{"id":1956374,"date":"2023-06-24T22:55:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-25T02:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/who-are-yevgeny-prigozhin-and-wagner\/"},"modified":"2023-06-24T22:56:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-25T02:56:41","slug":"who-are-yevgeny-prigozhin-and-wagner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/who-are-yevgeny-prigozhin-and-wagner\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwho-are-yevgeny-prigozhin-and-wagner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1956374&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Meet Yevgeny Prigozhin: The Controversial Figure Behind Russia&#8217;s Wagner Paramilitary Group<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/russia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Russia\u2019s<\/a> notorious Wagner paramilitary group, is a man with a checkered past. Convicted of &#8220;assault, robbery, and fraud&#8221; in 1981, he spent nearly a decade behind bars. But that didn&#8217;t stop him from rising to power and becoming a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>A Journey from Hot Dogs to War Crimes<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>After his release from prison, Prigozhin started selling hot dogs on street corners to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/under-trump-americans-have-seen-their-best-wage-growth-in-40-years\/\" title=\"Under Trump, Americans Have Seen Their Best Wage Growth In 40 Years\">make ends meet<\/a>. However, fate had bigger plans for him. Through his catering business, he crossed paths with a young Vladimir Putin, who was then a low-level government official. This encounter would change the course of Prigozhin&#8217;s life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Birth of Wagner and Allegations of Dirty Work<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Prigozhin&#8217;s catering company, Concord Catering, began receiving lucrative contracts from the Russian government in the mid-to-late 1990s. But according to a revealing Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EMXnJMCoFYI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">documentary<\/a>, these contracts were just the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>A State-Backed Paramilitary Cartel<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Wagner, initially a small group of former Russian soldiers, quickly grew into a powerful force. Accused of committing war crimes, including massacres and rape, the group operates as a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/who-are-yevgeny-prigozhin-and-wagner\/\" title=\"Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin and Wagner?\">state-backed paramilitary cartel<\/a>.&#8221; Their activities span continents, from South America to Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Kremlin&#8217;s Connection and Controversial Interference<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Wall Street Journal&#8217;s investigation uncovered 64 companies linked to Wagner, serving as front companies to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/critics-of-george-soros-conspiracy-theories-keep-being-linked-to-george-soros\/\" title=\"Critics of \"George Soros Conspiracy Theories\" Keep Being Linked to George Soros\">facilitate money laundering<\/a> and asset movement. The report implicates the Kremlin in this web of illicit activities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Confrontations and Losses<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Wagner troops have faced off against U.S. forces in Syria, resulting in devastating losses. In Ukraine, the group has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/drone-strike-destroys-russian-fuel-depot-in-crimea\/\" title=\"Russian fuel depot in Crimea destroyed by drone strike.\">suffered heavy casualties<\/a>, recruiting convicts from prisons to bolster their ranks. This strategy allows the Russian government to downplay their own losses in official reports.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>A Figure of Contention<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Yevgeny Prigozhin&#8217;s influence extends beyond Wagner. He is also associated with the Internet Research Agency, accused of interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In a bold statement, he declared that interference would continue, showcasing his audacity and determination.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of Russia&#8217;s infamous Wagner paramilitary group, is linked to a Transnational Criminal Organization accused of war crimes. Insider reports that Prigozhin previously served almost a decade in prison for assault, robbery, and fraud. Despite his past, he continues to be involved in controversial activities after his release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":1956375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1956374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1956374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1956374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1956375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1956374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1956374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1956374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}