But since the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash in 2023, after mounting a brief armed rebellion in Russia that challenged the rule of President Vladimir Putin, Moscow has ...

After Prigozhin’s death Wagner’s operations in Bangui were widely expected to be scaled back, or even wound down entirely. ... where the men shared lavish meals together.

Prigozhin’s disruptive mutiny and critique will have played its part in that process”. Downfall: Prigozhin, Putin and the new fight for the future of Russia , by Anna Arutunyan and Mark ...

Prigozhin was allowed by the Kremlin to swell Wagner's ranks with convicts, who were offered amnesty after serving six months on the front line. He said 50,000 were recruited, and 10,000 of them ...

Prigozhin’s motives are still hotly debated, ... Those ties won him lucrative government contracts, including catering for Kremlin events and providing meals and services to the military.

Former President George Bush (R) this week recalled having dinner served by Wagner Chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during a G8 summit in Russia, joking he “survived” the meal. Asked at the Yalta ...

Prigozhin appeared to be presenting or serving Bush with a drink. They were at the Constantine Palace in St. Petersburg during the 32nd G8 Summit. It was the first time Russia had hosted a G8 meeting.

George W. Bush said former Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin, nicknamed “Putin’s chef,” once served him dinner at a G-8 summit in St. Petersburg.

Yevgeny Prigozhin and Vladimir Putin at the opening of a factory to produce school meals in 2010, outside St Petersburg. Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/Kremlin via AP ...

FILE - Businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, left, shows Russian President Vladimir Putin, around his factory which produces school meals, outside St. Petersburg, Russia on Sept. 20, 2010. Prigozhin was ...

Yevgeny V. Prigozhin for years had denied any connection to the Wagner mercenary group and operated discreetly on the margins of Russian power, trading in political skulduggery, cafeteria meals ...