**Yevgeny Prigozhin is not a far-right activist but some of his projects belong to a larger far-right ecosystem**.

Prigozhin is a Russian businessman, oligarch, confidante of Russian President Vladimir Putin, head and owner of Concord, a Russian group of companies, head and owner of a Wagner Group also known as PMC Wagner. Prigozhin is a hero of the Russian Federation. Concord has catered for top government officials in Russia, that’s why Prigozhin earned the nickname “Putin’s cook” in the media.

**Short bio**

Prigozhin served nine years in prison in Soviet times for robbery and other crimes before going into business during the 1990s. In 1990 he set up a hot dog chain in Leningrad. In 1996 he opened the first luxury restaurant in St Petersburg. In 1996 he opened a catering business, Concorde Catering. In the spring of 1998, Prigozhin opened New Island Restaurant, which became a popular destination for the financial and political elite. Has been involved in construction projects since the 2000s. In 2018, Vladimir Putin [confirmed](http://kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/57027) in interviews with journalists that he knew Prigozhin personally, but denied any connection to the state, comparing Prigozhin to entrepreneur George Soros.

**Media business**

In September 2013, the media became aware of the existence of an “Internet Research Agency” (also referred to in the press and other sources as the “troll factory”, “Prigozhinsky trolls”, “Olginsky trolls”, “kremlebot”) at 55 Savushkina Street in St Petersburg, whose employees were engaged in posting pro-government and anti-opposition posts and comments on the internet and on social networks.

The key tasks of the workers are to write and post pro-government posts and comments on various websites and forums, as well as to discredit opposition figures. The US Department of Justice has [accused](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/russians-indicted-mueller-election-interference.html) the agency of interfering in US political life, including the US presidential election, since 2014. The indictment alleges that the agency’s employees, while regularly visiting the US, posted false information on social networks, posted political advertisements, organised street actions and made contact with Donald Trump’s campaign staff. According to a June 2017 [investigation](http://www.rbc.ru/magazine/2017/04/58d106b09a794710fa8934ac), Yevgeny Prigozhin may be behind the creation and funding of one of the country’s largest media holdings with a loyal stance to the government. In May and June 2014, the Federal News Agency ([RIA FAN](http://riafan.ru) was launched, eventually growing into a network of 16 news websites known as the Media Factory. Concord’s press service denied any connection between the businessman and these websites. By February 2017, the publications’ monthly audience had reached 36 million and RIA FAN was the seventh most cited media outlet in Russia. The total number of employees is estimated at 225-250. In October 2019 the creation of Patriot Media Holding was announced , which includes some of Media Factory’s publications (RIA FAN, [People’s News](https://nation-news.ru), [Economy Today](https://rueconomics.ru) and [Politics Today](https://polit.info). It’s board of trustees is chaired by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Prigozhin [funded](https://thebell.io/kto-vedet-voennyy-telegram-kanal-rybar-rassledovanie-the-bell) the telegram channel Rybar in 2020, which from June 2020 to August 2021, ran a column on the RIA FAN website, had its own tag there and gave out commentary on the podcast “FAN International”. The account became famous in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as pro-war.

In March 2022, part of Prigozhin’s staff [became](https://vot-tak.tv/novosti/25-03-2022-fabrika-kommentariev-vojna) employees of the online publication Readovka which is considered to spread far-right propaganda.

Also Prigozhin sponsored the release of Rzhev, Shugaley, Shugaley-2 and Tourist war movies.

**PMC Wagner**

Wagner Group is a a Russian non-state armed formation with an unclear legal status, established and controlled by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. The group operated in Ukraine since 2014, in Syria, Sudan, Libya, Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and Mali. In the summer of 2016, Fontanka.ru [linked](https://www.fontanka.ru/2017/08/23/044/) Yevgeny Prigozhin to Dmitry Utkin, the head of the Wagner Group. Yevgeny Gulyayev, head of security at one of the businessman’s firms, was [found](https://www.rbc.ru/magazine/2016/09/57bac4309a79476d978e850d) among the latter’s entourage.

In 2018, the media [reported](https://www.forbes.ru/biznes/369363-bloomberg-rasskazal-o-rasprostranenii-vliyaniya-evgeniya-prigozhina-v-afrike) that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s structures were infiltrating and consolidating influence in African countries. It was claimed that they were helping African leaders – providing security, arms and political advice in exchange for access to natural resources and mining rights

Since July 2022, a number of media outlets have reported on visits to prison colonies by a man with a Hero of Russia star who resembles Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to them, he started his recruitment tour with colonies for former enforcers and then switched to high-security institutions. The businessman offered the prisoners to take part in hostilities as part of the PMCs in exchange for pardon, the removal of the criminal record, a Russian passport and cash payments.

On 26 September 2022, Concord’s press service published a letter in which Yevhen Prigozhin [confirmed](https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5581621) the fact that he was the founder of the Wagner PMC. He named 1 May 2014 as the date of the group’s formation: its initial backbone was made up of Russian volunteers who wanted to go to Donbass. Prigozhin said that in previous years he had tried not to publicize his connection with Wagner so as not to frame any of the group’s members.

Many Russian neo-Nazis were among the ranks of PMC Wagner. Some of them – like Artem “Uragan” Krasnolutskiy – fled to Ukraine and started to battle agaist Russia.

**Political ambitions**

Prigozhin is considering the start of a conservative movement that might turn into a full-fledged political party in the future, [announced](https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/11/15/he-grasps-things-very-quickly) Meduza’s reporter Andrey Pertsev citing unknown souces. Sources familiar with Prigozhin suggest that, apart from attacking the elites, he is likely to speculate on cravings for revenge.