THE business empire of Yevgeny Prigozhin had humble roots: a hot-dog stand on the streets of St Petersburg in 1990. “We mixed the mustard at home in my apartment,” he once recalled. He eventually opened a series of chic restaurants including one, on a floating boat, called New Island that became a favourite of another St Petersburg native, Vladimir Putin. Lucrative state contracts followed and, with time, Mr Prigozhin’s activities expanded beyond the kitchen, encompassing armies of online trolls and private military contractors. His proximity to the Russian president earned him the nickname “Putin’s Chef”.
On February 16th a grand jury in America indicted Mr Prigozhin, three of his companies and 12 of their employees for interfering in the internal politics of the United States, including the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel, Robert Mueller, alleges that the Internet Research Agency, Mr Prigozhin’s “troll factory”, engaged in self-described “information...Continue reading
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