Putin’s Chef, the King of Dislikes: A Success Story

Everyone loves rags-to-riches stories. You know the kind, when a person of lowly station works really hard, withstanding the blows of fate

and overcoming all the hardships in order to finally achieve all his goals.

Such stories usually end with a helicopter descending on a yacht full of half-naked partying people.

I have such a story for you today.

There’s a guy from the lower classes, and ritzy houses, and a yacht, and even some naked people to boot.

But as you know, it’s a success story set in modern-day Russia, so there’re bound to be some national specifics.

It’s not quite like the Hollywood. And so, without further ado, allow me to present our protagonist.

His name is Evgeny Prigozhin.

Most likely, you haven’t even heard of him, but stay with me,

and we’ll prove that you encounter the fruit of his labors on an almost daily basis.

He is a real guy of the masses.

Back in 1979, he was even sentenced for theft, and two years later received another sentence,

this time for a graver offense. Altogether, he spent nine years behind bars.

Not the best way to start a success story, you say?

Well, just about then the Soviet Union had collapsed, replaced by capitalism,

and Prigozhin went into business.

He started off as a manager of grocery stores, and later opened a restaurant.

It was thanks to that very restaurant that our protagonist became one of Russia’s richest people.

In 2001, Prigozhin’s restaurant was visited by Vladimir Putin.

The owner personally served the rich guest.

Here is one of his interviews, where he boasts that Mr. Putin appreciated the fact

that Prigozhin had no qualms about bringing the plates personally.

At that dinner, Prigozhin made jokes and brilliantly provided the napkins for the guests’ laps,

and so Putin took note.

Prigozhin became quick friends with Putin’s driver,

then with his bodyguard, and then he became something of a “court jester,” as the Russian media called him.

Gradually, Prigozhin became the main organizer of Putin’s parties.

He would personally develop the menu and serve the guests.

In 2003, Prigozhin was given the task of organizing Putin’s birthday party.

From that moment on, nobody has called him anything other than “Putin’s cook.”

At first, Putin’s cook was given the contract to feed the whole St. Petersburg Economic Forum,

then — the guests at Medvedev’s presidential inauguration.

Then, he made a big breakthrough and became the exclusive catering vendor for all of Moscow schools

(his stint in St. Petersburg proved to be shorter).

Just keep in mind that if you live in Moscow and your child goes to school, our protagonist

takes a profit from every school lunch that your child eats there.

Just imagine the profit margins and profit volumes.

That’s when Prigozhin became a billionaire.

Now let’s see — who else could he feed in order to make an even greater profit than with schoolchildren?

That’s right, the military seems like a good match.

And, with a wave of a magic wand, our cook received an exclusive contract for supplying foodstuffs to the Russian army.

But even that wasn’t enough, and so Putin helped Prigozhin get a contract with Russia’s EMERCOM.

At this point, the cash is pouring in,

but the stream of revenues could always be greater, and so Putin’s cook becomes a utility provider.

He is given the contracts for utilities management of ALL of Russia’s garrison towns.

Trust me, that’s a lot of money. There are hundreds of them, maybe thousands, I know,

I’ve lived in one such place.

Fuel deliveries, boiler rooms, housing and public utilities, the clean-up of military grounds,

running repairs — it all costs a lot, and it’s all controlled by Prigozhin.

But then, even the maintenance of old garrison towns turned out to be an insufficient source of revenue,

and now there’s a lot of new military construction (especially on the border with Ukraine).

Guess who’s doing all that? Putin’s cook.

One could even say that he’s the most important man in the Russian army,

second only to the Minister of Defense.

Altogether, over the last five years, this man, whose only merits are his cooking and Putin’s trust,

has won a great number of state contracts worth 200 billion rubles ($3,1 bln).

An important detail to keep in mind is that by this time Prigozhin is not just Putin’s cook, but also Putin’s troll.

He is the owner of the famous bot factories of St. Petersburg — the ones in Olgino and at Savushkina Street.

Those thousands of pro-Putin comments spread all over the world’s and

Russia’s social media are written and published by Prigozhin’s factory.

When we publish this video, it will gather a lot of dislikes — if you see them, you’ll know who’s responsible.

So, he earns money on schoolchildren and soldiers and then spends it on pro-Putin comments.

With a good cut for himself, obviously.

Luba and George decided to present you with a short overview of Prigozhin family’s lifestyle and went on a trip to film his “ancestral home.”

But while they are on the way to Primorsky district of St. Petersburg,

let’s just look at the social media pages of Prigozhin’s family, which simply overflow with riches.

The social media pages of Prigozhin’s daughter Polina turned out to be a trove of information.

Here she is, with mom and dad.

Prigozhin’s t-shirt gives a clear idea of the man he counts as his main benefactor.

As of today, the social media pages of Polina Prigozhina have all been locked,

but the description of this video contains links to all the relevant screenshots.

Let’s think big — the Prigozhin family has its own jet, and all of its members regularly use it.

Here’s Polina’s shot of her brother, licking a sneaker sole on a dare.

Polina’s brother is a very open person in more ways than one, and we’ll see this later.

What usually comes with a private jet? That’s right, a yacht.

This one is called St.Vitamin. It’s 115 ft long and costs 5 mln euros.

Answering someone’s request for information on her social media page, Polina described it thusly:

6 bedrooms, a living room, a terrace, a dining room, a kitchen, personnel cabin, and two decks.

This is what the yacht’s interior looks like. And here’s a glamour shot of the exterior.

Here’s Polina on a yacht, here’s Prigozhin’s mom showing off in Sochi,

and here’s Polina brother Pavel — also showing off, sort of

That’s the one with the sneaker.

The next must-have of a rich man is, obviously, a car collection.

Prigozhin family has quite a few — Audi, Range Rover, BMW, Chevrolet

and even a rare vintage Cadillac owned by Evgeny Prigozhin himself.

But these are all tangibles, what about the good memories that everyone so cherishes?

Well, Polina’s wedding took place at the Konstantin Palace.

She took a special trip to Paris to get her wedding gown.

And she even brought to life the song that made Russia’s matriarch singer

Alla Pugacheva famous, decorating the palace’s ceiling with a million freshly cut flowers.

I could go on, showing you the pictures, but it’s time for a break,

since Luba and George have already made it to St. Petersburg and Prigozhin’s estate, and are now doing a fly-over.

So, let’s go and take a look at the modest abode of Putin’s cook and king of dislikes.

The land plot is 3.2 acres. And here’s the house. This, most likely, is a swimming pool with a glass roof,

and this is something like a greenhouse. This, if I understand it correctly, is the covered parking for the car collection.

Oh, I like this detail — a flagpole with the state flag.

Prigozhins can raise it and lower it as if they are at a school assembly. Here’s a fountain.

Now let’s fly over to the adjacent plot that belongs to Prigozhin’s daughter. Here’s her house with two additional structures.

We are flying to the other side in order to take a better look at the basketball court and the helicopter pad.

The land in this area is very expensive,

and we estimate that the houses of Prigozhin and his daughter cost over $9 mln.

But if you think that this is all, you are mistaken. Let us fly to Gelendzhik.

Here, Prigozhin has another huge estate, located right by the Black Sea,

on the lands of the forest reserve where all construction is forbidden.

But it’s forbidden to regular people, and our Putin’s cook is anything but regular.

The area of the land plot is over 9 acres.

Here we can see two groups of cottages. A house with a pool stands on a hill,

and offers a gorgeous view of the Black Sea — once again, the social media pages of Prigozhin’s children

give everyone an ample opportunity to take a look.

Just a little bit off is the pier for Prigozhin’s 5 million-euro yacht.

We have, obviously, shown you a very small part of Prigozhin’s wealth.

This is just the stuff that jumps out, and what the

regular NGO like Anti-Corruption Foundation has been able to find through open sources.

But this should be enough for you to understand how real success stories come about in Putin’s Russia.

This is almost always a story of plundering the budget and making a profit off people, such as schoolchildren or soldiers.

And, of course, it’s a story of conceited wealth shoved down the throats of Russia’s other citizens:

take a good look, you deadbeats, and envy us. You will never have our lifestyle.

Alas, as our little film shows once again, the true sources of wealth and success in modern-day Russia are not the brains

the education or the hard work — the only prerequisite are the trust-based relations with the President of the Russian Federation.

This is why the Russian billionaires are not the creators of something new,

like Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, but Putin’s cooks, summer cottage neighbors, childhood friends, and the such.

It will all be different in the wonderful Russia of tomorrow, when wealth will come to smart and hard-working people.

In order to make sure that this tomorrow comes as quickly as possible,

help us to share this video with as many people as possible.

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