The Rise and Fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin — All You Need to Know

Jakub Ferencik
7 min readAug 29, 2024

In the unpredictable world of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, few figures have risen and fallen as dramatically as the notorious Yevgeny Prigozhin. Known more recently as the leader of the notorious Wagner Group, Prigozhin’s journey from Putin’s chef to the man responsible for a march on Moscow is something we have all heard about by now.

Yet, I feel as if most of us have stopped talking about the significance of the coup.

Since I’ve written about Prigozhin extensively on this blog, I wanted to summarise my writing in the form of a timeline of events leading up to Prigozhin’s death.

From his audacious coup against the Kremlin in June 2023 to the mysterious circumstances surrounding his fatal plane crash just two months later, Prigozhin’s story is emblematic of the dangers of dissent in Putin’s Russia.

Once Putin perceives you as a threat, there’s no way out.

Let me explain.

“All armed prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed prophets have been destroyed.” — Niccolo Machiavelli

June 23–25, 2023: The Coup That Shook Russia

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Jakub Ferencik

Journalist in Prague | Author of “Up in the Air,” “Beyond Reason,” & "Surprised by Uncertainty" on AMAZON | MA McGill Uni | 750+ articles with 1+ mil. views