Notorious as “Putin’s cook,” oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin has seen better days since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. Before the great mobilization wave of the Russian armed forces, the fighters of his mercenary group “Wagner” often proved to be more effective and better organized than Russia’s regular troops. Such was his confidence that he joined Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov in criticizing the Russian army leadership last fall when Moscow was forced to relinquish previously conquered areas in the Kharkiv region.
Some Western observers already see Prigozhin as a potential successor to Putin.
