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Mocking gesture
Navalny case: “Putin’s cook” donates millions of rubles, but the Charité returns the money
Evgeny Progozhin is considered a confidant of Waldimir Putin. It is rarely shown in public.
© Sergei Ilnitsky / Picture Alliance
Evgeny Prigozhin is famous and known as “Putin’s cook”. He has had a long feud with Alexej Navalny. Now the billionaire has transferred a million rubles to the Charité. But nobody wanted the donation there.
Evgeny Prigozhin is a man of many sides. He is the one who oversees the Kremlin’s armies of trolls, which spread propaganda and fake news online on behalf of the state. In the United States, he was charged with and sanctioned conspiracy to disrupt democratic processes, including the 2016 presidential election.
It is also said that he is the one who commands the private mercenary troop “Wagner”, which the Kremlin likes to deploy abroad, for example in Ukraine or Syria. Officially, the troops are led by Dmitri Utkin, who was once the head of security at Prigozhin and was the CEO of one of his companies. But Prigozhin is said to be the crucial link between the mercenary commander and the Kremlin.
Above all, Prigozhin is known as “Putin’s cook”. As the owner of a catering company, he organizes dinners and receptions for the Russian president. This earned him the nickname. He is also the only one allowed to run a private restaurant in the parliament building in Moscow. But the businessman not only feeds Putin and Russian parliamentarians, but also supplies kindergartens, hospitals and military facilities across Russia.
This business is possibly the main source of wealth. In 2016, Alexei Navalny and his Anti-Corruption Fund revealed that Prigozhin had earned 23 billion rubles in contracts from the Russian Defense Ministry that year alone. His companies suggested alleged competition for government contracts, which eventually went to one of them at an extremely high price. Documents from the Russian antitrust authorities prove these machinations.
Alexei Navalny turns Prigozhin into an enemy
Since this discovery, Navalny has been Prigozhin’s enemy number one. He initiated various proceedings against the opposition politician and, more recently, even bought his criminal debts so that Navalny personally owed him the amount of one million rubles. After the poisoning of the Kremlin opponent on August 20, Prigozhin stood out with mocking and cynical remarks. The climax of the taunt followed on September 7. Prigozhin transferred one million rubles (around 1,100 euros at the current rate) to the Charité Clinic in Berlin, where Navalny has been in treatment since August 22. “Should I treat him until he recovers, especially since he owes me money?” Explained “Putin’s cook” in a statement.
But no one at the Charité wanted the money. On September 16, the entire amount was returned. While the clinic did not comment on the rejection of the donation, Prigozhin staff made their own statement: “The payment was reimbursed today. It is most likely due to one of the following reasons: either because Evgeny Prigozhin is sanctioned . Or because otherwise the clinic is responsible for them. The Charité probably does not want to reveal any details about the poisoning and treatment of Navalny, “said a statement from the Konkord company, which is part of the Prigozhin empire.
Even before the assassination attempt on the head of the Russian opposition, Prigozhin tried to humiliate Navalny with a donation. A few months ago he transferred a million rubles to the account of the Navalny Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK). A court had previously sentenced the foundation to a fine of around 88 million rubles for alleged defamation. Navalny and his team had reported that Prigozhin’s company had supplied Moscow’s kindergartens and schools with poor-quality food, causing an outbreak of dysentery among children and adolescents.
Also at that time, Navalny returned the money to Prigozhin. He explained it with the words: “Even the idea that there is money in our account that was made by selling rotten meat makes me sick.” Last July, Navalny had to liquidate his fund due to the large fine.
