Media Talks Putin ally, who recruits mercenaries to fight in Ukraine, named ‘Person of the Year’ in corruption 01/01/2023 07:20

London -In the war year in Ukraine, the international investigative journalism initiative Organized Crime and Corruption Project (OCCRP) The founder of the Wagner group, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, was named “Person of the Year” for his tireless efforts to expand Russia’s brutal and corrupt sphere, steal for Vladimir Putin and punish those who resist.

Renowned for his work in the food industry and even nicknamed “Putin’s chef,” Prigozhin is one of the Russian president’s closest allies, but his biggest contribution to the regime is far from pots and pans: in 2014 he became a key lever for repressive actions and the war in Ukraine. He created the mercenary recruitment organization.

A BBC report, citing British government officials, reported a week ago that the number of Wagner fighters in conflict with the neighboring country rose from 1,000 to around 20,000, pointing to the dependence on Russia to maintain the occupation.

The OCCPR Person of the Year is selected by a jury of investigative journalists, anti-corruption activists and academics. President Jair Bolsonaro was elected in 2020 and Vladimir Putin in 2014.

In 2021, Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko, another close ally of Putin, was named Person of the Year for his journalism project dedicated to exposing corruption through cross-border investigative reporting.

This time, the Person of the Year nomination went to the man whom the project marks as “the most visible avatar of all that is darkest in his homeland.”

According to the OCCPR’s assessment, Prigozhin “was delivered by a lawless private army responsible for some of the fiercest battles in the Kremlin, its ranks filled by convicted criminals”.

“In his combination of dishonest money with brutal violence, his contemptuous cynicism and impunity even under Russian law, he embodies the malevolence of state-sponsored corruption in a way few can see.”

Wagner, Russia’s support for Putin in Ukraine

Jailed for theft in his youth, Yevgeny Prigozhin had great success in Russia, where he made his first steps into capitalism in the 1990s with a restaurant and food service winning government contracts. He became wealthy and earned the nickname “Putin’s chef” for serving food to government events.

But the businessman’s reputation began to take a more sinister turn in the mid-2010s, when his plans took on a geopolitical dimension, according to OCCPR:

“The so-called ‘Internet Research Agency’, which uses cheap trolls to spread misinformation and propaganda, has become notorious for its attempts to interfere in US politics.

From that moment on, Prigozhin was no longer an ordinary man who got rich under the Putin regime. It had become one of his instruments. And before long his army wasn’t just trolls.”

The investigative journalism project describes the alleged “private military company”, the Wagner Group, as a paramilitary organization backed by the Russian armed forces, created after Russia’s first attack on Ukraine in 2014.

OCCOR claims that the fighters participated in the illegal occupation of Crimea and bloody conflicts in the east of the country.

But the first role of Prigozhin in Wagner is unclear.

“In one version, he was taken into the role of Wagner’s boss and financier by military commanders who rewarded him with lucrative defense contracts.

In another, which Prigozhin presents after years of denying any connection to Wagner, he is said to be the original founder.

Last September, the press office of the Concord catering company owned by Prigozhin responded to a request from a Russian news site for comment on the businessman’s affiliation with Wagner.

“I cleaned old guns myself, removed bulletproof vests, and found experts who could help me with this. From that moment, on May 1, 2014, a group of patriots, later known as the Wagner Battalion, was born, ”Prigozhin said.

“I am proud to be able to defend their right to protect their country’s interests,” the statement said.

True or false, according to the anti-corruption journalism project, in later years Wagner’s fighters became famous for “leaving traces of blood in conflict zones around the world.”

“Prigozhin’s mercenaries, who brutally defended the Assad regime in Syria, cemented their reputation as Putin’s shadowy executioners by performing tasks that the Russian military clearly could not or could not perform.”

“Prigozhin is a soldier of corruption,” says OCCRP editor and co-founder Drew Sullivan.

“It fights and kills to establish corruption. Wagner is nothing but an organized crime syndicate sanctioned by the Russian government.”

But as the OCCRP acknowledges, drawing the line between Wagner and the Russian state can be difficult. The group is said to have ties to Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, and many of its missions serve the interests of the Kremlin.

Other tasks, such as ensuring the security of dictatorial regimes in the Central African Republic and Sudan, seem more tied to financial goals, especially given that the group’s activities often involve controlling gold and diamond mines. The US Treasury Department accused Wagner of “acting as a cover” for Prigozhin’s mining interests.

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Performance of the Wagner group in Ukraine

In addition to the indiscriminate bombardment of settlements, Wagner’s fighters were accused of executing civilians near Kyiv in the early days of the war.

As the OCCPR points out, the group “did not hesitate to use its persecution against its own people”:

Prigozhin appeared in a series of videos urging convicts in Russian prisons to win their freedom by fighting for Wagner.

But experts say these soldiers often become cannon fodder, and those who refuse to fight can face a brutal end.

The investigative journalism project quotes the statements of a former Wagner commander who reported that ten people who refused to fight were executed.

“In one case, a prisoner recruited by the Wagner group entered the Ukrainian lines before being captured by the group in a prisoner exchange.

Shortly after, a video of his gruesome execution with a sledgehammer to the head was broadcast on Russian Telegram channels.”

Prigozhin’s response, according to OCCPR, is to mock the idea of ​​responsibility by releasing a statement from one of his companies praising the video’s production quality and almost bragging about the murder: “The murder of a dog by a dog.” said.

For the project, the role played by the leader of the Wagner group without respect for the rule of law marks the emergence of a new type of corruption agent.

“Many of the past OCCRP ‘People of the Year’ were leaders of the nations – Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko was last year’s election and past winners include former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro – but Prigozhin never took the official position.”

“Prigozhin represents a new kind of winner,” said Louise Shelley, one of this year’s OCCPR Person of the Year jurors and an expert on illicit financial flows at George Mason University.

“Not a national leader, but a corrupt individual capable of inciting terrorism and human rights abuses in countless conflicts around the world.”

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