Yevgeniy Prigozhin was a Russian leading businessperson with close ties to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defence. He reportedly died in a plane crash on 23 August 2023.
He publicly confirmed that he founded the Wagner Group, a Russia-based unincorporated military entity, responsible for the deployment of Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine. In 2022, a joint stock company called “PMC Wagner Center” was established and registered in Saint Petersburg, with the aim of “providing a comfortable environment for generating new ideas to improve Russia’s defence capability”. The Wagner Group, led by Yevgeniy Prigozhin, has played an important role in the fighting in and occupation of territories in Eastern Ukraine.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin’s son, Pavel Prigozhin, is the primary heir and beneficiary of his assets, possessions, and properties. Pavel Prigozhin is listed by the Union for his involvement in military operations against Ukraine. Therefore, it is appropriate to retain Yevgeniy Prigozhin on the list of natural or legal persons, entities or bodies subject to the asset freeze and the prohibition on making funds and economic resources available as there is a likelihood that the assets concerned would otherwise be used to finance Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine or other actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.
Yevgeniy Prigozhin was a leading businessperson operating in Russia. He was responsible for and actively implemented actions which have undermined and threatened the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. Moreover, he benefitted from Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine.
Concord, also known as KOMBINAT PITANIYA KONKORD OOO, a company which Prigozhin founded and owned until November 2019, and a group of other companies with ties to him, including Concord Management and Consulting LLC and Megaline LLC, have been benefitting from large public contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence following the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the occupation of Eastern Ukraine by Russia-backed separatists.