The Dossier Center published an investigation dedicated, as it says, to the “internal structure of the business empire” of Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, close to the Kremlin, the founder of the Wagner military-industrial complex that is fighting in Ukraine.
Journalists are said to have at their disposal more than 1 million documents of Prigozhin’s structures, access to which was obtained by unknown hackers in early autumn 2022.
We are talking, in particular, about the documents of such structures as the so-called St. Petersburg “troll factory”, the Concord group of companies, the Wagner PPK and other companies associated with beautiful and engaged in school meals, construction, hotel business, mining abroad and international political consulting.
The main conclusion reached by the investigators is that all these types of activities are “organically connected”, and employees involved in one direction in Prigozhin’s business empire can be transferred to a completely different one in a short time.
Wounded Wagner fighters regain consciousness at a recreation center in Gelendzhik, Defense Ministry officials receive discount cards at the Eliseevsky store, “trolls” sit in a building built by companies and promote PVK services from there to an international audience. Today, lawyers and financiers are considering concession agreements in St. Petersburg, and tomorrow – in Antananarivo or Bange, the journalists write.
It is precisely because of this structure that the sanctions against Prigozhin’s projects, according to the investigation, do not work well.
The main topic of the investigation is the centralized information systems that allegedly integrate Prigozhin’s projects. Journalists studied the staff and payment information of employees in Prigozhin’s structures of IT specialists. They are employed in different companies and replace each other on different projects, their field of activity includes, for example, paying for wired Internet for Prigozhin’s mother.
On average, specialists are said to earn about 110,000 Russian rubles (slightly less than $1,500) per month. It is also claimed that all potential employees undergo a mandatory two-hour polygraph examination.
Opposition supporters, people with contacts in the media and law enforcement agencies, drug users and debtors are weeded out, Dossier writes.
One more question about the attitude towards the war in Ukraine.
The investigation also tells about the work of the accounting department of Prigozhin’s companies. It is alleged that about 400 different companies are associated with it, both real companies with double-entry bookkeeping (official for tax and real for internal accounting) and shell legal entities.
According to former employees, the so-called “troll factory” employs about 400 employees, of which more than 30 are engaged only in writing comments on media sites, and about 30 more people write comments on YouTube.
In addition to the “factory” itself, Prigozhin’s employees are also involved in other Internet projects related to his conflicts with various persons – the so-called special tasks. These included, for example, an online campaign against politicians Lyubov Sobol, Alexander Beglov, or the son-in-law of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The investigation also lists various Internet resources allegedly associated with Prigozhin’s structures, including dozens of telegram channels, including pseudo-opposition ones.
According to journalists, posts in telegram channels that are not included in Prigozhin’s network are paid for, in particular, publications in popular channels of the so-called military correspondents. Daria Dugina, who was killed in an explosion in August 2022, also allegedly worked in Prigozhin’s structures.
The investigation also tells about the YaRus social network, which, according to the Dossier, is being created with Prigozhin’s money. At the same time, there are practically no live users on the social network, and the content is mostly copied from other platforms.
The communication devices in Prigozhin’s companies, including the Wagner PPC, are also described in detail. At the same time, a “strange imbalance” is noted – Prigozhin’s structures insist on maximum security and “secrecy”, but this is combined “with an absolutely indifferent attitude towards digital security – there are no employees, no training, no instructions, no encryption.”
There are no comments by Prigozhin himself or any persons associated with him in the investigation; after his release, he was also not commented on.
Prigozhin himself is now showing the greatest media activity as the de facto head of the Wagner PPK, whose mercenaries take part in heavy and, fortunately, bloody battles for this scum in Ukraine. The “Dossier” investigation confirms, however, that other areas of its activity were not curtailed after the start of the war.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.