A close ally of President Vladimir Putin, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, has asked Russia’s Investigative Committee to open a criminal case against two journalists of the independent Russian publication Meduza over its investigation into the involvement of Russian mercenaries in the war in Ukraine, Prigozhin-owned company Concord said in a statement on Wednesday.
Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch known as Putin’s “chef,” is thought to be the driving force behind the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries and was one of the members of Putin’s elite sanctioned by the US in March after the invasion of Ukraine.
In the statement, Prigozhin says he asked the Investigative Committee to open a case against Meduza’s editorial director Tatiana Yershova, as well as journalist Lilia Yapparova, for disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army and treason, based on the questions they sent to him about the participation of the Wagner Group in the war in Ukraine.
UK and US officials said in March that the private Wagner Group was active in eastern Ukraine.
“The questions asked by the authors contain their initial information that a certain private military company Wagner is directly involved in the special operation carried out by the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine,” Prigozhin said in an appeal to the Russian Investigative Committee.
“From them we can conclude that Lilia Yapparova, as well as employees of Meduza unknown to me, are preparing mass informational provocations against Russia, that is why I ask you to initiate criminal proceedings against the above persons,” he added.
Meduza published a deep dive into the inner workings of the Russian government on Wednesday, suggesting the relationship between Prigozhin and the Kremlin had allegedly soured shortly before the invasion of Ukraine. One of the questions submitted by Meduza to the businessman and released by his company Concord specifically addresses Prigozhin’s relationship with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Meduza also published an investigation into a special military unit allegedly formed in Moscow to recruit mercenaries from Russian regions to participate in Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. According to Meduza, this unit is at least partially financed from the budget of Moscow and is often referred to as the “Sobyanin’s Regiment” — a reference to Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
When asked by CNN on a regular conference call Wednesday about that military unit, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment, saying “We don’t know anything about it.”
