Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of private military contractor Wagner Group, has marched his mercenary forces into the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don in what many have described as a declaration of civil war on the Russian state. Read here
Prigozhin had vowed to take all necessary steps to topple Russia’s military leadership, hours after the Kremlin accused him of “armed rebellion”.
Here’s what is known about the leader of the Wagner Group;
Born in 1961 in Russia, Yevgeny Prigozhin is a high-profile, provocative mercenary leader, who has known Russian President Vladimir Putin since the 1990s. He saw his political star rise in Russia during the Ukraine war.
According to Politico, Mr Prigozhin and Mr Putin share the same hometown, St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). He received his first criminal conviction in 1979, aged 18, and got a suspended two-and-a-half-year sentence for theft. Two years later, he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for robbery and theft, nine of which he served…
Source: Linda Ikeji
