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Once a low-profile businessman who benefited from having President Vladimir Putin as a powerful patron, Yevgeny Prigozhin moved into the global spotlight with Russia’s war in Ukraine. As the leader of a mercenary force who depicts himself as fighting many of the Russian military’s toughest battles in Ukraine, the 62-year-old Prigozhin has now moved into his most dangerous role yet: preaching open rebellion against his country’s military leadership. Prigozhin, owner of the Kremlin-allied Wagner Group, has escalated what have been months of scathing criticism of Russia’s conduct of the war by calling Friday for an armed uprising to oust the defense minister. Russian security services reacted immediately, opening a criminal investigation and urging Prigozhin’s arrest. In a sign of how seriously the Kremlin took Prigozhin’s threat, riot police and the National Guard scrambled to tighten security at key facilities in Moscow, including government agencies and transport infrastructure, Tass reported. Prigozhin, a onetime felon, hot-dog vendor and longtime associate of Putin, urged Russians to join his “march to justice.” ‘PUTIN’S CHEF’ Prigozhin and Putin go way back, with both born in Leningrad, what is now known as St. Petersburg. During the final years of the Soviet Union, Prigozhin served time in prison — 10 years by his own admission — although he does not say what it was for. Afterward, he owned a hot dog stand and then fancy restaurants that drew interest from Putin. In his first term, the Russian leader took then-French President Jacques Chirac to dine at one of them. “Vladimir Putin saw how I built a business out of a kiosk, he saw that I don’t mind serving to the esteemed guests because they were my guests,” Prigozhin recalled in an interview published in 2011. His businesses expanded significantly to catering and providing school lunches. In 2010, Putin helped open Prigozhin’s factory that was built on generous loans by a state bank. In Moscow alone, his company Concord won millions of dollars in contracts to provide meals at public schools. He also organized catering for Kremlin events for several years — earning him the nickname “Putin’s chef” — and has provided catering and utility services to the Russian military. In 2017, opposition figure and corruption fighter Alexei Navalny accused Prigozhin’s companies of breaking antitrust laws by bidding for some $387 million in Defense Ministry contracts. MILITARY CONNECTION Prigozhin also owns the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-allied mercenary force that has come to play a central role in Putin’s projection of Russian influence in trouble spots around the world. The United States, European Union, United Nations and others say the mercenary force has involved itself in conflicts in countries across Africa in particular. Wagner fighters allegedly provide security for national leaders or warlords in exchange for lucrative payments, often including a share of gold or other natural resources. U.S. officials say Russia may also be using Wagner’s work in Africa to support its war in Ukraine. In Ukraine, Prigozhin’s mercenaries have become a major force in the war, fighting as counterparts to the Russian army in battles with Ukrainian forces. That includes Wagner fighters taking Bakhmut, the city where the bloodiest and longest battles have taken place. By last month, Wagner Group and Russian forces appeared to have largely won Bakhmut, a victory with strategically slight importance for Russia despite the cost in lives. The U.S. estimates that nearly half of the 20,000 Russian troops killed in Ukraine since December were Wagner fighters in Bakhmut. His soldiers-for-hire included inmates recruited from Russia’s prisons. RAGING AGAINST RUSSIA’S GENERALS As his forces fought and died en masse in Ukraine, Prigozhin raged against Russia’s military brass. In a video released by his team last month, Prigozhin stood next to rows bodies he said were those of Wagner fighters. He accused Russia’s regular military of incompetence and of starving his troops of the weapons and ammunition they needed to fight. “These are someone’s fathers and someone’s sons,” Prigozhin said then. “The scum that doesn’t give us ammunition will eat their guts in hell.” A ‘BAD ACTOR’ IN THE US Prigozhin earlier gained more limited attention in the U.S., when he and a dozen other Russian nationals and three Russian companies were charged in the U.S. with operating a covert social media campaign aimed at fomenting discord ahead of Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. They were indicted as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference. The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Prigozhin and associates repeatedly in connection with both his alleged election interference and his leadership of the Wagner Group. After the 2018 indictment, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Prigozhin as saying, in a clearly sarcastic remark: “Americans are very impressionable people; they see what they want to see. I treat them with great respect. I’m not at all upset that I’m on this list. If they want to see the devil, let them see him.” The Biden White House in that episode called him “a known bad actor,” and State Department spokesman Ned Price said Prigozhin’s “bold confession, if anything, appears to be just a manifestation of the impunity that crooks and cronies enjoy under President Putin and the Kremlin.” AVOIDING CHALLENGES TO PUTIN As Prigozhin grew more outspoken against the way Russia’s conventional military conducted fighting in Ukraine, he continued to play a seemingly indispensable role for the Russian offensive, and appeared to suffer no retaliation from Putin for his criticism of Putin’s generals. Media reports at times suggested Prigozhin’s influence on Putin was growing and he was after a prominent political post. But analysts warned against overestimating his influence with Putin. “He’s not one of Putin’s close figures or a confidant,” said Mark Galeotti of University College, London, who specializes in Russian security affairs, speaking on his podcast “In Moscow’s Shadows.” “Prigozhin does what the Kremlin wants and does very well for himself in the process. But that’s the thing — he is part of the staff rather than part of the family,” Galeotti said. Read More The Body in the Woods | An Independent TV Original Documentary The harrowing discovery at centre of The Independent’s new documentary Who is the head of the mercenary group calling for an armed rebellion in Russia? Who are Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner mercenary group Russia opens criminal case against Wagner chief over ‘call for armed mutiny’

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The Nobel Peace Prize has been to imprisoned activist Narges Mohammadi for fighting oppression of women in Iran and broader human rights and freedom for all. The Nobel committee's decision to award the prize to Mohammadi comes after more than a year of protests in Iran spearheaded by women. They were sparked in September 2022 after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old, died in the custody of Iran's morality police. The unrest rapidly spread across the country, with demands ranging from more freedoms to an overthrow of the state. “She fights for women against systematic discrimination and oppression,” the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said in announcing the prize in Oslo. Ms Reiss-Andersen said that Mohammadi supports the struggle for women to live "full and dignified lives". Hailing Mohammadi as a "freedom fighter", Ms Reiss-Andersen said, started her speech by saying, in Farsi, the words for "woman, life, freedom" - one of the slogans of the protests. Images of Iranian women defiantly setting their headscarves on fire and chanting the phrase spread around the world. Mohammadi was behind bars as the protests grew nationwide, sparking one of the most-intense challenges ever to Iran's theocracy since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. More than 500 people were killed in a heavy security crackdown while more than 22,000 others have been arrested. In piece for The New York Times from behind bars, Mohammadi wrote: "What the government may not understand is that the more of us they lock up, the stronger we become". Ms Reiss-Andersen said the peace prize award also recognised the hundreds of thousands of people who have demonstrated against Iranian discrimination and oppression of women. "This prize is first and foremost a recognition of the very important work of a whole movement in Iran, with its undisputed leader, Narges Mohammadi," she said. "Only by embracing equal rights for all can the world achieve the fraternity between nations that [prize founder] Alfred Nobel sought to promote," she said. Authorities arrested Mohammadi in November after she attended a memorial for a victim of 2019 protests that started over a rise in fuel prices but morphed into a broader show of dissent that was crushed by security forces in another bloody crackdown. Mohammadi is currently serving multiple sentences in Tehran's Evin Prison amounting to about 12 years imprisonment, according to the Front Line Defenders rights organisation. Charges against her – which the international community have decried – include spreading propaganda against the state. Mohammadi has a long history of imprisonment, harsh sentences and international calls for reviews of her case. "If the Iranian authorities make the right decision, they will release her so that she can be present to receive this honour, which is what we primarily hope for," Ms Reiss-Andersen said. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said he award highlights the courage of Mohammadi and women like her. "We've seen their courage and determination in the face of reprisals, intimidation, violence and detention," spokesperson Elizabeth Throssell said. "[Women] been harassed for what they do or don't wear. There are increasingly stringent legal, social and economic measures against them. This really is something that highlights the courage and determination of the women of Iran and how they are an inspiration to the world." Mohammedi is the 19th woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the second Iranian woman, after human rights activist Shirin Ebadi won the award in 2003. Before being jailed, Mohammadi was vice president of the banned Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. Ebadi founded the centre. Ebadi left Iran after the disputed re-election of then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 that touched off unprecedented protests and harsh crackdowns by authorities. In 2018, Mohammadi, an engineer, was awarded the 2018 Andrei Sakharov Prize. According to the will of Alfred Nobel, the prize should be awarded to the person "who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses". Previous winners of the prize – which can be awarded to individuals or organisations – include Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Aung San Suu Kyi and the United Nations. In recent years there has been a broad interpretation of that declaration in Nobel’s will. Last year’s prize was won by human rights activists from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, in what was seen as a strong rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of his invasion of Ukraine, which used Belarus as a staging post. Unlike the other Nobel prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, Nobel decreed that the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee. The independent panel is appointed by the Norwegian parliament. This year, the committee received 351 nominations — 259 for individuals and 92 for organisations. People who can make nominations include former Nobel Peace Prize winners, members of the committee, heads of states, members of parliaments and professors of political science, history and international law. The prizes are handed out at awards ceremonies in December in Oslo and Stockholm. They carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (about £820,000). Winners also receive an 18-carat gold medal and diploma. Read More Moment Nobel Peace Prize awarded to jailed Iranian campaigner Narges Mohammadi Russian missile attack kills 52 as Putin delivers rambling speech Ukraine says gains made in intense fighting in east despite Russia’s aerial dominance Russian missile attack kills 52 as Putin delivers rambling speech Ukraine says gains made in intense fighting in east despite Russia’s aerial dominance Putin says plane of Wagner chief Prigozhin blown up by hand grenades on board