A windfall for Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin: he gets his five gold bars and cash worth more than 100 million euros back. The fortune had been seized by authorities after a raid on Wagner’s glass office colossus in St Petersburg.
Not that Prigozhin is short of money. His organization, which besides Wagner consists of numerous shadowy companies, has made billions and is like an octopus that scrapes together money worldwide with its tentacles.
For those dark jobs he was paid with African gold, diamonds and Syrian gas and oil.
From hot dog seller to billionaire
In the ordinary world, it would be an admirable feat to go from hot dog salesman to influential billionaire. Were it not for the fact that Prigozhin mainly amassed his fortune through crime and fraud.
The ‘business group’, founded in 2014, has been labeled a ‘transnational criminal organization’ by the United States and both Washington and Brussels are considering adding the name ‘terrorist organization’ to it.
President Putin
Prigozhin’s advance is closely linked to his relationship with the Russian president, which is more complicated than his nickname – ‘Putin’s cook’ – suggests. It is clear that Prigozhin has become very rich partly thanks to Putin, and not just by cooking for him.
For a fee he did equally expensive and dark jobs for the president. In addition, he picked up a lot of money, especially in the Middle East and Africa.
Because he also has close ties to the security apparatus in Russia and knows a lot about the dark side of his president, it may not be so easy to make him disappear from the scene after his advance, many Western analysts noted after his failed march on Moscow.
Raid
The first pleasure that Putin did his criminal friend (9 years in prison for armed robbery and human trafficking, among other things) was to let the then restaurateur take care of the catering for the Russian army. He was well overpaid and, according to the American think tank Current Times, earned $3 billion from that contract between 2011 and 2019.
The advance of Wagner’s mercenary army is also closely related to the war in Ukraine. The tough mercenaries have been active in the neighboring country since Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
In this way, Wagner did odd jobs that were too controversial or too linked for the Russian army. The assignment further filled Prigozhin’s pockets, but turned out to be a pittance in later adventures in Syria, the Central African Republic and Mali, among others.
Gas fields
Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was happy with the Russian mercenary army, which chased the Islamic State from its oil and gas fields. He showed his gratitude by turning over 25 percent of the proceeds to Wagner, the Associated Press and the U.S. Treasury reported at the time.
Prigozhin could not carry out such an operation on his own. As with his first actions in Ukraine, there was close contact with Putin.
“Wagner is a tool for Putin around the world who is increasingly losing sight of the division between covert action, military activity and political influence,” an anonymous US government representative told the Politico news organization.
Gold mine and diamonds
With the help of his ‘cook’, Putin has been working for years to increase Russian influence in the world. Wherever the West leaves a gap, Wagner pops up.
In Sudan, the Central African Republic and Mali, for example, troops and security services were trained by Wagner mercenaries. They did this for a reason: In Central Africa, an artisanal gold mine was converted into a vast complex, guarded by Russian anti-aircraft guns, after which many gold nuggets disappeared towards Wagner. Wagner also ‘supervises’ a diamond mine and a large forestry project.
Shadow offices
Wagner also guards a gold mine in Sudan. Under former dictator Omar al-Bashir, a firm Prigozhin denies being the boss received 30 percent of the proceeds. In Libya, Wagner supports General Khalifa Haftar’s troops, again in exchange for oil and gas.
With shadow offices in the Seychelles, Madagascar and the Russian Molkino, the money flows to and from Wagner are shadowy.
“It is always clear that Wagner has a power of attorney for action from the Russian state, but at the same time it is a commercial organization that is always looking for profit,” said Michael van Landingham, a former CIA Russian analyst.
Anti-western propaganda
An arm of the octopus also engages in anti-Western propaganda. It has its own media group, Patriot. Furthermore, Wagner pays foreign journalists to sow unrest in his own country and influences Western elections through fake news. Prigozhin himself admitted that this was an attempt to influence the outcome of the US election.
During the 2019 European elections, Prigozhin’s media branch focused on Estonia, where a large Russian minority lives, hoping to ignite an anti-EU fire.
Harrys Puusepp, the head of the secret service in Estonia, sees a broader connection and warns the rest of the EU: “We see a rise of populism in Europe and Russia understands that there is an opportunity to stir up trouble here.”
Prigozhin seems unstoppable, given a message on Telegram about his troll factories: “We have been involved, are now interfering and will continue to be involved.”
If Putin doesn’t put a stop to it, of course.