Prigozhin, a Putin confidant, claims to be influencing US elections

Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of Russia’s paramilitary group Wagner Group, says it meddled in the US election. The US has accused the Russian businessman of meddling for years, but until now he has always denied it.

“We intervened, we intervene now and we will continue to intervene. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way,” Prigozhin wrote on Facebook on the Russian version of VKontakte. “During our precision surgery, we remove both the kidney and the liver at the same time.” He didn’t explain what that meant.

The news comes ahead of the ‘mid-term elections’ when Americans elect a new House of Representatives and are allowed to vote for some seats in the Senate.

The White House called Prigogine’s confession “not surprising.” “It is well known that organizations associated with Yevgeny Prigogine have attempted to influence elections around the world, including in the United States,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

In the summer, the US State Department offered a $10 million reward for information on Prigozhin for involvement in US election meddling. He is on the sanctions list of the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom.

More recently, Prigozhin became the boss of the embattled Wagner Group, also in Ukraine. A striking confession like Prigozhin has denied for years that he was the head of the Wagner Group, suing journalists who accused him of links to the paramilitary organization. The paramilitary organization benefits from anonymity because of gross human rights abuses.

Prigozhin is an ally of President Putin. For a long time he served food elsewhere in the Kremlin. Because of that role, he is also known as ‘Putin’s Chef’.

Russian experts close to the Kremlin tell Reuters they do not expect the midterms to turn in Russia’s favor. While some Republicans oppose continued military aid to Ukraine, Moscow expects aid packages to continue for some time.

“The old Congress is in place until January and a pretty serious package (of military aid to Ukraine) will be approved before it expires,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia’s Global Affairs magazine.

“Then there will be very difficult and long negotiations on aid. Maybe aid will be a little less. But the goal is to weaken Russia as much as possible by supporting Ukraine,” Lukyanov continued.

Prigozhin uses his assets in the interests of Russia and Putin. Among other things, he has funded the Internet Research Institute (IRA) from St. Petersburg, known as Goblin Factory. The organization has been polluting the internet with propaganda, fake news and misinformation since 2013.

Lately, Putin’s ‘cooking’ has become more public. He openly criticized the Russian military leadership for the poor results in Ukraine.

After the Ukrainian army’s successful counteroffensive in the Kharkov region a month ago, the businessman called on Russian commanders to take their medals. And, as for Prigozhin, they had to be sent to the front barefoot with guns.