In comments posted by the Concord catering company’s press service on Russia’s Facebook counterpart VKontakte, Prigozhin said: “We have interfered (in the US election), we are interfering and we will continue to interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way , as we know how to do”. The remark by a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin was published on the eve of the US midterm elections in response to a request for comment from a Russian news website. “During our operations, we will remove both the kidneys and the liver at once,” Prigozhin said. He did not elaborate on the cryptic comment. Prigozhin, who is often referred to as “Putin’s chef” because his catering company handles Kremlin contracts, has been formally accused of sponsoring Russia-based “troll farms” that seek to influence US policy. In July, the US State Department offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on Prigozhin in connection with “engagement in US election interference”. It has been hit by US, UK and European Union sanctions. Prigozhin, who served nine years in Soviet-era prison for robberies and other crimes before running the business during the 1990s, has long kept a low public profile. But this year he became more outspoken, including criticizing the performance of Russia’s generals in Ukraine. In October, after Ukraine’s successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, Prigozhin issued a statement calling for Russia’s military commanders to be stripped of their medals and “sent with assault weapons barefoot to the front.”
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In September, he admitted to founding the Kremlin-aligned mercenary Wagner Group, which operates in Syria, Africa and Ukraine. Prigozhin had previously sued journalists for reporting that he was associated with Wagner. Last Friday, Wagner opened a defense technology center in St. Petersburg, another step by Prigozhin to emphasize his military credentials. Moscow has made no secret of the fact that it would like to see the United States end its military support for Ukraine and pressure Kyiv into a peace deal with Russia that would involve territorial concessions. But while Russian state media have scorned President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for everything from their economic record to their Ukraine policy, foreign policy experts close to the Kremlin do not expect Tuesday’s midterm elections to tilt the odds in Russia’s favor. Although few Republicans oppose continued military aid to Ukraine, the view in Moscow is that aid will continue to flow regardless of whether Biden loses control of Congress. “The old Congress will sit until January and pass a pretty serious package (of military aid to Ukraine) before it’s over,” Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, told the rbc.ru online news portal. “Then there are likely to be more difficult and protracted negotiations (for aid). Perhaps such aid will be a little less frequent. But essentially the consensus view is that Russia should be weakened as much as possible by supporting Ukraine.” Commenting on efforts by Russian trolls and bots to influence the election, Sam Green, a professor of Russian politics at King’s College London, said he thought the aim was to try to shape the agenda on Ukraine that Republicans will pursue after the vote. “(The goal is) to get the (Republican) base clamoring for a reduction in US support for Ukraine,” Green tweeted. But he said he believed that was “a tall order” given the party’s lack of a solid position on the Ukraine war. “Half want to bash Biden for supporting Ukraine, the other half for not supporting Ukraine enough,” Green said. Reporting by Reuters Editing by Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
