SUCHO Meme Wall Prigozhin (Yevgeny)
Yevgeny Prigozhin is the leader of the Wagner paramilitary group, which supports Russian interests in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world through the deployment of private soldiers (link to his Wikipedia page below). Prigozhin began his career in politics as the personal chef of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Most memes about Prigozhin refer to his short-lived mutiny and march on Moscow in June 2023. During this time, Prigozhin claimed that leaders in the Ministry of Defence had attacked his Wagner soldiers, and he ordered them to leave the battlefields in Ukraine and march to Moscow, with his troops reaching 400 km from the capital. The rebellion ended when Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a peace between Prigozhin and Putin that included the provision that Prigozhin will be able to escape prosecution by living in Belarus. Many memes arose in the context of this rebellion, showing Prigozhin either as gutsy or stupid, and many memes reference his future in Belarus. Memes also often play up the confusion of two Russian celebrities with the last name Prigozhin: Yevgeny and Iosif, the music producer.On 23 August 2023, exactly two months after the mutiny, Prigozhin was presumed dead as his private plane crashed in Tver Oblast, north of Moscow, along with nine other people.