Late Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin reportedly left most of his fortune on paper and his Wagner Group mercenary group to his 25-year-old son Pavel.
A photo of a document that appears to be Yevgeny’s will published in the Telegraph shows that Pavel will inherit about $120 million, a private army, a house in St Petersburg, nine joint-stock companies and shares in his father’s Concord catering firm, The Times of London reported Sunday. without independently verifying its authenticity.
The catering firm routinely wins government contracts and is reportedly owed about $824 million by Russian defense officials that Pavel will try to recover, according to a Telegram report cited by the outlet.
The document was ratified in March, a few months before his armed uprising. It reportedly required Pavel to provide for his large family and would divide the fortune among Yevgeny’s widow, Lyubov, Pavel’s two sisters and Yevgeny’s grandson in the event of Pavel’s death.
Prigozhin’s official net worth is said to be only $146 million but Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation estimates it to be around $20 billion, according to the article.
Pavel Prigozhin, 25, was named as his father Yevgeny’s sole heir and inherited his controversial militia, new reports suggest. east2west news Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed when his plane exploded two months after launching an armed rebellion and marching his troops towards Moscow. via REUTERS
News of the alleged will came on the same day that a US think tank noted that “a prominent Telegram channel associated with Wagner” announced that Pavel had taken “command” of the Wagner Group under the influence of its security service chief Mikhail Vatanin, and was negotiating with guards the Russian state to ask private forces to re-enter the Ukraine War.
Still, the Institute for the Study of War said Sunday “there is no clear unified leader” for the group, and Pavel’s new influence comes only after Russian President Vladimir Putin last week embraced former Wagner Group commander and current Kremlin official Andrey Troshev for the leadership post, support that some elements of the mercenary group “reacted negatively.”
Yevgeny died aged 62 after a plane carrying him, his top lieutenant and eight others crashed under suspicious circumstances north of Moscow in August, two months after he led a failed rebellion against the Russian military over a disagreement over the role of his personal army in Russia . invasion of Ukraine.
Russians commemorated his death Sunday, 40 days after his apparent murder, in line with eastern Orthodox tradition.REUTERS
US intelligence suggested that the plane was blown up by unidentified assassins and the Kremlin said investigators were looking into whether the fatal crash was the result of a “deliberate” attack.
The US has sanctioned Prigozhin several times, including for meddling in the 2016 election, and issued new sanctions against illegal gold and diamond companies linked to him and the Wagner Group in the days after the attempted coup.
“The Wagner group exploits insecurity around the world, commits atrocities and criminal acts that threaten the security, good governance, prosperity, and human rights of countries, as well as exploit their natural resources,” treasury officials said in June.
Temporary memorials have been erected in Moscow (pictured) and in dozens of other cities to the much-admired mercenary. AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, memorials across Russia were held for the fallen warlord on Sunday, 40 days after his death in line with the eastern Orthodox belief that the souls of the dead enter either heaven or hell after that period.
Wagner fighters and ordinary citizens alike paid their respects, but no commemoration was broadcast on Russian state television.
“He can be criticized for certain events, but he is a patriot who defends the interests of the motherland on a different continent,” Wagner’s recruitment department said in a statement on Telegram.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
