The owner of PMC Wagner, "Putin's chef" Yevgeny Prigozhin sued the writer Viktor Shenderovich and "Echo of Moscow", blocked with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, in the total amount of 3.5 million rubles in a lawsuit for the protection of honor and dignity. This was reported by the press service of the Prigozhin company "Concord".
In December last year, Prigozhin sued Shenderovich – a satirist in the program "Special Opinion" on the air of "Echo" called "Putin's cook" a murderer and a criminal. The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg decided to recover 100 thousand rubles from Shenderovich, and 1 million rubles from Ekho Moskvy. "Putin's chef" decided that the compensation was not enough, appealed the decision and said that he went to the police with a request to open a criminal case. In January, the writer announced that he had left Russia – because of the conflict and being included in the media register as "foreign agents".
Today, the city court of St. Petersburg revised the amount of compensation. They demand 1.5 million rubles from the writer, and 2 million rubles from the liquidated radio station.
“The court found it impossible to remove and refute the disputed information in connection with the liquidation of the media themselves and their blocking by Roskomnadzor,” Concord reported.
The company said that Prigozhin would spend all the money on "the fight against Western propaganda."
Prigozhin was tried for theft, fraud and involvement of minors in criminal activities. Now, representing PMC Wagner, he personally travels to Russian colonies and recruits prisoners for the war with Ukraine. He tells the “Zeks” that “he himself served 10 years in the North” and promises a pardon in exchange for participation in hostilities.