I want to say that if we don’t get our country together now, then Russia will simply cease to exist.”
You can watch the explosive interview here in Russian, but for now there is no English translation:
Prigozhin, of course, is no stranger to wealth himself. But he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, either, nor did he plunder the Soviet Union’s ruined economy like many of those now living in Rublyovka. Prigozhin’s journey was a rocky one, and he served hard time.
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was born in 1961, in Leningrad. His father died when he was still quite young and his mother, who was a doctor, remarried. His stepfather was a ski instructor who not only taught young Yevgeny how to ski, but also honed his boyish love of sports. At age 16, Yevgeny graduated from a boarding school. He had dreams, according to his classmates, of being an athlete. But just two years later he was arrested for petty theft. He lucked out, getting only a suspended sentence. But in 1981, at 20 years of age, he was given a hard sentence of 13 years in prison for robbery and fraud.
While he was in prison, he started his first business — producing little souvenirs from which he made a small income. He was paroled in 1990 and used his nest egg to start a business selling hot dogs after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the economy was at its worst. An old classmate who owned a supermarket gave Yevgeny a job there, as manager. In 1995, he opened his own business — a bar/store called “Wine Club.” Then, in 1996, he opened his first restaurant, “The Old Customs House,” which quickly became a top spot for elite diners in St. Petersburg. He expanded the restaurant to include catering.
In 1998, Prigozhin opened a restaurant called “New Island” onboard a boat docked at Vasilevsky Island, an administrative division in Russia’s “cultural capital.” His restaurant became popular with St. Petersburg’s elites, who began holding high-level meetings there and hosting foreign guests. In 2001, Vladimir Putin dined there with French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, and in 2003, he entertained US President George W. Bush.
It was in the 2000’s that Prigozhin became known as “Putin’s chef.” This nickname came about because he had started a catering service at the Kremlin, preparing meals for the President and other officials, and organizing receptions for high-ranking guests who praised him for his level of service and the quality of the dishes prepared.
In the 20-teens, Prigozhin’s name began to come up more often in political contexts. Western press claimed that he created and funded the so-called “Russian troll farms.” Around that same time, Prigozhin became associated with PMC Wagner, which was active in Syria. He denied his involvement with Wagner for years, but in 2022 he admitted that the contractor was being funded by companies he owned.
Despite these successes, though, Prigozhin never forgot the years he spent in prison, nor the people serving time there. Indeed, Wagner has recruited convicts to fight in Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, in exchange for reduced — or commuted — sentences.
“It’s either PMC and prisoners — or your children,” the Wagner chief said in September, 2022. “Of course, if I was a prisoner, I would dream of joining this friendly team, to be able not only to redeem the debt to the Motherland, but to give it back in full.”
How fair or unfair this recruitment may be is a topic of much discussion in Russia. But finding accurate information about PMC Wagner’s recruitment process is like searching for needles in a haystack. Misinformation abounds and official channels offer practically nothing. As you might imagine, regular people in Russia are as divided about this topic as anyone might be. But if it comes down to a choice between their kids going to war, or prisoners being recruited, you can imagine how most people will respond.
Russians are not shy about discussing corruption, either. I asked people on the Russian social media platform, VKontakte, what they thought about corruption in their country. I have translated their answers into English:
“I have not come across it myself. But for sure there is corruption in the country, just like everywhere else. And for sure there are differences depending on the region and the field.”
— Elena Filippova, Murmansk
“I think there is corruption. It always was and always will be. But in our country it is especially significant in the upper echelons of power. They fight it from below and the results are positive, but at the top things are not easy. They also fight it there, but it is obvious that the more you steal, the harder it is to punish you!”
— Irina Strakhova, St. Petersburg
“The fight against corruption makes life difficult for ordinary citizens because in order to buy (for example) paper clips or pencils for a business I have to find three suppliers and buy where the price is lower. I am indignant — ‘why so difficult?’ They answer me: ‘Don’t you know it’s because of the fight against corruption?’ At the same time you hear from time to time — they took an official and found 150,000,000,000 under his bed. So the fight is working?”
— Alexander Zavaly, Krasnodar
“Sometimes we learn from the news that some of the governors, deputy ministers were involved in corruption, they were arrested and there will be a trial. Some believe that there is corruption in medicine and in the teaching profession, especially in universities. Some in the networks write that teachers take money in envelopes for good grades. But this is not true. If even a teacher is dishonest and greedy for money, it makes no sense for him to risk his reputation. There is bound to be talk. I remember two cases, though they took place a long time ago, in the late 90s, and recently I haven’t heard about it… This is my level, and I don’t know what happens higher up.”
— Lilya Takumbetova, Ufa
“In Russia as in any other country, corruption and bribery have been, are, and will be. They put in jail those who do not share with their patrons at the top or those who take too much and openly. And those who are out of control are found dead. That is why there is no work on this subject. Nothing changes. The level of corruption in Russia is no less than in the States. Those in power steal and take their commissioners and then share what they have stolen… But God is their judge. Life will put everything in its place.”
— Artem Sverchov, Kirovo-Chepetsk
“Personally, I have not encountered domestic corruption for a very long time, perhaps it remained in the 90s. And those cases were only on the part of the police... Somewhere up there is a fight against it, we often hear in the news that someone has been arrested, someone has been put in jail. Is there more work to be done? To me it’s the eternal struggle of ‘sword and shield’ (or in our case ‘thief’ and ‘alarm’), but it doesn’t mean that we mustn’t fight corruption. However, before us it is more only scandals-intrigue and other gossip. To ordinary people there is no effect (+ or -) from this.”
— Roman Sataev, Moscow
PMC Wagner is generally known as a military contractor which performs missions in foreign countries, protects government facilities and natural resources, provides training of regular army soldiers and is involved in counter-terrorism outside Russia. Wagner has conducted military operations in Syria, Libya, Sudan, Mali, the Central African Republic, and other countries.
But given Prigozhin’s animosity toward Russia’s corrupt elite and his volatile statements in recent months, it’s entirely possible that he could direct the contractor to investigate corruption and high-level crime at home.
“There is a betrayal inside Russia,” Prigozhin said in an article published May 5th. “The time will come soon, and our people will ask questions: ‘Where is our management and where is Rublyovka on which they rest all day?’ And I will answer them with confidence. All the names and surnames of traitors I have written out on a piece of paper. And all those people who make criminal decisions today will answer for everything.”
About the author:
Deborah Armstrong currently writes about geopolitics with an emphasis on Russia. She previously worked in local TV news in the United States where she won two regional Emmy Awards. In the early 1990’s, Deborah lived in the Soviet Union during its final days and worked as a television consultant at Leningrad Television. You can support Deborah’s writing at Paypal or Patreon, or donate via Substack.
