Yevgeny Prigozhin
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Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin[a]\\xa0(Russian:\\xa0\\u0415\\u0432\\u0433\\u0435\\u0301\\u043d\\u0438\\u0439 \\u0412\\u0438\\u0301\\u043a\\u0442\\u043e\\u0440\\u043e\\u0432\\u0438\\u0447 \\u041f\\u0440\\u0438\\u0433\\u043e\\u0301\\u0436\\u0438\\u043d,\\xa0IPA:\\xa0[j\\u026av\\u02c8\\u0261\\u02b2en\\u02b2\\u026aj \\u02c8v\\u02b2ikt\\u0259r\\u0259v\\u02b2\\u026at\\u0255 pr\\u02b2\\u026a\\u02c8\\u0261o\\u0290\\u0268n]; 1 June 1961 \\u2013 23 August 2023) was a\\xa0Russian\\xa0mercenary leader and\\xa0oligarch.[4]\\xa0He led the\\xa0Wagner Group\\xa0private military company and was a close confidant of Russian president\\xa0Vladimir Putin\\xa0until launching\\xa0a rebellion\\xa0in June 2023.[5]\\xa0Prigozhin was sometimes referred to as "Putin\'s chef" because he owned restaurants and catering businesses that provided services to the\\xa0Kremlin.[6]\\xa0Once a convict in the\\xa0Soviet Union,[7]\\xa0Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies whose operations, according to a 2020 investigation, were "tightly integrated with\\xa0Russia\'s Defence Ministry\\xa0and its intelligence arm, the\\xa0GRU".[8]
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