Anna Arutunyan.
ANNA ARUTUNYAN & MARK GALEOTTI
DOWNFALL: PRIGOZHIN, PUTIN AND THE NEW FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE OF RUSSIA
Yevgeny Prigozhin (born 1961) was referred to as ‘Putin’s Chef’ because he owned catering business and restaurants and started out his relationship with Putin by providing catering services to the Kremlin. A convicted criminal, he developed, with Putin’s blessing, a network of mercenary companies which worked in close co-operation with the Russian authorities. Prigozhin’s mercenaries played a key role in Ukraine, Syria and Africa. He also organised interference in US Presidential elections.
In 2023 he led a largely unresisted uprising against the Russian military. This was called off after one day, with Prigozhin being given permission by the Russian authorities to transfer his mercenaries to Belarus. Two months after the rebellion Prigozhin was killed, with the other nine passengers and crew, when his private jet crashed north of Moscow. It is speculated that the aircraft was sabotaged, most likely by a bomb on board.
Author Simon Sebag Montefiore wrote of this biography of Prigozhin: ‘Absolutely gripping, deeply authoritative, hugely important and lethally lurid’.
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Anna Arutunyan is a Russian-American journalist and author. She was formerly editor of Moscow News, and has written for USA Today and Foreign Affairs. Her book The Putin Mystique has been translated into twelve languages. Mark Galeotti was Professor of Global Affairs at New York University. He is now based in London, where he writes and consults on Russian security affairs.
