Yevgeny Prigozhin, President Putin’s ex-cook and head of the Russian private military company Wagner, has had a long association with death. His militias have distinguished themselves by cruel and barbaric acts in Africa. The violent diatribes he launched against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and army chief of staff Valery Gerasimov, against a backdrop of the piled-up bodies of his dead men in Ukraine, inflamed social media far beyond Russia. At the end of June, he tried to pull out all the stops by launching the "March for Justice" to demand the dismissal of Russia’s military high command. This act was seen as a personal affront by President Putin, who described it as treason.

As Putin himself has admitted, he does not forgive traitors. From then on, Prigozhin’s fate seemed to be sealed, and what was perplexing was the long reprieve granted to him. A few days after the abortive rebellion, Prigozhin had even been received along with other Wagner executives by Putin, who allegedly promised them a "new job."

On August 23, two months to the day after the aborted mutiny, death finally overtook the man who believed himself indispensable to the Putin system, to the point of becoming untouchable. He took with him a number of close friends, including his right-hand man Dmitry Utkin, whose pseudonym, Wagner, now commonly refers to the private militia. The circumstances of their disappearance will be talked about quite a bit in the days to come and will probably never be fully clarified. Prigozhin was hated by Ukrainians, the Russian military high command and some of the special services. But the Kremlin revenge theory seems to be the logical one.

A former convict and enforcer for the Russian state, Prigozhin knew the Russian criminal, economic and political worlds like the back of his hand, and they were inextricably linked to the point of merging. He knew the rules of the game, the red lines not to be crossed and the illusion of promises. The reasons for his reckless behavior are all the more incomprehensible. Over the last two months, he freely increased his private jet trips in Russia, Belarus and Africa, where the Wagner forces are still operating.

The consequences of his disappearance for the Russian political system and stability of the regime should be limited. Certainly, discontent among the hard core of the Wagner family cannot be ruled out. They have certainly anticipated the scenario of their boss’s sudden demise. Part of the army, sharing Prigozhin’s grievances against the military high command, might even sympathize with them. For ultranationalist circles, he was a national hero and the most effective military commander on the Ukrainian front. Over the past two months, however, the Kremlin has been busy dismantling Prigozhin’s empire. The Kremlin has been transferring his many military and civilian assets (including media and catering companies) to other players, both institutional (such as the National Guard for weapons systems) and private. The Kremlin has also been tracking down "dissidents" in nationalist circles and the army.

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