Do we like them?

Do we like Yevgeny Prigozhin?

Our score: 0 out of 10. He admitted in his own words to interfering in elections and ran a mercenary group that UN experts linked to alleged civilian executions, with no real good on the record.

Prigozhin was the Russian caterer nicknamed Putin's chef, a man who turned Kremlin catering contracts into a much bigger and darker career. By the time he made headlines worldwide, he was tied to the Wagner Group, the mercenary force that fought in Ukraine. Our sources only cover parts of his early life, so the backstory here is thin.

The US indicted him in 2018 as part of Robert Mueller's probe. An indictment alleged that Prigozhin and his companies funded the Internet Research Agency, the St Petersburg troll factory accused of trying to interfere with the US political system. He denied any link to it and shrugged it off, saying he was not at all upset to be on the list.

Then in November 2022, the eve of the US midterms, a post from his catering company's press service quoted him saying: “Gentlemen, we have interfered, are interfering and will interfere.” The White House said it told them nothing new. That is a man openly boasting about meddling in other people's democracy.

On the harm check, the war record is the heavy part. UN human rights experts said in January 2023 that Malian forces with personnel believed to be from Wagner had allegedly executed several hundred people in March 2022, and spoke of a “climate of terror and complete impunity” around Wagner's activities. Reporting on his prison tours to recruit fighters for Ukraine adds to the picture, and we found no sign of him stepping back from any of it.

Nothing new on him lately. Authorities said in August 2023 that he was aboard a plane that crashed north of Moscow, and the Kremlin has denied any role in what happened. We could not open enough sources to tell the whole story of that final stretch.

As for the good stuff, we honestly found nothing: no charity, no kind acts, no standing up for anyone at a cost to himself. That is the whole list. Fans of strongmen won't find a redemption arc here.