A millionaire mercenary chief, who has long been an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has stepped into the global spotlight with a rebellion against Russia's military.

The crisis began when Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private military group, declared an armed uprising on Saturday before seizing control of a key military facility in the southern Russian cities of Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh.

In recent months, the Wagner group has been actively involved in the conflict in Ukraine. Its actions on Saturday have thrown Russia into a state of renewed uncertainty.

Prigozhin has had an unconventional career path. He did not start as a military officer but instead as a food stall owner.

Early life and business ventures of "Putin's chef"

Yevgeny Prigozhin was born in 1961 in Leningrad, present-day St. Petersburg. His father, who was a factory worker, passed away when he was young. His single mother worked at a hospital to raise the family.

Young Prigozhin attended and graduated from a boarding school with a focus on athletics, where he became a champion cross-country skier.

Instead of pursuing a career as a professional athlete, he ended up associating himself with a group of petty criminals after completing school. In 1981, the 20-year-old was caught stealing for the second time and received a 12-year prison sentence for robbery. He ultimately served a total of nine years behind bars.

Following his release in 1990, Prigozhin set up a hot dog stand. He soon began to build up a stake in a chain of supermarkets and eventually opened his own restaurant and catering company.

In the 1990s, Prigozhin launched his first establishment, the New Island Restaurant, which later became a thriving chain in St. Petersburg.

Through his culinary expertise, Prigozhin's restaurants gained popularity, attracting wealthy customers and prominent political figures such as Vladimir Putin, who became a regular patron. As a result, he earned the moniker "Putin's chef."

During the early 2000s, Prigozhin founded Concord Catering, which quickly established itself as a leading provider of catering services, securing contracts from schools, the military and government institutions. In Moscow alone, it secured profitable contracts worth millions of dollars, supplying meals to public schools.

"He epitomizes a real renaissance man in contemporary Russia, which is to say that he runs some very high-end restaurants," said Angela Stent, the head of Russian studies at Georgetown University and author of the book Putin's World published in 2019, during an interview with NPR.

Beyond culinary world

Prigozhin has played multiple roles throughout his life.

In addition to being the owner of a swanky St. Petersburg restaurant and holding lucrative government catering contracts, he is also the leader of the Wagner group, a Russian mercenary military force.

Headquartered in Saint Petersburg, the Wagner group has been involved in various conflicts alongside Russia's military forces, including Syria, Sudan and Ukraine.

While Prigozhin had maintained a low profile for many years, he has recently garnered increased attention. Following President Vladimir Putin's deployment of troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Prigozhin stepped out of the shadows and recruited thousands of men from prisons.

In September 2022, he acknowledged that he had founded the Wagner Group private military company in 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It was the first public confirmation of a link that he had previously denied.

Before Prigozhin's 24-hour mutiny was called off late on Saturday, tensions between him and the Russian military had continued to escalate.

For weeks, Prigozhin strongly criticized the leadership of the Russian military. He also refused to sign a cooperation contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in mid-June.

In an audio posted on the Telegram platform on Friday, Prigozhin claimed that Russia's military leaders had targeted his troops, a charge the latter denied.

"We were ready to make concessions to the Defense Ministry, surrender our weapons," he said, adding, "Today, seeing that we have not been broken, they conducted missile strikes at our rear camps."

Prigozhin has been linked to several high-ranking individuals in the Russian government and military. His relationship with Sergei Shoigu, Russia's defense minister, is particularly strained.

Prigozhin has made multiple accusations against the Defense Ministry, saying that they failed to supply necessary ammunition during battles. He also said that Shoigu focused on pursuing personal goals and awards while deceiving Putin about the situation in Ukraine.

Prigozhin's anger is also directed at Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian Armed Forces, whom he accused of being responsible for heavy losses in Ukraine.

One of Prigozhin's notable videos, dated May 5, showcased a grim scene of deceased Wagner mercenaries. In the video, Prigozhin explicitly blamed Shoigu and Gerasimov for the tragic outcome, citing a shortage of munitions as the cause.

Prigozhin remains a controversial figure, recognized for his culinary accomplishments but more prominently linked to Western allegations of involvement in disinformation campaigns.

Apart from facing sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU due to his role in Wagner, he was accused by Western governments of funding Russian troll farms that spread disinformation.

An organization linked to Prigozhin, called the Internet Research Agency (IRA), faced accusations in the U.S. of operating a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord and polarizing American public opinion ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The IRA managed to "mobilize thousands of Americans from 5,000 miles away to demonstrate and protest in the 2016 election," according to Stent.

In November 2022, Prigozhin captured the spotlight once again as he openly boasted of interfering in U.S. elections and affirmed his intention to continue such actions. This marked the first time he acknowledged the accusations that he had previously denied for years.

(Cover image by Yin Yating.)