Prigozhin founded the Wagner Group, a Russian state-backed private military company that fought in Ukraine, Syria, and several African countries, in 2014.

Known as "Putin's chef" for his catering contracts with the Kremlin, he was indicted in the U.S. in 2018 for funding the Internet Research Agency's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

• In June 2023, he led an armed mutiny against Russia's military leadership, with Wagner forces seizing the city of Rostov-on-Don and advancing toward Moscow before standing down.

• He was killed two months later, on August 23, 2023, when his plane crashed north of Moscow.

• In 1981, he was sentenced to 12 years in a Soviet prison for crimes including robbery and fraud, and was released in 1990.