Wagner PMC - Headquarters - St. Petersburg
Yevgeny Prigozhin is primarily known as the creator of the Wagner PMC and the organizer of the military mutiny. But before that, he had been building business and influence in St. Petersburg for years: from restaurants and catering to a personal media empire and PMC Wagner Center.
Prigogine, his wife, son and two daughters own large objects in St. Petersburg: the land of the cottage village in Lakhta, hotels and business centers in the heart of the city, the shop of the Eliseev merchants. Despite the businessman's disgrace, the PMC Wagner Center operates in the old way, and recruitment into the ranks of mercenaries continues.
For the first time, Western sanctions against Yevgeny Prigozhin were imposed precisely because of his connection with the “troll factory” – this is how the Internet Research Agency, which appeared in 2013, is most often called, which is accused of interfering in the 2018 US elections, propaganda and disinformation. The headquarters of the "trolls" was originally located at 55 Savushkina Street, but then they moved to other business centers in St. Petersburg.
In September 2022, Prigozhin acknowledged the creation in 2014 of the Wagner PMC, a mercenary group that is actively participating in the war in Ukraine. The idea of a private military company, according to The Bell investigation , came from high-ranking officers of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is believed that at first the “Wagnerites” participated in the hostilities as part of the separatists in the Donbass, and then liquidated the well-known field commanders of the LPR and DPR, who “did not fit into the power vertical.” Also PMC "Wagner" fought in Syria and the Central African Republic.
After Prigozhin’s mercenaries stopped hiding, the PMC Wagner Center opened in St. Petersburg in November on Zolnaya Street in October 2022. PMC Wagner Center complex was near the Novocherkasskaya metro station. The business center had been built since 2013, it was originally called the "Sea Capital". The Rosstroyinvest company began construction, but then the construction was frozen, and work on the complex was continued by Retail JSC, which is associated with Prigozhin.
The huge business center was completed by companies associated with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Wagner's private military company (PMC). The owners of the building promise free rent to those who offer ideas to "improve the defense capability of the state." And in the business center, journalists, writers, bloggers and IT people are waiting with open arms.
Offices in a 23-story building were planned to be rented out free of charge to “patriotic” inventors, designers and IT specialists. In six months, the center has gained dozens of residents, including Z-bloggers, the Oktagon drone control school , the Cyberfront Z project for writing comments in support of the war in Ukraine , the St. Petersburg trade union of military personnel, the Wagnerenok youth club , and the "Volunteer". In the latter, military training workshops for orphans and "difficult teenagers" were previously taught by "coaches" who are closely associated with neo-Nazi groups.
On 24 June 2023 , searches were carried out at the PMC Wagner Center with the participation of OMON, the National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and investigators, and equipment was taken out of the premises by evening.
None of the residents has yet publicly announced the termination of cooperation with the center. The head of the Wagnerenok teenage club (renamed after the publications of Paper to Leader) Alexander Tronin told us that "everything is working as usual." According to Anna Zamaraeva, curator of media and bloggers at the center, none of the residents terminated their membership. “On the contrary, everyone rallied around us,” she replied to Paper. “Since Monday, we have been working as usual in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation,” said Anna Zamaraeva.
Now the office staff is planning to take an inventory and write an appeal to law enforcement agencies regarding the seized personal belongings, equipment, military campaign symbols and the PMC Wagner Center. Zamaraeva also noted that so far no one plans to break ties with Yevgeny Prigozhin and the structures belonging to him - the center believes that there is nothing illegal in this.
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