159-507: Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch . He led the Wagner Group , a private military company , and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a rebellion in June 2023. Prigozhin was sometimes referred to as "Putin's chef" because he owned restaurants and catering businesses that provided services to
318-466: A New York Times interview with him, "the rubles were piling up faster than his mother could count them". From 1991 to 1997, Prigozhin was heavily involved in the grocery store business. He became 15% stakeholder and manager of Contrast, which was the first grocery store chain in Saint Petersburg and founded by his former classmate Boris Spektor. Around the same time, Prigozhin became involved in
477-513: A fitness trainer at a children's sports school. In 1979, 18-year-old Prigozhin was caught stealing and was given a suspended sentence of two years and six months in prison. He served his sentence working at a chemical plant in Veliky Novgorod . In 1980, he returned to Leningrad and joined a gang. He participated in a burglary spree in Leningrad, before being caught after choking a woman on
636-540: A lathe operator, tractor driver, and cabinet maker after receiving training at a vocational school . In 1988, the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union reduced his sentence to ten years on good behavior, noting that he had begun "corrective behavior". He was sent to a medium-security penal colony and was released in 1990. In total, Prigozhin spent nine years in detention. Immediately after his release, he started attending
795-456: A "huge" number. He called for a response, stating: "The council of commanders of PMC Wagner has made a decision – the evil that the military leadership of the country brings must be stopped". Prigozhin declared the start of an armed conflict against the Ministry of Defence in a message posted on his press service's Telegram channel. He called upon individuals interested in joining the conflict against
954-680: A "renaissance" in the Jewish community inside Russia since the beginning of the 21st century; however, the Russian Jewish population has experienced precipitous decline since the dissolution of the USSR which continues to this day, although it is still among the largest in Europe . The presence of Jewish people in the European part of Russia can be traced to the 7th–14th centuries CE. In the 11th and 12th centuries,
1113-504: A 15-bedroom mansion, for £120 million. Mikhail Fridman restored Athlone House in London as a primary residence in 2016. Roman Abramovich bought the English football club Chelsea F.C. in 2003, spending record amounts on players' salaries. Alexander Mamut invested £100m to Waterstones bookstore chain after acquiring it in 2011 for £53m. According to its managing director James Daunt ,
1272-451: A 70% ammunition shortage. Shoigu, Gerasimov, where the fuck is the ammunition? Look at them, bitches". Prigozhin said to the Russian military commanders: "You sit in expensive clubs, your children enjoy life, you make videos on YouTube . You think that you are the masters of this life, and that you have the right to dispose of their lives". On 6 May, Prigozhin, in his next address, revealed for
1431-463: A Russian-speaking member of a Jewish community to be named to act as an intermediary between his community and the Imperial government to perform certain civil duties, such as registering births, marriages, and divorces. This position came to be known as the crown rabbi although they were not always rabbis and often were not respected by members of their own communities because their main job qualification
1590-426: A blogger, and also bends his fingers that he doesn't like the special operation ... We didn't come up with this special operation, but we took a visor and said: "If we went to fuck with our neighbors, we should fuck all the way". Prigozhin condemned the luxurious lifestyle of the children of Russia's top officials and in particular singled out Shoigu's son-in-law Alexey Stolyarov [ ru ] for not joining
1749-541: A combination of aggressive marketing and specific achievements," in particular the capture of Bakhmut , and since Bakhmut was the only major capture of the Russian army in many months, "the public could not ignore such an achievement". By June 2023, Prigozhin had begun making regular statements that were not allowed for any other public figure in Russia. Journalists noted that many of his statements would have resulted in criminal charges against other people. This period witnessed
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#17330848015911908-735: A convert to Christianity, the attorney Ossip Pergament ( Odessa ). The two Jewish members of the Third Duma were the Judge Leopold Nikolayevich (or Lazar) Nisselovich ( Courland province, Kadet) and Naftali Markovich Friedman ( Kaunas province, Kadet). Ossip Pergament was reelected and died before the end of his mandate. Friedman was the only one reelected to the Fourth Duma in 1912, joined by two new deputies, Meer Bomash , and Dr. Ezekiel Gurevich . Many Jews were prominent in Russian revolutionary parties. The idea of overthrowing
2067-408: A high-risk role, although he could not refuse it. Dmitry Utkin , a Russian military veteran, was also named as a founder and commander of Wagner. As Prigozhin had no military background, he reportedly relied on Utkin to oversee Wagner's military operations. Utkin was once head of security for Prigozhin and was also listed as director general of Concord Management. Prigozhin rose to prominence during
2226-571: A higher rate of immigration to Israel than any other country. Russia's Jewish population is still the third biggest in Europe, after France and United Kingdom. In November 2012, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center , one of the world's biggest museums of Jewish history, opened in Moscow. Jews have been present in contemporary Armenia and Georgia since the Babylonian captivity . Records exist from
2385-541: A lack of ammunition, his fighters would leave Bakhmut on 10 May 2023 and hand over their positions to units of the Russian Defense Ministry if they did not receive more ammunition. Prigozhin published a video in which he shouted with a face distorted with anger against the bodies of the murdered Wagnerites: "Now listen to me, bitches, these are somebody's fathers and somebody's sons. And those scum who don't give ammunition, bitch, will eat their guts in hell. We have
2544-689: A large majority emigrated to the United States, some turned to Zionism. In 1882, members of Bilu and Hovevei Zion made what came to be known the First Aliyah to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . The Tsarist government sporadically encouraged Jewish emigration. In 1890, it approved the establishment of "The Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine " (known as
2703-525: A large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest population of Jews in the world . Within these territories, the primarily Ashkenazi Jewish communities of many different areas flourished and developed many of modern Judaism 's most distinctive theological and cultural traditions, while also facing periods of antisemitic discriminatory policies and persecution , including violent pogroms . Many analysts have noted
2862-404: A lot of money on their own personal consumption." Lebedev has also described them as "a bunch of uncultured ignoramuses", saying "They don't read books. They don't have time. They don't go to [art] exhibitions. They think the only way to impress anyone is to buy a yacht." On 30 January 2018, the U.S. Treasury published a "list of oligarchs" as part of a document known as the " Putin list " which
3021-669: A low Jewish population, countries just to its west had rapidly growing Jewish populations, as waves of anti-Jewish pogroms and expulsions from the countries of Western Europe marked the last centuries of the Middle Ages , a sizable portion of the Jewish populations there moved to the more tolerant countries of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East. Expelled en masse from England, France, Spain and most other Western European countries at various times, and persecuted in Germany in
3180-407: A mathematician and former researcher, became the first well-known Russian business oligarch . Oligarchs became increasingly influential in Russian politics during Boris Yeltsin 's presidency (1991–1999); they helped finance his re-election in 1996 . Well-connected oligarchs like Roman Abramovich , Michail Khodorkovsky , Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Potanin acquired key assets at a fraction of
3339-553: A mediator to broker a settlement. Charges were dropped and Wagner ceased its march on Moscow. As part of the agreement, Prigozhin moved to Belarus and Wagner troops were slated to return to Ukraine, but those plans were cancelled in the wake of Wagner's refusal to sign military contracts. Despite his charges being dropped, Prigozhin remained under investigation for treason. The BBC tracked Prigozhin's private jet flying from Belarus to Russia in late June. The jet made several flights between Saint Petersburg and Moscow, but whether Prigozhin
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#17330848015913498-466: A metamorphosis, beginning to position himself as a "truth teller", ready to speak the unpleasant truth and to criticize the Russian leadership in the harshest terms. In addition to his rhetoric against the Ministry of Defense, Prigozhin also had a conflict with the leadership of the Chechen Republic , and personally with its Head , Ramzan Kadyrov . By June 2023, Prigozhin was aiming for the image of
3657-460: A note: "this list includes businessmen of Russian citizenship who acquired the major share of their wealth privately, while not holding a governmental position". In 2005, the number of billionaires dropped to 30, mostly because of the Yukos case, with Khodorkovsky dropping from No. 1 (US$ 15.2 billion) to No. 21 (US$ 2.0 billion). A 2013 report by Credit Suisse found that 35% of the wealth of Russia
3816-608: A period "when co-existence of regulated and quasi-market prices created huge opportunities for arbitrage ." The majority of oligarchs were promoted (at least initially) by the Soviet apparatchiks , with strong connections to Soviet power-structures and access to the funds of the Communist Party. Boris Berezovsky himself was Head of the Department of System Design at another Academy of Sciences research centre. His private company
3975-528: A radical populist movement. The general principles of such a movement: a rigid division of society into "good people" and "bad elite", a demand (and promise) to save the nation, and authoritarian methods of implementing these slogans. Prigozhin has been described as being member of the " war party " within Russia's leadership, a group of hardliners in support of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , but critical of what they see as ineffective or incompetent prosecution of
4134-666: A second restaurant, New Island, a floating restaurant that became one of the most fashionable dining spots in the city. Inspired by waterfront restaurants on the Seine in Paris, Prigozhin and Ziminov created the restaurant by spending US$ 400,000 to remodel a rusting boat on the Vyatka River . He said his patrons "wanted to see something new in their lives and were tired of just eating cutlets with vodka". Before Prigozhin decided to focus on upscale dining, one of his dining establishments initially featured
4293-620: A separate quarter in Kiev, known as the Jewish Town (Old East Slav: Жидове, Zhidovye , i.e. "The Jews"), the gates probably leading to which were known as the Jewish Gates (Old East Slavic: Жидовская ворота, Zhidovskaya vorota ). The Kievan community was oriented towards Byzantium (the Romaniotes ), Babylonia and Palestine in the 10th and 11th centuries, but appears to have been increasingly open to
4452-800: A significant role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supported Russian interests in Syria and in Africa . In November 2022, Prigozhin acknowledged his companies' interference in United States elections. In February 2023, he confirmed that he was the founder and long-time manager of the Internet Research Agency , a Russian company running online propaganda and disinformation campaigns . Prigozhin's companies and associates, and formerly Prigozhin himself, are subject to economic sanctions and criminal charges in
4611-513: A special treatment under the law. The 'decree of August 26, 1827' made Jews liable for military service, and allowed their conscription between the ages of twelve and twenty-five. Each year, the Jewish community had to supply four recruits per thousand of the population. However, in practice, Jewish children were often conscripted as young as eight or nine years old. At the age of twelve, they would be placed for their six-year military education in cantonist schools. They were then required to serve in
4770-517: A speech "On Anti-Jewish Pogroms" on a gramophone disc. Lenin sought to explain the phenomenon of antisemitism in Marxist terms. According to Lenin, antisemitism was an "attempt to divert the hatred of the workers and peasants from the exploiters toward the Jews". Linking antisemitism to class struggle, he argued that it was merely a political technique used by the tsar to exploit religious fanaticism, popularize
4929-409: A striptease show. Prigozhin was reportedly known to punish poor performance or misconduct of employees of his catering businesses with physical violence. In 2001, Prigozhin personally served food to Vladimir Putin and French president Jacques Chirac when they dined at New Island. He hosted US president George W. Bush in 2002. In 2003, Putin celebrated his birthday at New Island. Over the course of
Yevgeny Prigozhin - Misplaced Pages Continue
5088-518: A surge in his popularity among the Russian populace, particularly among nationalists. In a May survey conducted by the Levada Center , respondents were asked to identify the politicians they trusted the most, and for the first time, Prigozhin emerged as one of the top ten names on the list, marking a notable shift in his public perception from non-political to a political figure. The Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde described Prigozhin's "program" as
5247-639: A system based on universal values but rather the will to introduce a system of private ownership, which, in the absence of law, opened the way for the criminal pursuit of money and power". The 1998 Russian financial crisis hit most oligarchs hard and those whose holdings were based mainly in banking lost much of their fortunes. The most influential oligarchs from the Yeltsin era include Roman Abramovich , Boris Berezovsky , Vladimir Gusinsky , Mikhail Khodorkovsky , Vladimir Potanin , Alexander Smolensky and Vladimir Vinogradov . They formed what became known as
5406-557: A system of crony capitalism with a system of state capitalism whereby the new oligarchs benefited from financing by state-owned banks and access to public procurement projects. An economic study distinguished 21 oligarchic groups as of 2003. Between 2000 and 2004, Putin apparently engaged in a power struggle with some oligarchs, reaching a "grand bargain" with them. This bargain allowed the oligarchs to maintain their powers, in exchange for their explicit support of – and alignment with – Putin's government. However, other analysts argue that
5565-632: A time when a Russian soldier is dying at the front. I'm just asking – give me ammunition!". In May 2023, Prigozhin spoke out again about the Shoigu family: "Shoigu's son-in-law walks around shaking his buttocks, meaning his buttocks, and his daughter opens the Kronstadt forts. Did you earn money for these forts?! You spend your money on these forts? Spend it on fucking ammunition. And when the Minister of Defense shakes his little daughter and shakes some motherfucker who's
5724-483: A video depicting its mercenaries using a sledgehammer to execute Yevgeny Nuzhin , a deserter who had reportedly been returned to the Russians in a prisoner exchange. Prigozhin commented, "It seems to me that this film should be called: 'a dog dies a dog's death'" and "It was an excellent directional piece of work, watched in one breath. I hope no animals were harmed during filming." On 4 May 2023, Prigozhin cautioned against
5883-542: Is the country to do if suddenly it turns out that grandpa is a complete asshole?". According to Meduza , the Kremlin negatively reacted to Prigozhin's words about "grandpa". "Of course, he can then say that this is about Shoigu or about an abstract layman, but people draw understandable conclusions". Since the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war, " Grandpa in his bunker " has become an insulting nickname for Vladimir Putin , implying incompetence and irrationality. On 9 May, Prigozhin accused
6042-481: Is walking around like a beggar, from the world by a thread, asking unit commanders to help in some way". Prigozhin then published a photo with the bodies of dead Wagner fighters, saying that, lack of ammunition meant that his squads were suffering heavy losses. He said: "We're just going to die twice as much until everyone runs out. And when all the Wagnerites run out, then most likely Shoigu and Gerasimov will have to take
6201-514: The Semibankirschina (or "seven-banker outfit", compare Seven Boyars ), a group of businessmen with a great influence on Boris Yeltsin and his political environment. Together they controlled from 50% to 70% of all Russian finances between 1996 and 2000. Historian Edward L. Keenan has compared these oligarchs to the system of powerful boyars that emerged in late-medieval Muscovy . The Guardian reported in 2008 that " 'oligarchs' from
6360-524: The Ashkenazim from the 12th century on. Few products of Kievan Jewish intellectual activity exist, however. Other communities, or groups of individuals, are known from Chernigov and, probably, Volodymyr-Volynskyi . At that time, Jews were probably found also in northeastern Russia, in the domains of Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky (1169–1174), although it is uncertain to which degree they would have been living there permanently. Although northeastern Russia had
6519-507: The Battles of Rzhev and received a medal "For Courage" . Prigozhin sponsored the 2020 war film Rzhev [ ru ] , based on a 1991 novel by Vyacheslav Kondratyev [ ru ] that mentions his grandfather. His father and stepfather are believed to be of Jewish descent . Prigozhin's great-uncle was Soviet scientist Yefim Ilyich Prigozhin [ ru ] . He settled with Yefim for several years during his childhood in
Yevgeny Prigozhin - Misplaced Pages Continue
6678-630: The Donbas War , and later played a significant role in Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. It has also supported regimes friendly with Putin's Russia in the Middle East and in Africa . Prigozhin repeatedly denied links to the Wagner Group, but during the 2022 Russian invasion he travelled to Ukraine to oversee the group's progress and was pictured at the frontline wearing military fatigues alongside Russian Duma member Vitaly Milonov . In September 2022 he said that he had founded Wagner in 2014 to "protect
6837-963: The Kaunas province. Among the other Jewish deputies were Maxim Vinaver , chairman of the League for the Attainment of Equal Rights for the Jewish People in Russia ( Folksgrupe ) and cofounder of the Constitutional Democratic Party ( Kadets ), Dr. Nissan Katzenelson ( Courland province, Zionist, Kadet ), Dr. Moisei Yakovlevich Ostrogorsky ( Grodno province), attorney Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum ( Minsk province, Zionist, Kadet ), Mikhail Isaakovich Sheftel ( Ekaterinoslav province, Kadet ), Dr. Grigory Bruk , Dr. Benyamin Yakubson , Zakhar Frenkel , Solomon Frenkel , Meilakh Chervonenkis . There
6996-553: The Kremlin . Once a convict in the Soviet Union , Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies whose operations, according to a 2020 investigation, were "tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU ". In 2014, Prigozhin reportedly founded the Wagner Group to support Russian separatist forces in Ukraine . Funded by the Russian state, it played
7155-515: The Leningrad Chemical and Pharmaceutical Institute to get a pharmaceutical degree, but failed to complete his studies. Prigozhin would later flaunt his prison past to convince prisoners to join the Wagner Group . After his release from prison in 1990, Prigozhin began selling hot dogs alongside his mother and stepfather at the Apraksin Dvor open-air market in Leningrad. Soon, according to
7314-556: The Sabbath was banned in 1929, foreshadowing the dissolution of the Communist Party's Yiddish-language Yevsektsia in 1930 and worse repression to come. Numerous Jews were victimized in Stalin's purges as "counterrevolutionaries" and "reactionary nationalists", although in the 1930s the Jews were underrepresented in the Gulag population. The share of Jews in the Soviet ruling elite declined during
7473-572: The Soviet Air Forces ) and Grigori Shtern (Commander-in-Chief in the war against Japan and Commander at the front in the Winter War ). During World War Two, an estimated 500,000 soldiers in the Red Army were Jewish; about 200,000 were killed in battle. About 160,000 were decorated, and more than a hundred achieved the rank of Red Army general. Over 150 were designated Heroes of the Soviet Union ,
7632-693: The information field . In February 2023, the tensions began to escalate between Prigozhin and Russia's military establishment. This came against the background of the Russian winter offensive, with Russia's only success accomplished by Wagner forces at the cost of heavy losses. In February 2023, Prigozhin began to complain about the "shell hunger" of Wagner during the battle for Bakhmut. On 22 February, in another audio message, Prigozhin said, "The Wagner PMC kind of does not exist. We used to be given ammunition formally for some military units, which like to take Bakhmut instead of us". According to Prigozhin, "the Wagner PMC
7791-653: The " Odessa Committee " headed by Leon Pinsker) dedicated to practical aspects in establishing agricultural Jewish settlements in Palestine. In total, there were at least twelve Jewish deputies in the First Duma (1906–1907), falling to three or four in the Second Duma (February 1907 to June 1907), two in the Third Duma (1907–1912) and again three in the fourth, elected in 1912. Converts to Christianity like Mikhail Herzenstein and Ossip Pergament were still considered as Jews by
7950-512: The "people's hero of the Special Military Operation ". In May 2023, according to Russian opinion polls, the sociological service Russian Field noted that Prigozhin "is fighting not only on the external front, but also on the internal front, actively earning recognition and a rating. And he converts the former into the latter very well". According to Russian sociologists and political scientists, Prigozhin increased his visibility "through
8109-690: The 14th century, many Western European Jews migrated to Poland upon the invitation of Polish ruler Casimir III the Great to settle in Polish-controlled areas of Eastern Europe as a third estate , although restricted to commercial, middleman services in an agricultural society for the Polish king and nobility between 1330 and 1370, during the reign of Casimir the Great. After settling in Poland (later Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ) and Hungary (later Austria-Hungary ),
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#17330848015918268-437: The 1861 abolition of serfdom in Russia . Under his rule Jewish people could not hire Christian servants, could not own land, and were restricted in travel. Alexander III was a staunch reactionary and an antisemite (influenced by Pobedonostsev ) who strictly adhered to the old doctrine of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality . His escalation of anti-Jewish policies sought to ignite "popular antisemitism", which portrayed
8427-603: The 1930s, but was still more than double their proportion in the general Soviet population. According to Israeli historian Benjamin Pinkus, "We can say that the Jews in the Soviet Union took over the privileged position, previously held by the Germans in tsarist Russia ". In the 1930s, many Jews held high rank in the Red Army High Command: Generals Iona Yakir , Yan Gamarnik , Yakov Smushkevich (Commander of
8586-490: The 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union . The failing Soviet state left the ownership of state assets contested, which allowed for informal deals with former USSR officials (mostly in Russia and Ukraine ) as a means to acquire state property. The Russian oligarchs emerged as business entrepreneurs under Mikhail Gorbachev ( General Secretary , 1985–1991) during his period of market liberalization. Boris Berezovsky ,
8745-403: The 2000s, Prigozhin grew closer to Vladimir Putin. By 2003, he left his business partners and established his own independent restaurants. Notably, one of Prigozhin's companies, Concord Catering , began winning numerous government contracts. He received hundreds of millions in government contracts for feeding school children and government workers. In 2012, he received a contract to supply meals to
8904-535: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the initial stages, the Russian Ground Forces suffered significant casualties, but the announcement of mobilization for reservists was delayed by Putin. As a result, authorities actively sought to enlist mercenaries for the invasion, which led to a heightened influence and power for Prigozhin and the Wagner Group. Prigozhin was allocated substantial resources, including his own aviation assets. Additionally, starting in
9063-481: The 4th century showing that there were Armenian cities possessing Jewish populations ranging from 10,000 to 30,000 along with substantial Jewish settlements in the Crimea . The presence of Jewish people in the territories corresponding to modern Belarus, Ukraine, and the European part of Russia can be traced back to the 7th–14th centuries CE. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Jewish population may have been restricted to
9222-691: The Bolsheviks ( See proletarian internationalism , bourgeois nationalism ) was incompatible with Jewish traditionalism. Bolsheviks such as Trotsky echoed sentiments dismissing Jewish heritage in place of "internationalism". Soon after seizing power, the Bolsheviks established the Yevsektsiya , the Jewish section of the Communist party in order to destroy the rival Bund and Zionist parties, suppress Judaism and replace traditional Jewish culture with "proletarian culture". In March 1919, Vladimir Lenin delivered
9381-448: The Communist Party labeled the use of the Hebrew language "reactionary" and "elitist" and the teaching of Hebrew was banned. Zionists were persecuted harshly, with Jewish communists leading the attacks. Following the civil war, however, the new Bolshevik government's policies produced a flourishing of secular Jewish culture in Belarus and western Ukraine in the 1920s. The Soviet government outlawed all expressions of antisemitism, with
9540-549: The Constitutional Democratic Party, were assassinated by the Black Hundreds antisemite terrorist group. "The Russkoye Znamya declares openly that 'Real Russians' assassinated Herzenstein and Iollos with knowledge of officials, and expresses regret that only two Jews perished in crusade against revolutionaries. The Second Duma included seven Jewish deputies: Shakho Abramson , Iosif Gessen , Vladimir Matveevich Gessen , Lazar Rabinovich , Yakov Shapiro (all of them Kadets) and Avigdor Mandelberg ( Siberia Social Democrat), plus
9699-480: The Councils of Elders ( Qahal , Kehilla ), constituted in every town or hamlet possessing a Jewish population. These councils had jurisdiction over Jews in matters of internal litigation, as well as fiscal transactions relating to the collection and payment of taxes ( poll tax , land tax , etc.). Later, this right of collecting taxes was much abused, and the councils lost civil authority in 1844. Under Alexander I and Nicholas I , decrees were put forth requiring
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#17330848015919858-430: The General Staff in 2012. Prigozhin was chosen to run the company and he was tasked with operational and logistical aspect due to his pre-existing service relationship with the Defense Ministry (in 2012, he received a contract to supply meals to the Russian military worth US$ 1.2 billion over one year) and close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Three different sources claim that initially Prigozhin objected to such
10017-414: The Imperial Russian army for 25 years after the completion of their studies, often never seeing their families again. Strict quotas were imposed on all communities and the qahals were given the unpleasant task of implementing conscription within the Jewish communities. Since the merchant- guild members, agricultural colonists, factory mechanics, clergy, and all Jews with secondary education were exempt, and
10176-505: The Jewish population in Kiev , in present-day Ukraine , was restricted to a separate quarter. Evidence of the presence of Jewish people in Muscovite Russia is first documented in the chronicles of 1471. During the reign of Catherine II in the 18th century, Jewish people were restricted to the Pale of Settlement (1791–1917) within Russia, the territory where they could live or to which they could immigrate. The three partitions of Poland brought much additional territory to Russia, along with
10335-416: The Jewish population was a majority or plurality in many communities. It was possible to evade these restrictions upon secondary education by combining private tuition with examination as an "outside student". Accordingly, within the Pale such outside pupils were almost entirely young Jews. The restrictions placed on education, traditionally highly valued in Jewish communities, resulted in ambition to excel over
10494-460: The Jews as " Christ-killers " and the oppressors of the Slavic, Christian victims. A large-scale wave of anti-Jewish pogroms swept Ukraine in 1881, after Jews were scapegoated for the assassination of Alexander II. In the 1881 outbreak, there were pogroms in 166 Ukrainian towns, thousands of Jewish homes were destroyed, many families reduced to extremes of poverty; large numbers of men, women, and children were injured and some killed. Disorders in
10653-413: The Jews have crucified our Master and have shed his precious blood." In 1892, new measures banned Jewish participation in local elections despite their large numbers in many towns of the Pale. The Town Regulations prohibited Jews from the right to elect or be elected to town Dumas . Only a small number of Jews were allowed to be members of a town Duma, through appointment by special committees. During
10812-452: The Jews regarded the Red Army as the only force which was able and willing to defend them. The Russian Civil War pogroms shocked world Jewry and rallied many Jews to the Red Army and the Soviet regime, strengthening the desire for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people. In August 1919 the Soviet government arrested many rabbis, seized Jewish properties, including synagogues, and dissolved many Jewish communities. The Jewish section of
10971-400: The Jews were 1.8 percent of the Soviet population but 12–15 percent of all university students. In 1934 the Soviet state established the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Russian Far East. This region never came to have a majority Jewish population. The JAO is Russia's only autonomous oblast and, outside of Israel, the world's only Jewish territory with an official status. The observance of
11130-410: The Jews who were long settled in those lands. Alexander III of Russia escalated anti-Jewish policies. Beginning in the 1880s, waves of anti-Jewish pogroms swept across different regions of the empire for several decades. More than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920, mostly to the United States and Palestine . The Pale of Settlement took away many of the rights that the Jewish people of
11289-413: The KGB. Examples are the director of the institute where Putin obtained a degree in 1996, Vladimir Litvinenko , and Putin's childhood friend and judo -teacher Arkady Rotenberg . Gennady Timchenko was close friends with Russian leader Vladimir Putin since the early 1980s. In 1991, Putin gave Timchenko an oil export license. These oligarchs worked in close cooperaton with the government, displacing
11448-404: The Ministry of Defense was more focused on internal power struggles and "intrigues" than actually fighting. The Ukrainians themselves later supported this account, with their 3rd Separate Assault Brigade stating on Telegram that the 72nd Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade had "escaped" from the city and the remaining troops had suffered very high casualties. Within a few months, Prigozhin underwent
11607-399: The Ministry, portraying the rebellion as a response to the alleged strike on his men. In a video released on 23 June 2023, Prigozhin claimed that the government's justifications for invading Ukraine were based on falsehoods, and that the invasion was designed to further the interests of the Ministry of Defence and Russian oligarchs . He accused the Ministry of Defence of attempting to deceive
11766-552: The Pale and could not migrate elsewhere in Russia without special permission. Within the Pale, the Jewish residents were permitted to vote in municipal elections, but their vote was limited to one third of the total number of voters, even though their proportion in many areas was much higher, even a majority. This served to provide an aura of democracy, while institutionalizing local inter-ethnic conflict. Jewish communities in Russia were governed internally by local administrative bodies, called
11925-463: The Pale of Settlement amounted to 42,338,367—of these, 4,805,354 (11.5%) were Jews. About 450,000 Jewish soldiers served in the Russian Army during World War I , and fought side by side with their Slavic fellows. When hundreds of thousands of refugees from Poland and Lithuania, among them innumerable Jews, fled in terror before enemy invasion , the Pale of Settlement de facto ceased to exist. Most of
12084-687: The Russian Constitutional Democrat Party , Russian Social Democratic Party ( Mensheviks ) and Socialist-Revolutionary Party . The Russian Anarchist movement also included many prominent Jewish revolutionaries. In Ukraine, Makhnovist anarchist leaders also included several Jews. In August 1919 Jewish properties, including synagogues, were seized and many Jewish communities were dissolved. New laws against all expressions of religion and religious education were imposed upon Jews and other religious groups. Many Rabbis and other religious officials were forced to resign from their posts under
12243-571: The Russian Defense Ministry for corruption and mishandling the war against Ukraine. Eventually, he said the reasons they gave for invading were lies . On 23 June 2023, he launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. Wagner forces captured Rostov-on-Don and advanced toward Moscow. The rebellion was called off the following day, and the criminal charges against Prigozhin were dropped after he agreed to relocate his forces to Belarus . On 23 August 2023, exactly two months after
12402-458: The Russian Empire was hostile to Catholicism and Polish nationalism. The cultural and habitual isolation of the Jews gradually began eroding. An ever-increasing number of Jewish people adopted Russian customs and the Russian language. Russian education was spread among the Jewish population. A number of Jewish-Russian periodicals appeared. Alexander II was known as the "Tsar liberator" for
12561-636: The Russian State, for example Peter Shafirov , vice-chancellor under Peter the Great . Shafirov came, as most Russian Jews after the fall of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, from a Jewish family of Polish origin. He had extraordinary knowledge of foreign languages and served as the chief translator in the Russian Foreign Office, subsequently he began to accompany Tsar Peter on his international travels. Following this, he
12720-719: The Russian army. Prigozhin complained that "the children of the elites smother themselves with creams and show this on Instagram, YouTube and so on, while ordinary people's kids return home torn apart in zinc-lined coffins". Prigozhin intensified his rhetoric against the Ministry of Defence in April. In May 2023, he said: "We have been put on an artificial shortage of ammunition that is in storage. We were receiving no more than 30% of our needs. So our losses were much higher than they should have been, but we were getting ahead. A month ago they stopped giving us ammunition, and we're getting no more than 10%". On 5 May 2023, Prigozhin announced that, due to
12879-451: The Russian city of Rostov-on-Don , and began an advance on Moscow. During the scuffle, Wagner shot down an Ilyushin Il-22M airborne command post plane and several military helicopters. A few moments later, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the nation, denouncing Wagner's actions as "treason" and vowing to take "harsh steps" to suppress the rebellion. He stated the situation threatened
13038-464: The Russian government and the invasion of Ukraine. On March 21, 2022, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project launched Russian Asset Tracker to showcase the profiles and assets of several Russian oligarchs. Several dozen business people with family connections to top politicians include President Putin’s younger daughter Katerina Tikhonova , who through her investment fund has been
13197-455: The Russian government as an adviser to the prime minister and a deputy minister of fuel and power while still running his business. Vladimir Vinogradov was the chief economist of Promstroybank , one of the six banks existing in the Soviet Union, previously serving as the secretary of Atommash plant Komsomol organisation. Economist Yegor Gaidar worked in a Soviet Academy of Sciences think tank modelled after RAND . Gaidar later became
13356-533: The Russian military worth US$ 1.2 billion over one year. Some of the profits from this contract are alleged to have been used to start and fund the Internet Research Agency . On 11 December 2018, a company claimed to be unaffiliated with Concord Catering called Msk LLC (Russian: ООО "Мск" ) was paid 2.5 million rubles for an annual "Heroes of the Fatherland Day" banquet held at the Kremlin. However, Msk LLC shares
13515-457: The Russians" when "the genocide of the Russian population of Donbas began". He explained that he played a personal role from the start, claiming that he "found specialists who could help" after "[cleaning] the old weapons and [sorting out] the bulletproof vests" himself. Prigozhin also confirmed allegations, previously denied by the Russian government, that the group had been involved in other countries aligned with Russian overseas interests, saying
13674-456: The Tsarist regime was attractive to many members of the Jewish intelligentsia because of the oppression of non-Russian nations and non- Orthodox Christians within the Russian Empire . For much the same reason, many non-Russians, notably Latvians or Poles , were disproportionately represented in the party leaderships. In 1897 General Jewish Labour Bund (The Bund), was formed. Many Jews joined
13833-459: The Ukrainian city of Zhovti Vody , where he worked in an open-pit uranium mine . His stepfather, Samuil Fridmanovich Zharkoi, was a ski instructor and introduced Prigozhin to cross-country skiing . Aspiring to be a professional skier, he graduated from Leningrad Sports Boarding School No. 62 [ ru ] in 1977. However, he abandoned his sports career after an injury. He later worked as
13992-615: The United States and the United Kingdom. In October 2020, the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against Prigozhin for his financing of the Wagner Group's activities in Libya . In April 2022, the EU imposed further sanctions on him for his role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The FBI offered a reward of up to $ 250,000 for information leading to Prigozhin's arrest. Prigozhin openly criticized
14151-595: The Wagner mercenaries who "defended the Syrian people, other people of Arab countries, destitute Africans and Latin Americans, have become the pillars of our motherland". The Wagner Group was founded to support Russian interests in Africa and other parts of the world, allowing the Russian government to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad. The plan was pushed forward by Valery Gerasimov , who took over as Chief of
14310-461: The addition of Japan, took unprecedented steps to sanction Putin and the oligarchs directly. In response to the sanctions , the targeted oligarchs started to hide wealth in an attempt to prevent the Western nations from freezing their assets. These sanctions intend to directly impact the Russian ruling class as a response for their perceived contribution and acquiescence to the war with Ukraine. Although
14469-584: The antisemitism that was endemic to tsarist Russia. During the World War, Jews were often accused of sympathizing with Germany and often persecuted. Pogroms were unleashed throughout the Russian Civil War, perpetrated by virtually every competing faction, from Polish and Ukrainian nationalists to the Red and White Armies. 31,071 civilian Jews were killed during documented pogroms throughout the former Russian Empire ;
14628-595: The arbitrariness of the qahal to the Russian government. In some cases, communal elders had the most threatening informers murdered (such as the Ushitsa case , 1836). The zoning rule was suspended during the Crimean War , when conscription became annual. During this period the qahals leaders would employ informers and kidnappers (Russian: " ловчики ", lovchiki , Yiddish : khappers ), as many potential conscripts preferred to run away rather than voluntarily submit. In
14787-471: The case of unfulfilled quotas, younger Jewish boys of eight and even younger were frequently taken. The official Russian policy was to encourage the conversion of Jewish cantonists to the state religion of Orthodox Christianity and Jewish boys were coerced to baptism . As kosher food was unavailable, they were faced with the necessity of abandoning of Jewish dietary laws . Polish Catholic boys were subject to similar pressure to convert and assimilate as
14946-445: The despotic, unpopular regime, and divert popular anger toward a scapegoat. The Soviet Union also officially maintained this Marxist-Leninist interpretation under Joseph Stalin , who expounded Lenin's critique of antisemitism. However, this did not prevent the widely publicized repressions of Jewish intellectuals during 1948–1953 when Stalin increasingly associated Jews with "cosmopolitanism" and pro-Americanism . Jews were prominent in
15105-563: The economics editor of the Kommunist journal, the official theoretical organ of the CC of the CPSU . He also held various positions, including Prime Minister in the Russian government during 1991–1992. Together with Anatoly Chubais , the two "Young Reformers" were chiefly responsible for privatization in the early 1990s. According to David Satter , "what drove the process was not the determination to create
15264-485: The education restrictions on the Jews were removed with the appointment of count Pavel Ignatiev as Minister of Education. Even though the persecutions provided the impetus for mass emigration, there were other relevant factors that can account for the Jews' migration. After the first years of large emigration from Russia, positive feedback from the emigrants in the U.S. encouraged further emigration. Indeed, more than two million Jews fled Russia between 1880 and 1920. While
15423-609: The era of former president Boris Yeltsin have been purged by the Kremlin". With the ascent of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin the influence of the Yeltsin oligarchs dissipated, as some were imprisoned, such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky (pictured here) and Mikhael Mirilashvili , while others emigrated, sold off their assets or died under suspicious circumstances, such as Vladimir Vinogradov and Boris Berezovsky . A number of Yeltsin oligarchs first came under fire for alleged tax evasion . Vladimir Gusinsky of MediaMost and Boris Berezovsky both avoided legal proceedings by leaving Russia, and
15582-405: The existence of Russia itself. Furthermore, Putin made an appeal to the Wagner forces who "by deceit or threats" had been "dragged" into participating in the rebellion. In response, Prigozhin said that Russia's president is "mistaken", and Wagner fighters are "patriots, not traitors, we have been fighting for our country and continue to fight". Prigozhin said the situation on the Ukrainian frontline
15741-498: The first time publicly that he was banned from recruiting mercenaries among inmates , although information about this appeared as early as February 2023. According to the head of Wagner, the Russian military command took such a step "to compensate for their failures, because of envy". According to Prigozhin, the Russian military department also stopped issuing awards to dead fighters of his PMCs, and did not allow Wagner to use special communications and transport aircraft. Prigozhin accused
15900-433: The first time, as Putin had been chairman of the supervisory board for casinos and gambling since 1991. In 1995, Prigozhin entered the restaurant business. When revenues of his other businesses began to fall, Prigozhin persuaded a director at Contrast, Kirill Ziminov, to open a restaurant with him. They opened Prigozhin's first restaurant: Old Customs House (Russian: Старая Таможня ) in Saint Petersburg. In 1997, they founded
16059-704: The flow of foreign capital into the United Kingdom, for example through the foreign investor visa routes , introduced during John Major 's premiership in 1994, one-fifth of whose recipients since 2008 are Russian citizens. A significant number of Russian oligarchs have bought homes in upmarket sections of London in the United Kingdom, which has been dubbed "Moscow on Thames" or "Londongrad". Some, such as Eugene Shvidler , Alexander Knaster , Konstantin Kagalovsky , David Wilkowske and Abram Reznikov, are expatriates , having taken permanent residency in London. Roman Abramovich bought 16 Kensington Palace Gardens in London,
16218-518: The frontline while wearing military fatigues. Wagner began to be perceived as Prigozhin's private army, operating beyond the boundaries of Russian legislation and the country's military hierarchy. Dissatisfaction arose within the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the General Staff , leading to heavy squabbles between Wagner leadership and Russian high command . On 1 October 2022, during Ukraine's Kharkiv counteroffensive , which expelled Russia from most of
16377-420: The gambling business. Spektor and Igor Gorbenko brought Prigozhin on as CEO of Spectrum CJSC (Russian: ЗАО «Спектр»), which founded the first casinos in Saint Petersburg. This trio went on to create many other businesses together throughout the 1990s across various industries, including construction, marketing research, and foreign trade. Novaya Gazeta notes that this may be when Prigozhin met Vladimir Putin for
16536-495: The globe". In 2022, many Russian oligarchs and their close family members were targeted and sanctioned by countries around the world as a rebuke of Russia's war in Ukraine . During Mikhail Gorbachev 's perestroika ( c. 1985 –1991), many businessmen in Russia imported goods such as personal computers and jeans into the country and sold them for a hefty profit. Once Boris Yeltsin became President of Russia in July 1991,
16695-590: The head of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov of allegedly ordering him to give 10% of the required number of shells. Prigozhin said: "If there is no ammunition, then we will leave the position and ask the question – who is cheating on the motherland after all?". In a video published shortly before the start of the Victory Parade in Moscow , he berated the Russian military command and added: "The happy grandpa thinks he's happy. But what
16854-610: The highest award in the country. More than two million Soviet Jews are believed to have died during the Holocaust in warfare and in Nazi-occupied territories. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, many Soviet Jews took the opportunity of liberalized emigration policies, with more than half of the population leaving, most for Israel and the West: Germany, the United States, Canada and Australia. For many years during this period, Russia had
17013-461: The independent Russian news outlet Meduza indicated that this development would undermine Prigozhin's hold over Wagner and jeopardize the group's profitable operations in Africa. Prigozhin unsuccessfully attempted to circumvent the order for Wagner's subordination while intensifying his criticism of the Ministry of Defence. On 23 June 2023, Prigozhin claimed that regular Russian armed forces had launched missile strikes against Wagner forces, killing
17172-452: The intervention saved Waterstones, which managed to make its first annual profit since 2008 in 2016. He remarked that continued Russian ownership would've been "catastrophic" for the chain in 2022. History of the Jews in Russia The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted
17331-591: The late 17th century Russia had enjoyed. At this time, the Jewish people were restricted to an area of what is current day Belarus, Lithuania, eastern Poland and Ukraine. Where Western Europe was experiencing emancipation at this time, in Russia the laws for the Jewish people were getting more strict. They were allowed to move further east, towards a less crowded region, though it was only a minority of Jews who took to this migration option. The sporadic and often impoverished communities formed were known as Shtetls . Before 1917 there were 300,000 Zionists in Russia, while
17490-484: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian Empire had not only the largest Jewish population in the world, but actually a majority of the world's Jews living within its borders. In 1897, according to Russian census of 1897 , the total Jewish population of Russia was 5,189,401 persons of both sexes (4.13% of total population). Of this total, 93.9% lived in the 25 provinces of the Pale of Settlement . The total population of
17649-486: The leading Bolsheviks were Ethnic Jews , and Bolshevism supports a policy of promoting international proletarian revolution—most notably in the case of Leon Trotsky —many enemies of Bolshevism, as well as contemporary antisemites, draw a picture of Communism as a political slur at Jews and accuse Jews of pursuing Bolshevism to benefit Jewish interests, reflected in the terms Jewish Bolshevism or Judeo-Bolshevism . The original atheistic and internationalistic ideology of
17808-582: The machine guns". Prigozhin's media companies launched the #DayShellsToWagners media campaign, which was active that spring. Family members of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu became an object of mockery by Yevgeny Prigozhin. On 20 February 2023, in his address to the Ministry of Defense, Prigozhin said, "I am not poking you in the nose with the fact that you sit down to breakfast, lunch and dinner from gold dishes, and send your daughters, granddaughters and dogs on vacation in Dubai . Not embarrassed by anything. At
17967-905: The main Jewish socialist organization, the Bund , had 33,000 members. Only 958 Jews had joined the Bolshevik Party before 1917; thousands joined after the Revolution. The chaotic years of World War I , the February and October Revolutions , and the Russian Civil War had created social disruption that led to antisemitism. Some 150,000 Jews were killed in the pogroms of 1918–1922, 125,000 of them in Ukraine, 25,000 in Belarus. The pogroms were mostly perpetrated by anti-communist forces; sometimes, Red Army units engaged in pogroms as well. Anton Denikin 's White Army
18126-417: The mob. The systematic policy of discrimination banned Jewish people from rural areas and towns of fewer than ten thousand people, even within the Pale, assuring the slow death of many shtetls . In 1887, the quotas placed on the number of Jews allowed into secondary and higher education were tightened down to 10% within the Pale, 5% outside the Pale, except Moscow and Saint Petersburg, held at 3%, even though
18285-526: The most prominent, Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos oil , was arrested in October 2003 and sentenced to 9 years. This was subsequently extended to 14 years, and after Putin pardoned him, he was released on 20 December 2013. A second wave of oligarchs emerged in the 2000s, friends and former colleagues of President Putin either from his years in the St Petersburg municipal administration or his Dresden tenure in
18444-463: The number of Jewish orphans exceeded 300,000. A majority of pogroms in Ukraine during 1918–1920 were perpetrated by the Ukrainian nationalists, miscellaneous bands and anti-Communist forces. Continuing the policy of the Bolsheviks before the Revolution, Lenin and the Bolshevik Party strongly condemned the pogroms, including official denunciations in 1918 by the Council of People's Commissars. Opposition to
18603-527: The oligarchic structure has remained intact under Putin, with Putin devoting much of his time to mediating power-disputes between rival oligarchs. The ten most-prominent oligarchs of the early Putin era included Roman Abramovich , Oleg Deripaska , Mikhail Prokhorov , Alisher Usmanov , Viktor Vekselberg , Leonid Mikhelson , Arkady Rotenberg , Gennady Timchenko , Andrey Guryev and Vitaly Malkin . In 2004, five years after Putin's ascend to power, Forbes listed 36 billionaires of Russian citizenship, with
18762-407: The oligarchs emerged as well-connected entrepreneurs who started from nearly nothing and became rich through participation in the market via connections to the corrupt, but elected, government of Russia during the state's transition to a market-based economy . The so-called voucher privatization program of 1992–1994 enabled a handful of young men to become billionaires, specifically by arbitraging
18921-587: The oligarchs' wealth relates closely to the meltdown in Russia's stock market, as by 2008 the RTS Index had lost 71% of its value due to the capital flight after the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008. Billionaires in Russia were particularly hard-hit by lenders seeking repayment on balloon loans to shore up their own balance sheets. Many oligarchs took out generous loans from Russian banks, bought shares, and then took out more loans from western banks against
19080-568: The peers and increased emigration rates. Special quotas restricted Jews from entering profession of law, limiting number of Jews admitted to the bar. In 1886, an Edict of Expulsion was enforced on the historic Jewish population of Kiev . Most Jews were expelled from Moscow in 1891 (except few deemed useful ) and a newly built synagogue was closed by the city's authorities headed by the Tsar's brother. Tsar Alexander III refused to curtail repressive practices and reportedly noted: "But we must never forget that
19239-469: The plane. Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was born an only child on 1 June 1961 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg , Russia). His mother, Violetta Kirovna Prigozhina, was a hospital nurse . His father, Viktor Yevgenyevich Prigozhin, was a mining engineer who died when Yevgeny was nine. His grandfather, Yevgeny Ilyich Prigozhin, was a captain in the Red Army during World War II , who fought in
19398-567: The population expanded into the lightly populated areas of Ukraine and Lithuania , which were to become part of the expanding Russian Empire. In 1495, Alexander the Jagiellonian expelled Jewish residents from Grand Duchy of Lithuania , but reversed his decision in 1503. In the shtetls populated almost entirely by Jews, or in the middle-sized town where Jews constituted a significant part of population, Jewish communities traditionally ruled themselves according to halakha , and were limited by
19557-503: The presidential administration on the afternoon of 24 June 2023, including reaching out to Putin himself, who refused to speak with him. Final negotiations were reportedly conducted by Anton Vaino , the chief of staff, Nikolai Patrushev , the secretary of the Security Council, and Boris Gryzlov , the Russian ambassador to Belarus. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko reportedly spoke with Prigozhin upon Putin's request, acting as
19716-740: The privileges granted them by local rulers. (See also Shtadlan ). These Jews were not assimilated into the larger eastern European societies, and identified as an ethnic group with a unique set of religious beliefs and practices, as well as an ethnically unique economic role. Documentary evidence as to the presence of Jews in Muscovite Russia is first found in the chronicles of 1471. The relatively small population of them were subject to discriminatory laws, but these laws do not appear to have been enforced at all times. Jews residing in Russian and Ukrainian towns suffered numerous religious persecutions. Converted Jews occasionally rose to important positions in
19875-672: The public (and antisemitic) opinion and are most of the time included in these figures. At the 1906 elections, the Jewish Labour Bund had made an electoral agreement with the Lithuanian Labourers' Party ( Trudoviks ), which resulted in the election to the Duma of two (non-Bundist) candidates in the Lithuanian provinces: Dr. Shmaryahu Levin for the Vilnius province and Leon Bramson for
20034-438: The public and President Vladimir Putin by portraying Ukraine as an aggressive and hostile adversary which, in collaboration with NATO, was plotting an attack on Russian interests. Specifically, he denied that any Ukrainian escalation took place prior to 24 February 2022, which was one of the central points of Russian justification for the war. Prigozhin alleged that Shoigu and the "oligarchic clan" had personal motives for initiating
20193-401: The public use of the ethnic slur жид ("Yid") being punished by up to one year of imprisonment, and tried to modernize the Jewish community by establishing 1,100 Yiddish-language schools, 40 Yiddish-language daily newspapers and by settling Jews on farms in Ukraine and Crimea; the number of Jews working in the industry had more than doubled between 1926 and 1931. At the beginning of the 1930s,
20352-487: The ranks of two principal revolutionary parties: Socialist-Revolutionary Party and Russian Social Democratic Labour Party —both Bolshevik and Menshevik factions. A notable number of Bolshevik party members were ethnically Jewish, especially in the leadership of the party, and the percentage of Jewish party members among the rival Mensheviks was even higher. Both the founders and leaders of Menshevik faction, Julius Martov and Pavel Axelrod , were Jewish. Because some of
20511-510: The rebellion, Prigozhin was killed along with nine other people when a business jet crashed in Tver Oblast , north of Moscow. The Wall Street Journal cited sources within the US government as saying that the crash was likely caused by a bomb on board or "some other form of sabotage". Since then, researchers and other analysts have reached the conclusion that an on-board bomb or explosive likely downed
20670-589: The recipient of numerous large contracts from state-owned energy companies. Her former husband Kirill Shamalov runs the largest Russian petrochemicals company Sibur as well as his own investment fund. The son-in-law of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov runs an investment fund with assets exceeding $ 6 billion. Andrey Ryumin, the son-in-law of Viktor Medvedchuk , President Putin’s former closest ally in Ukraine, runs another investment fund with large agricultural holdings which have become recipients of state subsidies for import substitution (Rouhandeh 2022). Petr Fradkov ,
20829-503: The region, Prigozhin said about the commanders of the Russian army that "All these bastards ought to be sent to the front barefoot with just a submachine gun". He called members of the Putin-controlled Russian parliament "useless" and said that the "deputies should go to the front", adding that "Those people who have been talking from tribunes for years need to start doing something". The Washington Post reported that Prigozhin
20988-477: The regular Russian army forces of "[running] away" from their positions, while his own Wagner forces were allegedly forbidden from retreating. According to him, any Wagner "withdrawal from the positions would be considered high treason." He also accused the Ministry of Defense of only giving his troops 10% of what was promised, causing high Wagner casualties, and threatened that if he did not receive ammunition, his forces would withdraw from their positions. He said that
21147-687: The same contact phone number with Concord. On 11 December 2019, the company received another 4.1 million rubles for another banquet. In 2012, he moved his family into a Saint Petersburg compound with a basketball court and a helicopter pad. By this point he owned a private jet and a 115-foot (35 m) yacht. Prigozhin was later linked to several aircraft, including two Cessna 182s as well as Embraer Legacy 600 , British Aerospace 125 , and Hawker 800XP jets. The Anti-Corruption Foundation accused Prigozhin of corrupt business practices. In 2017, they estimated his illegal wealth to be worth more than one billion rubles. Alexei Navalny alleged that Prigozhin
21306-442: The sanctions miss some of the richest oligarchs, the impact on the war is unknown due to Putin's power over those that were sanctioned. Since the invasion began, nine of the Russian oligarchs' yachts have turned their navigation transponders off as they sail to ports where they are less likely to be searched and seized. On March 2, 2022, the United States announced a special task force dubbed " Task Force KleptoCapture ". This team
21465-620: The son of a former Prime Minister and head of the Russian foreign intelligence service, Sergei Sergeevich Ivanov, the son of the former head of the presidential administration Sergei Ivanov , and Andrey Patrushev, the son of the current head of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev have all joined the ranks of the oligarchs. The list of oligarchs and business executives who have risen to prominence and who have been sanctioned after Russia's invasion of Ukraine includes: The British Government policy encouraged
21624-627: The south once again recalled the government attention to the Jewish question. A conference was convened at the Ministry of Interior and on May 15, 1882, so-called Temporary Regulations were introduced that stayed in effect for more than thirty years and came to be known as the May Laws . The repressive legislation was repeatedly revised. Many historians noted the concurrence of these state-enforced antisemitic policies with waves of pogroms that continued until 1884, with at least tacit government knowledge and in some cases policemen were seen inciting or joining
21783-459: The street during a robbery, with him and accomplices then stealing the woman's earrings and boots. In 1981, he was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment in a high-security penal colony for robbery, theft, fraud, and involving minors in criminal activity. According to Prigozhin, he violated the terms of his solitary confinement "on a regular basis" until he was sent to general population in 1985, where he started to "read intensively" and worked as
21942-434: The summer of 2022, he gained the authority to recruit inmates from Russian prisons into the Wagner Group in exchange for their freedom. Western intelligence estimated that the number of Wagner mercenaries increased from "several thousand" fighters around 2017–2018 to approximately 50,000 fighters by December 2022, with the majority comprising criminal convicts recruited from prisons. On 13 November 2022, Wagner Group released
22101-461: The third (1795) Partitions of Poland . Under the Commonwealth's legal system, Jews endured economic restrictions euphemised as " disabilities ", which also continued following the Russian occupation. Catherine established the Pale of Settlement , which included Congress Poland , Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Bessarabia , and Crimea (the latter was later excluded). Jews were required to live within
22260-563: The threat of violent persecution. This type of persecution continued into the 1920s. In 1921, a large number of Jews opted for Poland, as the Peace of Riga entitled them to choose the country they preferred. Several hundred thousand joined the already numerous Jewish population of Poland . The chaotic years of World War I, the February and October Revolutions, and the Civil War were fertile ground for
22419-571: The use of nuclear weapons in response to the 2023 Kremlin drone attack , saying that "We look like clowns threatening to use nuclear weapons in response to a child's drone". Although the government provided the Wagner Group with increasingly large resources, Wagner had no legal authority. Prigozhin held no official position and was neither appointed nor elected, meaning that he technically had no authority to answer to. Furthermore, Prigozhin gained international recognition and abandoned his previously secluded personal life. He frequently reported news from
22578-523: The value at the loans for shares scheme auctions conducted in the run-up to the election. Defenders of the out-of-favor oligarchs argue that the companies they acquired were not highly valued at the time because they still ran on Soviet principles, with non-existent stock control , huge payrolls, no financial reporting and scant regard for profit. Since 2014, hundreds of Russian oligarchs and their companies have been hit with US sanctions for their support of "the Russian government's malign activity around
22737-507: The value of these shares. One of the first to get hit by the global downturn was Oleg Deripaska , Russia's richest man at the time, who had a net worth of US$ 28 billion in March 2008. As Deripaska borrowed money from western banks using shares in his companies as collateral, the collapse in share price forced him to sell holdings to satisfy the margin calls . After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , Canada, US, and European leaders with
22896-635: The vast difference between old domestic prices for Russian commodities (such as natural gas and oil) and the prices prevailing on the world market. These oligarchs became unpopular with the Russian public and are often blamed for the turmoil that plagued the Russian Federation following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Economists Sergei Guriev and Andrei Rachinsky contrast older oligarchs with nomenklatura ties and younger-generation entrepreneurs such as Kakha Bendukidze who built their wealth from scratch because Gorbachev's reforms affected
23055-410: The war by the Russian government. In mid-June 2023, the Ministry of Defence ordered Wagner to sign contracts with the military before 1 July. This move would've effectively integrated Wagner as a subordinate unit within the regular command structure, thereby diminishing the influence of Prigozhin. However, Prigozhin declined to sign the agreement, alleging incompetence on the part of Shoigu. Reports from
23214-568: The war. Furthermore, he asserted that the Russian military command intentionally concealed the true number of soldiers killed in Ukraine , with casualties reaching up to 1,000 on certain days. During the early morning of 24 June, Wagner forces crossed into Russia's Rostov Oblast from Luhansk, encountering no apparent opposition. In response, criminal charges were filed against Prigozhin by the Federal Security Service (FSB) for inciting an armed rebellion . PMC Wagner proceeded to capture
23373-674: The wealthy bribed their way out of having their children conscripted, fewer potential conscripts were available; the adopted policy deeply sharpened internal Jewish social tensions. Seeking to protect the socio-economic and religious integrity of Jewish society, the qahals did their best to include “non-useful Jews” in the draft lists so that the heads of tax-paying middle-class families were predominantly exempt from conscription, whereas single Jews, as well as "heretics" ( Haskalah influenced individuals), paupers, outcasts, and orphaned children were drafted. They used their power to suppress protests and intimidate potential informers who sought to expose
23532-546: Was a bastion of antisemitism, using "Strike at the Jews and save Russia!" as its motto. The Bolshevik Red Army , although individual soldiers committed antisemitic abuses, had a policy of opposing antisemitism, and as a result, it won the support of much of the Jewish population. After a short period of confusion, the Soviets started executing guilty individuals and even disbanding the army units whose men had attacked Jews. Although pogroms were still perpetrated after this, in general
23691-612: Was also a Crimean Karaim deputy, Salomon Krym . Three of the Jewish deputies, Bramson, Chervonenkis and Yakubson, joined the Labour faction; nine others joined the Kadet fraction. According to Rufus Learsi, five of them were Zionists, including Dr. Shmaryahu Levin , Dr. Victor Jacobson and Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum . Two of them, Grigori Borisovich Iollos ( Poltava province) and Mikhail Herzenstein (b. 1859, d. 1906 in Terijoki ), both from
23850-517: Was compiled under the requirement of the CAATSA Act. According to the document itself, its criterion for inclusion was simply being a Russian national with a net worth of over $ 1 billion. The list was criticised for being indiscriminate, and including critics of Putin. According to the financial news-agency Bloomberg L.P. , Russia's wealthiest 25 individuals have collectively lost US$ 230 billion (£146 billion) since July 2008. The fall in
24009-663: Was established by the Institute as a joint venture . Mikhail Khodorkovsky started his business importing computers under auspices of the Komsomol -authorised Center for Scientific and Technical Creativity of the Youth in 1986, briefly serving as a deputy secretary of the Komsomol for a district in Moscow in 1987. His move into banking two years later was funded with the support of Komsomol alumni working in Moscow city government. Later, he served in
24168-410: Was fluency in Russian, and they often had no education in, or knowledge of Jewish law. The beginning of the 19th century was marked by intensive movement of Jews to Novorossiya , where towns, villages and agricultural colonies rapidly sprang up. In 19th century, legally the Jews were a subcategory of the inorodtsy category, special ethnicity-based category of non-Slavic population that received
24327-499: Was linked to a company called Moskovsky Shkolnik (Moscow Schoolboy) that had supplied poor-quality food to Moscow schools, which had caused a 2019 dysentery outbreak. Prigozhin was declared the 2022 Corrupt Person of the Year by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project . The Wagner Group is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) formed in 2014. It initially supported Russian separatist forces in Ukraine during
24486-453: Was not affected. He also stated that his main goal was to remove Shoigu and Gerasimov from office and reiterated his accusations of corruption against the Ministry of Defence. Despite declaring that the justifications used to launch war against Ukraine were based on falsehoods, Prigozhin still continued to support the war efforts, although calling for waging war more effectively. Prigozhin allegedly made personal efforts to establish contact with
24645-425: Was on board was unknown. On 6 July, Lukashenko stated: "As for Prigozhin, he's in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus." In July 2023, Prigozhin told his fighters to prepare for "a new journey to Africa". Russian oligarchs Russian oligarchs (Russian: олигархи , romanized : oligarkhi ) are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in
24804-585: Was one of the few people who dared to tell Putin about the "mistakes" of Russian military commanders in the war in Ukraine. One of the former Wagner fighters, in an interview with the BBC said: "I think it's a conflict between the Defense Ministry and Prigozhin. And it is escalating." Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the conflict between Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defense exists only in
24963-400: Was owned by the wealthiest 110 individuals. Daniel Treisman proposed using a term "silovarch" ( silovik and oligarch) for a new class of Russian oligarchs with backgrounds in Russian military and intelligence. Billionaire and former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev has criticized these new oligarchs, saying "I think material wealth for them is a highly emotional and spiritual thing. They spend
25122-450: Was put together to specifically target oligarchs. It is made up of officials from the FBI , Marshals Service , IRS , Postal Inspection Service , Homeland Security Investigations and Secret Service . The main goal of the task force is to impose the sanctions set against these individuals to freeze and seize the assets that the US government claimed were proceeds of their illegal involvement with
25281-417: Was raised to the rank of vice-chancellor because of his many diplomatic talents and skills, but was later imprisoned, sentenced to death, and eventually banished. Their situation changed radically during the reign of Catherine II , when the Russian Empire acquired large Lithuanian and Polish territories which historically included a high proportion of Jewish residents, especially during the second (1793) and
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