You’ve heard of Evgeny Prigozhin’s catering empire, his private military company, his troll factory, and his close ties to the Defense Ministry, the Moscow school system, and Vladimir Putin, but have you heard about the team of political scientists he’s fielding in Africa ahead of upcoming local elections?
According to the newspaper Kommersant, Prigozhin is funding a political-spin-doctor initiative focused on Madagascar, South Africa, and Kenya. The man reportedly in charge of the “Africa project” is Yaroslav Ignatovsky, whom Prigozhin formerly paid to monitor the “sociopolitical situation” in Russia’s North-Western Federal District.