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Future of Wagner Leader’s Business Empire Is Cloudy After Rebellion [1]

['Elian Peltier', 'Ivan Nechepurenko', 'Raja Abdulrahim', 'More About Elian Peltier', 'More About Ivan Nechepurenko', 'More About Raja Abdulrahim']

Date: 2023-07-10

With Mr. Prigozhin’s whereabouts unknown, the fate of his sprawling empire is uncertain. President Vladimir V. Putin has said Russia financed Mr. Prigozhin’s enterprises, but it’s unclear how much control the Kremlin has over the business network, which reaches thousands of miles away from Moscow, experts say.

“It will certainly not look exactly as it has, in terms of who is leading it, how much oversight the Kremlin will have, and how long the leash it will allow Wagner to operate with,” said Catrina Doxsee, an expert on irregular warfare at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research organization.

Here is a look at Mr. Prigozhin’s business interests.

Russia and Ukraine

Catering, real estate and mercenaries.

From his humble beginnings as an amateur cross-country skier and former convict, Mr. Prigozhin carved a path through the tumult of post-Soviet Russia, laying the foundations for his empire by opening hot dog kiosks in 1990 and later providing catering for the Kremlin — earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef.”

Over the decades, he secured billions in state contracts and controlled an extensive portfolio of businesses, mostly in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city and his birthplace.

Mr. Prigozhin’s ventures have included construction, catering and entertainment. He ran a media company, which has begun being dismantled since his mutiny, and pioneered troll farms that sought to shape the 2016 American presidential election. His companies run hotels, restaurants, business centers and a gourmet grocery store on St. Petersburg’s main thoroughfare.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/10/world/europe/prigozhin-empire-wagner-group.html

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