Russian state media boasted that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief coup against President Putin in June, is dead tonight after reports that a plane he and nine other people were on crashed and caught fire in Russia.
While not officially confirmed, a Telegram channel believed to be linked to Wagner’s paramilitary boss has claimed he has died, adding that he was killed by “traitors” to Russia.
A year ago, Prigozhin’s death would have been virtually unthinkable. The Wagner group led the invasion of Ukraine, its leader had President Putin’s ear and was rumored to have significant influence over military decisions.
But the former hot-dog vendor-turned-chef and Putin-turned-military tactician has suffered a disastrous fall from grace, no doubt earning him the label “dead man walking.”
A fateful coup, candid videos and fierce criticism of government figures left Prigozhin with nowhere to go and very few allies to turn to.
Russian state media boasted that Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a brief coup against President Putin in June, is dead
The former “Putin’s chief” turned from one of the dictator’s most valuable tools to the biggest burden, making him a huge target.
The plane, which had Prigozhin listed as a passenger on the flight list, was later reported to have caught fire, as images posted on social media claimed to show the wreckage.
Born in 1961 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg, in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin spent part of his early life in prison after being convicted of theft and fraud.
After being released from prison in 1990 after nine years, Prigozhin started selling hot dogs in his hometown. And when the Soviet Union fell, Prigozhin founded several companies.
After involvement in a grocery business and then a gambling business, Prigozhin later became a restaurateur. Following the success of several outlets, Prigozhin began earning lucrative Kremlin catering contracts with the Russian elite.
This brought him to the forefront of Russian politics and signaled his growing ambitions.
He eventually grew close to Putin and is said to have received hundreds of millions in government contracts for feeding schoolchildren and government employees.
These contracts, some of which later involved the military, are believed to have led him to found the Wager mercenary group, although information about its exact origins is scarce.
Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prigozhin had long refuted any association with Wagner and threatened to sue journalists who reported on his involvement with the group.
The unit was known for vicious attacks and doing Russia’s dirty work, despite having no official ties to the Kremlin.
Years after the group was first founded, the Russian government refused to even acknowledge the group’s existence.
Video on social media claims to show the plane after it bombed into a Russian field
A local woman said she saw parts of the plane, pictured above, fall as it crashed from the sky
But the more fierce the resistance of the Ukrainian people, the better it went for Prigozhin.
The more Russian troops killed the Ukrainians, the more Moscow needed Wagner’s mercenaries.
Prigozhin was even filmed touring prisons across Russia, pardoning dangerous convicts if they survived six months on the front lines. Thousands would have signed up for a chance at freedom.
But the warlord’s bloom began to falter when Wagner was ordered to take the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.
For nearly a year they held out against incredibly fierce resistance, with high death rates and some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
But as the tide began to turn against Prigozhin and Wagner, his already outspoken antics began to alienate him further and further from the Kremlin.
He took firm action against key war cabinet figures, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Staff Gerasimo, posting increasingly hostile videos and statements on Telegram.
He regularly threatened to withdraw troops from key positions unless they received more weapons and supplies, as well as fresh troops and support from the main army.
But after Prigozhin pulled this trick several times, he clearly decided that he had more influence than the rest of Russia was willing to give him.
He began to oppose everyone: the Russian army whom he accused of cowardice; those in the Russian state he held responsible for not adequately supporting his mercenaries; and eventually even Putin.
After two Russian planes and two helicopters were shot down on Russian soil in what appeared to be a spectacular military coup for Kiev, Prigozhin said they were in fact victims of friendly fire.
In another more serious accusation against him, according to a sensational US intelligence leak, Prigozhin allegedly said that if the Ukrainian commanders withdrew troops from Bakhmut, he would give them information about the Russian army’s positions elsewhere.
All in all, by the time Prigozhin launched his failed coup attempt, he had alienated Vladimir Putin, the rest of the army and all the key government members who could have provided support.
And when he was forced to abort his coup after his march on Moscow, he became public enemy number one as far as Putin’s loyalists were concerned.
As President Biden said Friday night, it is “no surprise” that he has faced such life risks, whether or not those risks have proved fatal.