PRIGOZHIN’S LUCK FINALLY RAN OUT
Posted on 26th August 2023
So dead-man walking reaches his destiny when his private jet, also containing the leadership of the Wagner Group, plunges to the ground not far from Moscow. So ends the life of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the warlord thug who earned the moniker Putin’s Chef for that was truly where he started. After he was released from prison in 1990, he started off by selling hot dogs in Leningrad. He got involved with many businesses including gambling which may be when he first met Putin who was then Chairman of the Advisory Board for Casinos and Gambling. However, it was through his restaurant New Island that he got really close to Vlad the Bad, hosting him in the company of Jacques Chirac and George Bush. Then through his company Concord Catering he secured numerous government contracts, seriously enriching himself. However, the best way to describe his practices was that in 2022 the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project named him the corrupt person of the year. However, his real importance and significance to Putin was through his formation and leadership of the Wagner Group, a bunch of ex-convict mercenaries who became essential to the ill-fated invasion of Ukraine. Ultimately relationships deteriorated when Prigozhin blamed Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov for tens of thousands of Wagner casualties stating: “They came here as volunteers and are dying so you can sit as fat cats in your luxury offices.” Finally, there was the so-called rebellion in June when Prigozhin led his troops on a march to Moscow and shot down a Russian airborne command post and a couple of helicopters. It looked damn serious until President Lukashenko of Belarus intervened and defused the situation. From that moment Prigozhin was dead-man walking. Putin saw this mutiny as treason and a direct threat to his authority. Vlad the Bad may have greeted his Chef with smiles and allowed him on the fringes of the Russian/African Summit at the end of July but Vlad the Bad was waiting for the moment. Then with Prigozhin feeling safe, he strikes and succeeds in decapitating the entire leadership of the Wagner Group. Putin is ruthless and without conscience. He will do what it takes to remain in power. For the moment he has consolidated that power.
Donald Trump has now been arrested at a jail in Atlanta. The mugshot of the Donald is bouncing around the world. At the first Republican Primary Debate on Wednesday, only former Governor Chris Christie came out against Trump’s utterly disgraceful behaviour. Unfortunately, I don’t see him getting enough traction to be a viable alternative. So for the sake of America, and dare I say it, the Western World, they must elect Biden and we must pray he chooses a good Vice President and stays alive.
