The Russia connection: 7 February Syria attackFinancier of Russian troll farm supporting Trump funds anti-U.S. paramilitaries in Syria
Yevgeniy Prigozhin is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and the financial backer of the St. Petersburg-based troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA). The IRA has been at the center of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign which was launched in 2014 to sow discord and deepen polarization and conflict in the United States (and other Western democracies) – and which, in 2016, changed focus to help Donald Trump win the Republican nomination and then the White House. According to U.S. intelligence, a Prigozhin-financed paramilitary group of Russian mercenaries attacked U.S. troops and their allies in Syria earlier this month. Prigozhin was in close touch with Putin and senior aides to Assad in the days and weeks before and after the assault.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the man nicknamed “Putin’s chef” who financed Russia’s 2016 U.S. election interference (according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment against 13 Russian individuals and three Russian companies), also bankrolled anti-U.S troops in Syria.
ABC News reports:
Prigozhin … is deeply involved in the Wagner Group, officials said, a paramilitary firm based in southern Russia. According to those officials, the firm deployed mercenaries in Syria who tried to strike U.S. special operations forces earlier this month. The attack failed, two intelligence officials told ABC News, as the mercenaries were decimated by U.S. airstrikes during their advance.
According to a senior U.S. official, Prigozhin finances the Wagner Group’s current operations in both Syria and Africa. Prigozhin has denied reports of his connections to the group.
“Every private military contractor needs a financial backer who has good relations with their government, and for this firm in Russia it is Prigozhin,” the senior official told ABC News.
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Prigozhin’s connection to the group is important, the senior official told ABC News, as his private military work offers more evidence that he is pursuing Vladimir Putin’s global ambitions while providing the Russian leader some deniability that the actions are officially sanctioned.
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One official monitoring the clash told ABC News that the group was extraordinarily well-armed for a unit allegedly lacking state sponsorship.
“They had tanks and towed artillery pieces,” the official said. “Kind of unusual for ‘contractors.’”
The Washington Post reports that U.S. intelligence reports tie Prigozhin to the attack on U.S. troops.
In intercepted communications in late January, the oligarch, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, told a senior Syrian official that he had “secured permission” from an unspecified Russian minister to move forward with a “fast and strong” initiative that would take place in early February.
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