Kuivashev responded to criticism from the founder of PMC Wagner

The governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, Evgenia Kuivashev, called the criticism of the region by the founder of PMC Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, absurd and advised him to “cook cutlets and cook macaroni.” He stated this in an interview with 66.ru.

According to Kuivashev, it is increasingly difficult for Prigozhin to “come up with something to find fault with.” “If every businessman who makes money on the school issue tries to run the country, we will not go far.” – said the governor.

Earlier, Prigozhin expressed his gratitude to several regions for helping the war in Ukraine, but also criticized others, in particular he mentioned the Sverdlovsk region. The founder of PMC Wagner said that some officials in the regions “considered themselves the owners of the territory” and this is the cause of corruption, bureaucracy and “lawlessness”. Prigozhin also mentioned St. Petersburg, which, according to him, “is not known on whose side it is fighting.”

Earlier, Prigozhin appealed to the mayor of Yekaterinburg, Alexei Orlov, with the demand to fire the director of the city’s History Museum, Igor Pushkarev. According to the founder of PMC Wagner, he cannot lead the museum because he opposes the war in Ukraine, actively criticized the current government and supported the opposition politician Alexei Navalny. According to Prigozhin, Pushkarev, “apparently at the behest of CIA curators,” paid special attention to Wagner’s PMC as a journalist for Znak.com.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has entered into public conflicts more than once, both with regional officials and with the Ministry of Defense of Russia. On February 20, his press service published a statement by a businessman in which he claimed that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov had forbidden the transfer of ammunition to PMC Wagner fighters. “There is a direct countermeasure, which is called no other than the demand to destroy the PMC,” Prigozhin said.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin is a businessman from St. Petersburg. The mass media call the ego “Putin’s cook.” Since 2011, the entrepreneur’s companies have been engaged in the supply of food to educational, medical and state institutions throughout Russia. Over ten years, business structures associated with “Putin’s cook” concluded state contracts worth hundreds of billions of rubles. Prigozhin is also associated with the organization of a group of pro-government bloggers in St. Petersburg – the so-called “troll factory” and is the founder of the Wagner PMC.