The day before the opening of polling stations in the United States, his close associate Vladimir Putin admitted that he tried to influence the previous elections in the United States, moreover, he said that he intends to do something similar in the future. This is a famous businessman Evgeny Prigozhinthe so-called “Putin’s chef”, because of his own catering company’s contract with the Kremlin.

“We have interfered, we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Neatly, with surgical precision and in his own way,” Prigogine wrote on the social network VKontakte, the Russian analogue of Facebook.

In 2018, following a vaunted FBI investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, U.S. authorities prosecuted Russian citizens, including Prigozhin, and his companies for allegedly trying to stir up discord and influence the 2016 election, which was won. on Donald Trump.

“We have interfered, we are interfering and we will interfere,” Yevgeny Prigozhin emphasized.

“Troll Factory”

According to the related conclusion, the key tool of the Russian campaign of disinformation and influence was the creation of “troll factories” on Russian soil, which then flooded American social networks. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice ended the prosecution of two of Prigozhin’s companies, finding that if convicted, they could not be punished and that the only consequence of the prosecution would be to expose secret tools and resources to U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Last July, the State Department announced that it was offering a $10 million reward for information about Prigozhin’s involvement in attempts to influence US elections. The Kremlin, like the businessman himself, has flatly denied accusations of Russian involvement. Prigozhin admitted last September that he founded and financed the Wagner Group in 2014, while also actively participating in the campaign to recruit prisoners of war for the needs of the Ukrainian war. The US, UK and EU have been sanctioned in recent months.