Horses, paintings, planes: Prigozhin “scrambles” assets with the help of his relatives – FT (photo)

Unlike relatives of many other Kremlin officials, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s family has played an important role in his sprawling business empire over the years. Reported by the Financial Times.

Prior to Russia’s mass invasion of Ukraine, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s children lived a life of luxury in the European Union, despite their father, a paramilitary boss and, incidentally, a former hot dog seller, under Western sanctions since 2016.

After February 24, 2022, US and EU sanctions began to be imposed on Prigozhin’s two sons and his wife, and Canada also imposed sanctions on his artist mother Violetta for supporting Wagner PMC.

Prigogine’s 83-year-old mother started attending art classes a few years ago and then went to St. She opened her own art gallery called “Colors of Life” on Bolshoy Prospekt in the center of St. Petersburg. This project attracted the attention of the Russian media, and the art gallery organized events and parties. “She couldn’t sit indifferent and found a vocation, not just a hobby,” the First Channel story said.

Last month, the woman’s lawyers managed to win a case in a European court, proving that the woman had no economic ties to her son’s company. The restrictions on Violetta Prigozhina were lifted and the European Council was ordered to pay her legal costs.

The successful appeal against the imposition of EU sanctions (according to the court’s decision, the charges were based on data from Wikipedia) highlighted the difficulties of bringing relatives of Kremlin leaders to justice.

Petras Auštrevičius, the representative of the European Parliament in Lithuania, described this case as neglect and explained that Prigozhin and many Russian oligarchs and officials openly acted against the West while at the same time their families enjoyed Western life.

Such a gentle approach to Prigozhin’s relatives contributed to the fact that the boss of a private military company managed to develop such a large-scale paramilitary activity.

“We overlooked and underestimated Prigozhin’s private army. We didn’t make the right decisions at the time,” Asstrnvicius said.

Veronika, Prigogine’s youngest daughter, and her horses

Earlier this year, Prigozhin spoke out against the Russian elite who “live abroad, go on vacation abroad, raise children abroad.”

On February 20 last year, four days before Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine, the youngest girl competed in an amateur equestrian tournament popular with the children of Western tech billionaires. The competitions were held at a resort in Spain, and together with her stallion Ditara, Funnel Prigozhina took fourth place and was awarded a prize of 50 euros.

According to the International Equestrian Sports Federation, her eldest daughter Polina and youngest daughter Veronika have participated in various equestrian competitions in Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium and Spain since 2014.

None of the horses of Prigozhin’s daughters, in which they raced, were registered in his name.

So, on the Casapiloco horse, Veronika has participated in 60 international tournaments since the horse was bought in Arezzo, Italy in 2018, that is, after sanctions were imposed on Prigozhin himself.

Last year, the USA claimed that Polina, her son Pavel and her husband Lyubov played certain roles in the business ventures of the owner of PMC Wagner. According to data from social networks, Pavel fought in a PMC in Syria, and Wagner received a “black cross”.

According to Russian documents, the father of Prigozhin’s children owns shares in their company, and these shares often pass from one to another.

In 2019, Polina had a stake in Lakhta Plaza, a company that was sanctioned by the US in March 2022 for its ties to Wagner PMC. Lakhta Plaza transported industrial equipment to African countries. Now, according to documents, the owner of the company is his son Pavel.

According to Tom Keating, a enforcement specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, these people should have been dealt with long ago.

Recall that mercenaries from the PMC “Wagner” participated in the preparation of the uprisings in Moldova.

According to the ISW report dated April 25, it was previously learned that PMC “Wagner” forces were advancing south and west of Bakhmut and that fighting was continuing outside the city.