Yevgeni Prigozhin: Difference between revisions

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In the fall of 2003, Putin celebrated his birthday on the ship.

Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2010

From 2002 to 2012, he developed the fast food chain "Damn! Donalts". The opening of one of the restaurants in 2003 was attended by the Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev and the President of Chile Ricardo Lagos. The chain was aimed at the general population, offering "Russian fast food", including the well-known "kvadrososison", and by 2008 had grown to 10 establishments, serving as the basis for the creation of Prigozhin format of food factories. In 2011, the last of the chain's eight restaurants closed.

From the 2000s to the end of his life he participated in construction projects.

Since 2010, the company owned by Prigozhin's wife has been renting the House of the Eliseev Brothers Trading Partnership. After the reconstruction, it housed the "Shop of the Eliseev merchants".

In the summer of 2016, the company secured the right to privatize the building for 740 million rubles[51]. In the Lakhta area, the Concord company has built a residential complex "Northern Versailles" of 45 three-storey houses in the style of architecture of St. Petersburg of the XVIII—XIX centuries with its own park area. The project was particularly noted by the Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.

In 2016, the publication "Fontanka.ru" wrote that the complex additionally fenced off an area of 7.5 hectares and thereby closed the passage to the Lakhtinsky spill, which is illegal. In 2008, Yevgeny Prigozhin's company received a plot next to the 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg Park for the construction of a Water Tourism Center on Primorsky Avenue. In 2011, the company filed a lawsuit against the city Government, demanding that the delay in the allocation of the site be recognized as illegal. In 2012, the courts of three instances confirmed the rights of the investor. By March 2016, the company had built the Lakhta Plaza complex of six residential buildings with a total area of 41.9 thousand m2. In 2011, Concord received a permit for the construction of a "medical rehabilitation center" with an area of about 56 thousand m2. In 2015, the company commissioned 18 three-storey buildings for 490 apartments, 60 three-storey cottages, a SPA center with a fitness area and a restaurant.

In July 2015, RBC wrote that for the period from the end of 2014 to the middle of 2015, Concord structures won tenders for 10.3 billion rubles for cleaning barracks and educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense. The Megaline company associated with Prigozhin received a contract for 3.3 billion rubles and since September 2015 has been building a military base in Valuyki, Belgorod region. The same company won a competition for a pre-built military camp for 161.6 million rubles in the village of Svetloy in the Omsk region. In the fall of 2015, a number of companies that are believed to be associated with Concorde won tenders announced by a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense. According to the contract, the companies must take over housing and communal services of military camps in the Moscow, Bryansk and Tver regions for 26 billion rubles. In total, in 2015, all companies associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to RBC, received contracts from the Ministry of Defense for catering, cleaning and construction services for 68.6 billion rubles.

In 2018, Vladimir Putin, in an interview with journalists (Megyn Kelly from NBC and Armin Wolf from ORF), confirmed that he personally knew Prigozhin, but denied his connection with the state, comparing Prigozhin with entrepreneur George Soros.

On October 30, 2019, Yevgeny Prigozhin's main asset, the Concord Food Processing Plant company, was divided into two equal parts between him and 27—year-old Tomsk lawyer Ekaterina Roslikova.

On July 19, 2023, the company "Concord Management and Consulting" was registered in the village of Tsel Osipovichi district of Mogilev region. It is there that the camp is located, where, after the mutiny in Russia, the mercenaries of the PMCs "Wagner" arrived.

Media and propaganda activities

Main article: Internet Research Agency

One of the former offices of the agency on Savushkina Street, 55

Prigozhin was associated with the activities of the Newspaper about Newspapers, whose employees in 2012-2013 were engaged in "cleansing the media market of lies and contributing to the exposure of false and corrupt media." This was done through attempts to introduce their employees into independent publications and the subsequent filing of lawsuits against them due to the publication of non-existent interviews previously placed on an advertising basis. One of the episodes directed against Forbes was covered in the NTV program "Emergency".

Employees of Prigozhin's firms supplied food and provided security for a number of protest actions in 2012, in order to collect information about future actions and protest leaders, as well as materials for the documentary "Anatomy of Protest". Prigozhin is one of the organizers and financier of the critical documentary about the political opposition "Anatomy of Protest" and "troll Factory", which is associated with his company "Glavset" (since July 2015, it was located at 55 Savushkina Street).

In September 2013, the media became aware of the existence of the "Internet Research Agency" in St. Petersburg at 55 Savushkina Street, also referred to in the press and other sources as the "troll factory", "Prigozhinsky trolls", "Olga trolls", "Kremlebots", whose employees were engaged in posting posts and comments of pro-government and anti-opposition orientation on the Internet and social networks. In May 2014, the hacker group Anonymous International published data according to which the financing was carried out by Yevgeny Prigozhin's structures.

In the following years, several former employees told the media about their work at the agency. They confirmed that the key tasks of the employees are writing and posting pro-government posts and comments on various websites and forums, as well as discrediting opposition figures. According to the former employee, the agency worked around the clock, with working shifts of 12 hours, the employee's earnings were 40,000 rubles a month.

The US Department of Justice has accused the agency of interfering in American political life, including the US presidential election, since 2014. The indictment alleges that agency employees, regularly visiting the United States, published false information on social networks, placed political ads, organized street rallies and came into contact with employees of Donald Trump's election headquarters.

According to an investigation by RBC magazine in June 2017, Yevgeny Prigozhin may be behind the creation and financing of one of the country's largest media holdings, which adheres to a loyal position towards the authorities. In May-June 2014, the "Federal News Agency" was launched, eventually growing to a network of 16 news sites known as the "Media Factory". The press service of the company "Concord" strongly denied any connection of Prigozhin with these online publications.

By February 2017, the monthly audience of the publications reached 36 million people, exceeding the figures of RIA Novosti and Komsomolskaya Pravda. At that time, the Medialogia monitoring system ranked the Federal News Agency seventh in citation among the Russian media. The total number of employees is estimated at 225-250 people. In the spring of 2019, a commenting department appeared inside the FAN, whose employees leave comments under media publications in social networks.

The logo of the Patriot media holding.

On October 4, 2019, Open Media announced the creation of the Patriot media holding, which included part of the publications of the Media Factory (Federal News Agency, People's News, Economy Today and Politics Today). By this time, the monthly audience of the publications was: 15, 4.4, 3.8 and 0.3 million readers. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, in 2018 the total revenue of all four publications amounted to about 300 million rubles, the Board of Trustees of which was headed by Evgeny Prigozhin. The address of the media holding is located in the residential complex of business class "Lakhta Plaza", the developer of which is his company "Concord Management and Consulting". The purpose of the holding is stated to be "the maximum dissemination of information about the events taking place in Russia to create a favorable information space aimed at the development of the country and countering those media outlets that promote negative information and do not notice the good that is happening in the country." The structure was headed by 35-year—old Nikolay Stolyarchuk, the head of the pro-Kremlin party "Young Russia" liquidated in 2018 and a lawyer for the Foundation for the Protection of National Values. The total working staff of the media holding was 400 people.

Since the morning of June 30, 2023, the websites of seven media related to the entrepreneur (including "Economy Today", "Politics Today", "Nevsky News", "People's News") have ceased to be updated, since the mutiny the number of publications has decreased; the Patriot website has ceased to be available. On the same day, Nevsky Novosti, Ekonomika Segodnya and RIA FAN announced the termination of work.

According to the publication "The Bell", Prigozhin in 2020 financed the telegram channel Rybar, who from June 2020 to August 2021 led a column on the FAN site, had his own tag there and distributed comments in the podcast "International FAN". The account became famous in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a pro-war account.

In March 2022, some of Prigozhin's employees became employees of the online publication Readovka.

Sponsored the release of the films "Rzhev", "Shugaley", "Shugaley-2", "Tourist", "Granite" and "The Best in Hell". The premiere of several paintings took place on the NTV channel. Presumably, the painting "The Sun" was also shot with Prigozhin's money. Prigozhin's films were broadcast on state television, but at an untimely time [what?]; recognizable actors participated in them, but not massively popular.

PMCs "Wagner"

Main article: PMCS "Wagner"

is my political credo: I love my homeland, I obey Putin, Shoigu for soap, we will continue to fight.

Evgeny Prigozhin, May 24, 2023

In the summer of 2016, the publication "Fontanka.ru" connected Yevgeny Prigozhin with the head of the Wagner Group — Dmitry Utkin. Among the entourage of the latter, the head of the security service of one of the entrepreneur's firms, Yevgeny Gulyaev, was found. According to The Bell, the PMCs was funded by the proceeds from state contracts of Yevgeny Prigozhin.

[[Category:List]]

@@ Line 44: / Line 44: @@
 In the fall of 2003, Putin celebrated his birthday on the ship.
+Vladimir Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2010
+From 2002 to 2012, he developed the fast food chain "Damn! Donalts". The opening of one of the restaurants in 2003 was attended by the Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev and the President of Chile Ricardo Lagos. The chain was aimed at the general population, offering "Russian fast food", including the well-known "kvadrososison", and by 2008 had grown to 10 establishments, serving as the basis for the creation of Prigozhin format of food factories. In 2011, the last of the chain's eight restaurants closed.
+From the 2000s to the end of his life he participated in construction projects.
+Since 2010, the company owned by Prigozhin's wife has been renting the House of the Eliseev Brothers Trading Partnership. After the reconstruction, it housed the "Shop of the Eliseev merchants".
+In the summer of 2016, the company secured the right to privatize the building for 740 million rubles[51]. In the Lakhta area, the Concord company has built a residential complex "Northern Versailles" of 45 three-storey houses in the style of architecture of St. Petersburg of the XVIII—XIX centuries with its own park area. The project was particularly noted by the Governor Vladimir Yakovlev.
+In 2016, the publication "Fontanka.ru" wrote that the complex additionally fenced off an area of 7.5 hectares and thereby closed the passage to the Lakhtinsky spill, which is illegal. In 2008, Yevgeny Prigozhin's company received a plot next to the 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg Park for the construction of a Water Tourism Center on Primorsky Avenue. In 2011, the company filed a lawsuit against the city Government, demanding that the delay in the allocation of the site be recognized as illegal. In 2012, the courts of three instances confirmed the rights of the investor. By March 2016, the company had built the Lakhta Plaza complex of six residential buildings with a total area of 41.9 thousand m2. In 2011, Concord received a permit for the construction of a "medical rehabilitation center" with an area of about 56 thousand m2. In 2015, the company commissioned 18 three-storey buildings for 490 apartments, 60 three-storey cottages, a SPA center with a fitness area and a restaurant.
+In July 2015, RBC wrote that for the period from the end of 2014 to the middle of 2015, Concord structures won tenders for 10.3 billion rubles for cleaning barracks and educational institutions of the Ministry of Defense. The Megaline company associated with Prigozhin received a contract for 3.3 billion rubles and since September 2015 has been building a military base in Valuyki, Belgorod region. The same company won a competition for a pre-built military camp for 161.6 million rubles in the village of Svetloy in the Omsk region. In the fall of 2015, a number of companies that are believed to be associated with Concorde won tenders announced by a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense. According to the contract, the companies must take over housing and communal services of military camps in the Moscow, Bryansk and Tver regions for 26 billion rubles. In total, in 2015, all companies associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, according to RBC, received contracts from the Ministry of Defense for catering, cleaning and construction services for 68.6 billion rubles.
+In 2018, Vladimir Putin, in an interview with journalists (Megyn Kelly from NBC and Armin Wolf from ORF), confirmed that he personally knew Prigozhin, but denied his connection with the state, comparing Prigozhin with entrepreneur George Soros.
+On October 30, 2019, Yevgeny Prigozhin's main asset, the Concord Food Processing Plant company, was divided into two equal parts between him and 27—year-old Tomsk lawyer Ekaterina Roslikova.
+On July 19, 2023, the company "Concord Management and Consulting" was registered in the village of Tsel Osipovichi district of Mogilev region. It is there that the camp is located, where, after the mutiny in Russia, the mercenaries of the PMCs "Wagner" arrived.
+Media and propaganda activities
+Main article: Internet Research Agency
+One of the former offices of the agency on Savushkina Street, 55
+Prigozhin was associated with the activities of the Newspaper about Newspapers, whose employees in 2012-2013 were engaged in "cleansing the media market of lies and contributing to the exposure of false and corrupt media." This was done through attempts to introduce their employees into independent publications and the subsequent filing of lawsuits against them due to the publication of non-existent interviews previously placed on an advertising basis. One of the episodes directed against Forbes was covered in the NTV program "Emergency".
+Employees of Prigozhin's firms supplied food and provided security for a number of protest actions in 2012, in order to collect information about future actions and protest leaders, as well as materials for the documentary "Anatomy of Protest". Prigozhin is one of the organizers and financier of the critical documentary about the political opposition "Anatomy of Protest" and "troll Factory", which is associated with his company "Glavset" (since July 2015, it was located at 55 Savushkina Street).
+In September 2013, the media became aware of the existence of the "Internet Research Agency" in St. Petersburg at 55 Savushkina Street, also referred to in the press and other sources as the "troll factory", "Prigozhinsky trolls", "Olga trolls", "Kremlebots", whose employees were engaged in posting posts and comments of pro-government and anti-opposition orientation on the Internet and social networks. In May 2014, the hacker group Anonymous International published data according to which the financing was carried out by Yevgeny Prigozhin's structures.
+In the following years, several former employees told the media about their work at the agency. They confirmed that the key tasks of the employees are writing and posting pro-government posts and comments on various websites and forums, as well as discrediting opposition figures. According to the former employee, the agency worked around the clock, with working shifts of 12 hours, the employee's earnings were 40,000 rubles a month.
+The US Department of Justice has accused the agency of interfering in American political life, including the US presidential election, since 2014. The indictment alleges that agency employees, regularly visiting the United States, published false information on social networks, placed political ads, organized street rallies and came into contact with employees of Donald Trump's election headquarters.
+According to an investigation by RBC magazine in June 2017, Yevgeny Prigozhin may be behind the creation and financing of one of the country's largest media holdings, which adheres to a loyal position towards the authorities. In May-June 2014, the "Federal News Agency" was launched, eventually growing to a network of 16 news sites known as the "Media Factory". The press service of the company "Concord" strongly denied any connection of Prigozhin with these online publications.
+By February 2017, the monthly audience of the publications reached 36 million people, exceeding the figures of RIA Novosti and Komsomolskaya Pravda. At that time, the Medialogia monitoring system ranked the Federal News Agency seventh in citation among the Russian media. The total number of employees is estimated at 225-250 people. In the spring of 2019, a commenting department appeared inside the FAN, whose employees leave comments under media publications in social networks.
+The logo of the Patriot media holding.
+On October 4, 2019, Open Media announced the creation of the Patriot media holding, which included part of the publications of the Media Factory (Federal News Agency, People's News, Economy Today and Politics Today). By this time, the monthly audience of the publications was: 15, 4.4, 3.8 and 0.3 million readers. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, in 2018 the total revenue of all four publications amounted to about 300 million rubles, the Board of Trustees of which was headed by Evgeny Prigozhin. The address of the media holding is located in the residential complex of business class "Lakhta Plaza", the developer of which is his company "Concord Management and Consulting". The purpose of the holding is stated to be "the maximum dissemination of information about the events taking place in Russia to create a favorable information space aimed at the development of the country and countering those media outlets that promote negative information and do not notice the good that is happening in the country." The structure was headed by 35-year—old Nikolay Stolyarchuk, the head of the pro-Kremlin party "Young Russia" liquidated in 2018 and a lawyer for the Foundation for the Protection of National Values. The total working staff of the media holding was 400 people.
+Since the morning of June 30, 2023, the websites of seven media related to the entrepreneur (including "Economy Today", "Politics Today", "Nevsky News", "People's News") have ceased to be updated, since the mutiny the number of publications has decreased; the Patriot website has ceased to be available. On the same day, Nevsky Novosti, Ekonomika Segodnya and RIA FAN announced the termination of work.
+According to the publication "The Bell", Prigozhin in 2020 financed the telegram channel Rybar, who from June 2020 to August 2021 led a column on the FAN site, had his own tag there and distributed comments in the podcast "International FAN". The account became famous in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a pro-war account.
+In March 2022, some of Prigozhin's employees became employees of the online publication Readovka.
+Sponsored the release of the films "Rzhev", "Shugaley", "Shugaley-2", "Tourist", "Granite" and "The Best in Hell". The premiere of several paintings took place on the NTV channel. Presumably, the painting "The Sun" was also shot with Prigozhin's money. Prigozhin's films were broadcast on state television, but at an untimely time [what?]; recognizable actors participated in them, but not massively popular.
+PMCs "Wagner"
+Main article: PMCS "Wagner"
+is my political credo: I love my homeland, I obey Putin, Shoigu for soap, we will continue to fight.
+Evgeny Prigozhin, May 24, 2023
+In the summer of 2016, the publication "Fontanka.ru" connected Yevgeny Prigozhin with the head of the Wagner Group — Dmitry Utkin. Among the entourage of the latter, the head of the security service of one of the entrepreneur's firms, Yevgeny Gulyaev, was found. According to The Bell, the PMCs was funded by the proceeds from state contracts of Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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