On its new website, the Wagner Group says that companies involved in strengthening the Russian defense sector will be able to rent office space in the building. “We break stereotypes. We know how to be the best,” he says. The rebrand appears to be designed to cement its financier Yevgeny Prigozhin’s position in the Kremlin elite. Mr Prigozhin, who was not at the opening of the new plot, is known as “Putin’s chef” and once served a prison sentence. He has clashed with Russia’s defense ministry and also with regional governors who he believes have snubbed him in the past. But Wagner is credited with beefing up the Russian military with thousands of mercenaries, often hardened by tours in Syria, Libya and Mali, where they have been accused of various war crimes. The opposition Russian news site Meduza.io reported that Putin considered Wagner a success in Ukraine after securing victories in the eastern Donbass region and that Prigozhin was now part of his “inner circle”. “He’s not just a kid tasked with unpleasant tasks. Prigozhin is considered an effective war administrator and its liberator [Ukrainian region] Luhansk,” a Kremlin source told the website. “The role of the Wagner Group has evolved significantly following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” the British Ministry of Defense added.
