Wagner Group chief takes his orders from Putin, says oligarch

The man known as ‘Putin’s chef’, who heads the pro-Kremlin mercenary group ‘has a lot of personal meetings’ with the Russian leader, a former oligarch says.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not hesitate to clamp down on Yevgeny Prigozhin, if he has any doubts about his loyalty, Mikhail Khodorkovsky says. Picture: AFP

The head of a notorious pro-Kremlin mercenary group takes his orders directly from President Vladimir Putin, a former oligarch has told a British parliamentary inquiry.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Kremlin critic who was once Russia’s richest man, said that Yevgeny Prigozhin, a powerful businessman known as “Putin’s chef”, is a “significant and important tool for the Kremlin”. He told members of the Commons foreign affairs committee, who are considering whether to designate Wagner as a terrorist organisation, “He is in direct contact with President Putin and he receives instructions from him”.

Prigozhin’s Wagner Group is a private military contractor whose fighters have been accused of atrocities in Ukraine, Syria and Africa. Khodorkovsky said that his influence was equal to that of Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, or Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister. “He has a lot of personal meetings with Putin,” he said.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky leaves after giving evidence to a House of Commons foreign affairs committee, in London. Picture: AFP

Jason McCue, a lawyer specialising in human rights, told the committee that the designation of the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation was long overdue. “It has no respect for the rule of law or humanity,” he said.

Prigozhin has recruited thousands of convicts from Russian prisons for the battlefields of Ukraine. They have been offered their freedom in return for a six-month tour of duty but told they will be executed if they try to desert. Many have been killed or badly injured after being used as “cannon fodder” by Wagner’s commanders. Reacting to criticism of the use of mercenaries and violent offenders in Ukraine, Prigozhin told Russians: “It’s either inmates and mercenaries, or your children.”

Yevgeny Prigozhin has recruited thousands of convicts from Russian prisons for the battlefields of Ukraine.

Wagner’s fighters, who have conducted operations in at least 12 countries, are thought to have tried to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and his family during the early days of the war.

Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in Russian prisons after accusing Putin’s inner circle of corruption, also said he was confident that Prigozhin was involved in the deaths of three Russian investigative journalists in 2018.

Prigozhin, a former hotdog salesman who served nine years for robbery, gained his chef nickname when his company won lucrative catering contracts from the Kremlin, including the provision of school meals in Moscow. He was once content to remain in the shadows but admitted for the first time last month that he is the head of the Wagner Group, a role for which he has previously been sanctioned by western countries, including Britain.

He recently opened a Wagner Centre office in St Petersburg, boosting his political ambitions.

On Monday he accused Alexander Beglov, the governor of St Petersburg, of “plundering the state budget”, a claim that could prompt a power struggle in Russia’s second city.

The Institute of War, a US think tank, said Prigozhin was attempting to “increase his status among Russian elites” as well as enhance his reputation.

The Wagner founder also raised eyebrows in Russia on Tuesday when he described Mr Zelensky as a “strong, confident, pragmatic” leader and added: “Don’t underestimate him.”

Khodorkovsky said that Putin would not hesitate to clamp down on Prigozhin, if he had any doubts about his loyalty, by charging him with heading a mercenary group, which is illegal under Russian law. He also highlighted Prigozhin’s propaganda role in Russia, accusing his media outlets of helping the Kremlin to brainwash Russians.

The Times