Nearly one year after Yevgeny Prigozhin sent his Wagner mercenaries to march on Moscow in a revolt against Russia’s military leadership, residents of the capital have expressed their respect and admiration for the late rebel.
The head of the mercenaries died in a mysterious airplane crash two months after ordering a short-lived rebellion on June 23–24, 2023.
But despite the biggest challenge to President Vladimir Putin’s nearly 25-year tenure, Prigozhin and his Wagner Group continue to command respect.
“He did a lot for Russia in difficult times,” said caretaker Alexander Ulyanov, 60. He described the late mercenary as a “great man.”
Wagner led some of the Kremlin’s longest and bloodiest military campaigns in Ukraine, including the battle for the mostly destroyed city of Bakhmut in the east.
“The organisation he has created has iron discipline,” Ulyanov said.
He said Prigozhin remains alive “in our hearts”, and compared him to historical generals such as Mikhail Kutuzov, who led Russian troops during the Napoleonic Wars.
Ulyanov said of Prigozhin, “If people remember him, then he is alive.”
Prigozhin, a former hotdog seller and convicted criminal, became acquainted with Putin in the 1990s and later ran a business catering to the Kremlin.
Known as “Putin’s chef,” his influence grew rapidly as he won government contracts, eventually leading him to set up the Wagner Group in 2014 to assist Russian paramilitary forces in eastern Ukraine.
After his death, for which the Kremlin categorically denied responsibility, Putin praised Prigozhin, describing him as a “talented businessman” who made “serious mistakes”.
‘it was very scary’
In an effort to oust Moscow’s top military brass, Prigozhin’s fighters seized the Russian army headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and shot down military aircraft.
They managed to reach about half the distance to the capital Moscow before Belarus intervened to end the nearly 24-hour rebellion.
“It was very scary. I didn’t know where all this would lead me,” says Svetlana, a 42-year-old English teacher who was in Rostov at the time.
“He was probably right about something. But… the fact that during the special military operation, when hostilities were going on, he specifically deployed some troops to Rostov and sent them there – that was wrong,” he said.
But “Teddy Boy”, a 41-year-old US citizen from Los Angeles and a member of the “Espanola” battalion fighting for Russia in Ukraine, praised the mercenary ringleader.
“I’m not completely with them, but if I met them I would shake their hands,” said Teddy Boy, who was dressed in a military uniform and had tattoos of pro-Russian military symbols on his body.
“He said a lot of the things that people are thinking, that they’re afraid to say. That’s the problem. And I think that’s why a lot of people supported him.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
