WEBVTT - Putin’s Terrifying “Chef” 0:00:15.264 --> 0:00:23.064 Pushkin. I'm Julia Daffy, and I wrote putin Chef, the 0:00:23.144 --> 0:00:26.464 man behind Russia's Shadow Army for Puck, and it's the 0:00:26.504 --> 0:00:30.584 story of the week. I used to have this basic rule. 0:00:31.024 --> 0:00:35.624 It works for dating, reporting, job interviews. A person's true 0:00:35.744 --> 0:00:38.944 character is revealed by how they treat their waiter. If 0:00:38.944 --> 0:00:41.384 someone's a jerk to their server, they're eventually going to 0:00:41.424 --> 0:00:44.544 do something bad to you. But three years ago I 0:00:44.664 --> 0:00:47.304 read a book that totally changed my mind. It's called 0:00:47.344 --> 0:00:50.344 How to Feed the Dictator, and this Polish journalist went 0:00:50.384 --> 0:00:55.384 around the world meeting former dictator chefs. Pol Pot, the 0:00:55.424 --> 0:00:59.824 Cambodian genocidist, was so sweet that Cook's called him Brother 0:00:59.944 --> 0:01:05.184 Mattress because he was soft spoken and calmed everyone down. Idiomine, 0:01:05.264 --> 0:01:08.784 who murdered half a million people, would thank Cook's five 0:01:08.824 --> 0:01:11.544 times and then give them envelopes full of extra cash 0:01:11.544 --> 0:01:15.344 when they made a good meal. Sodom Hussein bought his 0:01:15.504 --> 0:01:19.344 chefs a new car every year. Now, almost all these 0:01:19.424 --> 0:01:22.384 chefs were summoned to their jobs and obviously had to 0:01:22.424 --> 0:01:24.704 take it whether they wanted it or not. They were 0:01:24.944 --> 0:01:27.144 petrified of what their new lives would be like. In 0:01:27.184 --> 0:01:30.864 the palace, None of them sought this job out, but 0:01:31.104 --> 0:01:36.104 someone actually sought out providing food for Vladimir Putin. This 0:01:36.264 --> 0:01:40.744 guy's known as Putin's chef, and honestly he's way more 0:01:40.824 --> 0:01:50.144 insane and dangerous than you would assume. He is writing 0:01:50.224 --> 0:01:53.144 his hard who's got that kind of time when you're 0:01:53.184 --> 0:01:56.784 already busy trying to be John Stein until it turns 0:01:56.824 --> 0:02:00.464 on a mic made the twiddles enob because the journalist 0:02:00.584 --> 0:02:05.264 Rand's got in that Jule Jomeo sing will start me. 0:02:05.424 --> 0:02:24.024 Just listen to smart people speak conversation. There's probably no 0:02:24.104 --> 0:02:26.264 one in Russia who's worn as many hats as if 0:02:26.344 --> 0:02:30.224 Guinny Progosian. He's been called Putin chef because he runs 0:02:30.224 --> 0:02:33.744 a catering company that the Russian government contracts with. But 0:02:34.344 --> 0:02:37.584 he's a chef in the sense that Tony Soprano is 0:02:37.624 --> 0:02:41.864 a waste management consultant. It's far more accurate to say 0:02:41.904 --> 0:02:45.184 that Progosian is the head of a private mercenary company 0:02:45.384 --> 0:02:49.624 that's had soldiers all over the world, especially now in Ukraine. 0:02:50.064 --> 0:02:53.864 And this company is supported directly by Vladimir Putin himself. 0:02:54.664 --> 0:02:58.864 Julia Yaffi reported this story for her publication Puck Juliette, 0:02:58.904 --> 0:03:00.904 thank you for coming on. As you may know from 0:03:00.904 --> 0:03:03.624 my annoying emails over the years and tweets, I'm an 0:03:03.784 --> 0:03:06.144 enormous fan and read everything you write. So I'm really 0:03:06.184 --> 0:03:08.544 really excited. Thank you so much. And they are not 0:03:08.584 --> 0:03:12.024 at all in They're very flattering and funny. Don't encourage me. 0:03:13.704 --> 0:03:15.824 That's how you wind up having to be on the podcast. 0:03:15.824 --> 0:03:18.584 Don't do that. Yeah, you grew up for your first 0:03:18.584 --> 0:03:21.664 seven years in the Soviet Union? What drew you to 0:03:21.744 --> 0:03:26.224 this particular story? For me, it's just a really good 0:03:26.384 --> 0:03:30.864 story in the sense that it is just fucking nuts. 0:03:30.904 --> 0:03:34.544 This guy is fucking nuts. He's a movie villain. He 0:03:34.584 --> 0:03:40.144 gives children dysentery, he sledgehammers people in the head, and 0:03:41.064 --> 0:03:44.504 he's recruiting prisoners to take over another country. I mean, 0:03:44.624 --> 0:03:47.264 it's it's just a good story at its root. Now, 0:03:47.304 --> 0:03:49.984 how do you pronounce Progosian's name, because I'm afraid I'll 0:03:49.984 --> 0:03:52.344 get it wrong and he'll kill me just like that. 0:03:53.304 --> 0:03:56.624 He'll kill you anyway. Yeah, Progosian, he really will. You 0:03:56.704 --> 0:03:59.224 look at his face and it's like if you were 0:03:59.264 --> 0:04:01.904 casting a show and you were casting a hit man 0:04:01.904 --> 0:04:03.424 and he showed up, you'd be like this is too 0:04:03.464 --> 0:04:06.584 on the nose. Yeah, and you'd be like, hey, writer's room, 0:04:06.624 --> 0:04:08.824 can you just kind of turn it down a few 0:04:09.224 --> 0:04:13.264 ches to really overwriting this character. He looks like Mike 0:04:13.344 --> 0:04:16.664 from Breaking Bad. He's got those droopy eyes, and he's bald, 0:04:16.744 --> 0:04:20.744 and he curses constantly. Yeah, but I think to a 0:04:20.784 --> 0:04:26.664 lot of Russians he looks weirdly familiar, you know, this 0:04:26.904 --> 0:04:31.304 kind of post Soviet everyman. He's a real mujik. What 0:04:31.304 --> 0:04:34.544 does that mean? A mujik is an alpha male kind 0:04:34.544 --> 0:04:37.944 of man. He's very physically strong, but he has a 0:04:37.944 --> 0:04:40.784 big heart. He's very loyal, he sticks up for his 0:04:40.824 --> 0:04:44.024 own he doesn't back away from a good and just fight. 0:04:44.424 --> 0:04:48.944 So a mujik is a very important thing in Russian 0:04:48.984 --> 0:04:51.984 culture and also in Russian politics, and in many ways 0:04:52.064 --> 0:04:56.224 he's out alpha mailing Putin, but he's made a lot 0:04:56.224 --> 0:04:58.384 of money off the Russian state, and in that way 0:04:58.464 --> 0:05:01.944 he is not at all like a Russian everyman. And 0:05:01.984 --> 0:05:05.664 how rich is burgos In? He's very rich. Russian independent 0:05:05.784 --> 0:05:10.824 journalists have shown his children on yachts and in big apartments. 0:05:10.864 --> 0:05:14.104 He's very very rich. And you said he grew up 0:05:14.504 --> 0:05:17.064 kind of tough and on the streets. But didn't you 0:05:17.064 --> 0:05:18.424 go to boarding school? And he was going to be 0:05:18.424 --> 0:05:22.264 a cross country skier. Okay, So boarding school in the 0:05:22.304 --> 0:05:25.744 Soviet Union is not boarding school in the US or 0:05:25.784 --> 0:05:31.304 the UK. Boarding school is where you go in the 0:05:31.304 --> 0:05:35.024 Soviet Union if as if you were very poor and 0:05:35.104 --> 0:05:39.384 if your parents cannot take care of you. It is 0:05:39.424 --> 0:05:42.904 something that is like a step above an orphanage. Oh, 0:05:42.984 --> 0:05:47.984 it's more missus Hannigan than Hogwarts. Correct. So after his 0:05:48.504 --> 0:05:51.384 stay with miss Hannigan, he falls in with a bunch 0:05:51.424 --> 0:05:55.344 of guys who commit a ton of crimes. So he 0:05:55.504 --> 0:06:00.024 falls in with a crowd that they're stealing things there. 0:06:00.144 --> 0:06:04.104 It's incredibly Soviet petty crime. Like they're breaking into people's 0:06:04.104 --> 0:06:07.824 apartments and stealing their crystal, you know, and their carpets. 0:06:08.184 --> 0:06:10.864 That's hard to think about people's carpets, you know, hanging 0:06:10.904 --> 0:06:13.184 on the wall, do you know what I mean? Yeah? 0:06:13.224 --> 0:06:16.584 And you know, they're stealing jeans because denim is like 0:06:16.904 --> 0:06:20.504 incredibly rare in the Soviet Union, So they're stealing people's 0:06:20.584 --> 0:06:22.864 denim from their apartments and then selling it on the 0:06:22.864 --> 0:06:27.744 black market. Oh, they're also stealing electronics, like personal use electronics, 0:06:27.744 --> 0:06:31.624 from people's apartments, because that's also impossible to find in 0:06:31.664 --> 0:06:34.664 the Soviet Union, that in and of itself just like 0:06:34.824 --> 0:06:38.904 paints this picture of late Soviet life and the hardship 0:06:38.984 --> 0:06:43.344 that everybody was living through. But one night, they have 0:06:43.704 --> 0:06:48.024 a particularly good haul of crystal and rugs and home stereos, 0:06:48.184 --> 0:06:50.944 and they're at a restaurant, which is also like most 0:06:50.944 --> 0:06:54.144 Soviets did not go to restaurants. You had to have 0:06:54.184 --> 0:06:55.984 some kind of hook up to go there, and either 0:06:56.104 --> 0:06:59.424 you were some kind of communist party official, or you 0:06:59.464 --> 0:07:02.944 were a black market here and you had cash. And 0:07:02.984 --> 0:07:06.104 they spotted a woman who was wearing a nice coat, 0:07:06.744 --> 0:07:09.384 and when she walked out of the restaurant, go and 0:07:09.464 --> 0:07:12.144 walked up to her and asked her for a smoke, 0:07:12.464 --> 0:07:16.064 And as she reached into her purse to get him 0:07:16.064 --> 0:07:22.584 a cigarette, he started choking her, and as she started screaming, 0:07:22.744 --> 0:07:27.544 he started choking her even more forcefully, so forcefully that 0:07:27.584 --> 0:07:32.664 she passed out. And then she testified that when she 0:07:32.824 --> 0:07:37.824 came to her boots and her earrings were gone, he 0:07:37.944 --> 0:07:42.904 stole her boots. Wow. Yeah, And that is the one 0:07:42.984 --> 0:07:45.864 that where he got caught. So he spent basically his 0:07:46.104 --> 0:07:50.784 entire twenties in a Soviet prison. That crime. Like, he 0:07:50.824 --> 0:07:54.584 didn't need to choke her. It feels very clockwork orange. Yeah, 0:07:54.824 --> 0:07:58.104 and it kind of explains who Progosion is throughout right. 0:07:58.224 --> 0:08:02.624 It's just has that extra dash of brutality. Yeah, you're like, 0:08:02.704 --> 0:08:06.944 holy shit, this guy's nuts. Yes, just super violent, like 0:08:07.024 --> 0:08:11.544 even in the world of Russian mafia seems particularly scary. Yeah, Okay. 0:08:11.544 --> 0:08:13.664 So he gets out of prison and the world's changed. 0:08:13.704 --> 0:08:17.584 The Soviet Union's gone, it's collapsing, it's collapsing. He gets 0:08:17.584 --> 0:08:20.264 out at the very end. It's like eighty nine at 0:08:20.264 --> 0:08:22.504 the time. By the way, nobody thinks it's going to collapse. 0:08:22.544 --> 0:08:27.184 Everybody thinks it's just changing, right, And he doesn't know 0:08:27.184 --> 0:08:29.704 what to do. And he gets in touch with a 0:08:29.784 --> 0:08:33.584 friend for the schoolmate of his, and he's like he 0:08:33.664 --> 0:08:38.144 brings them into the restaurant industry, which again is taking 0:08:38.144 --> 0:08:40.584 off because there weren't really any restaurants, like I think 0:08:40.664 --> 0:08:46.384 Moscow had like three restaurants. And he also gets into 0:08:46.424 --> 0:08:49.304 the hot dog business. He has a hot dog stand 0:08:49.344 --> 0:08:53.304 and he mixes mustard in his kitchen, which you know, 0:08:53.344 --> 0:08:56.224 he's still living with his mom at the time in 0:08:56.264 --> 0:09:00.504 her apartment. So he's like getting into the restaurant world. 0:09:00.504 --> 0:09:04.024 But the restaurant world is dominated by the mafia already 0:09:04.064 --> 0:09:06.904 by organized crime. Why is that? I mean, it seems 0:09:06.984 --> 0:09:10.184 like I guess that makes sense more than the garbage industry, 0:09:10.224 --> 0:09:13.224 Like why did they go into the restaurant industry? Cash? 0:09:13.344 --> 0:09:17.424 Cash flow, and also like they kind of knew how 0:09:17.464 --> 0:09:19.664 to do it, Like not a lot of people in 0:09:19.704 --> 0:09:24.984 the late Soviet era understood the concept of a free 0:09:25.024 --> 0:09:29.384 market and in general, how a non command economy worked. 0:09:29.464 --> 0:09:31.624 Of course, if you're selling stereo equipment, you're also going 0:09:31.704 --> 0:09:34.744 to know how to steal hot dogs. Yeah, And eventually 0:09:34.744 --> 0:09:37.624 he opens his own restaurant, and then another restaurant, and 0:09:37.624 --> 0:09:40.944 another restaurant. He opens this restaurant I'm kind of fascinated 0:09:40.984 --> 0:09:44.864 by because it had strippers in it, which it's very nineties. 0:09:45.104 --> 0:09:48.104 It's very nineties rush. Yeah. But then he opens one 0:09:48.144 --> 0:09:52.184 that's on a boat. Yeah, and it becomes popular with 0:09:52.304 --> 0:09:56.984 the elite of newly democratic Saint Petersburg, including the mayor 0:09:57.064 --> 0:10:01.624 and his then deputy, Vladimir Putin. He has George W. 0:10:01.744 --> 0:10:05.384 Bush and Laura Bush and Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell 0:10:05.544 --> 0:10:08.384 for dinner. You know, and if you go through old 0:10:08.464 --> 0:10:12.144 photos you just see kind of Progosion everywhere in the 0:10:12.144 --> 0:10:15.344 background at every banquet with his like fucking freaky bald 0:10:15.384 --> 0:10:18.384 head in the background with a platter right like I'm 0:10:18.424 --> 0:10:21.264 seeing the pictures. He's always kind of like serving something 0:10:21.264 --> 0:10:24.144 to the whoever the most powerful person is, right, yeah, 0:10:24.184 --> 0:10:29.904 and he looks like who's that Adams Family character? Oh, 0:10:29.984 --> 0:10:33.664 uncle Fester? Yeah, yeah, he's like Uncle Fester in the background, 0:10:33.744 --> 0:10:37.664 just like raw. Then in two thousand, Putin becomes president, 0:10:37.664 --> 0:10:41.504 which is great news for Progosion because Progosion has taken 0:10:41.504 --> 0:10:45.904 his restaurant industry expertise and started a catering business, which 0:10:45.944 --> 0:10:50.104 then gets contracts through Putin to cater state schools and 0:10:50.344 --> 0:10:54.704 most importantly, the entire military. Right, how were the Progosian 0:10:54.824 --> 0:11:01.304 school lunches? In one unbelievable case, Concord, Progosian's company had 0:11:01.304 --> 0:11:07.104 gotten a monopoly to cater to Moscow's schools, and literally 0:11:07.264 --> 0:11:12.304 hundreds of Moscow's elements entry school children came down with dysentery. 0:11:12.744 --> 0:11:16.384 But the reason for this, and the reason the food 0:11:16.464 --> 0:11:19.784 is so bad, is that around the time that Concord 0:11:20.184 --> 0:11:23.624 starts up, this little thing called Wagner starts up, so 0:11:23.664 --> 0:11:26.184 he's named it after a German composer he calls his 0:11:26.264 --> 0:11:30.664 fighter as musicians. He starts this Wagner Group, which doesn't 0:11:30.664 --> 0:11:33.144 seem connected to like restaurants are catering at all. So 0:11:33.184 --> 0:11:37.184 confusing because Wagner, beloved by Hitler, just seems like it doesn't. 0:11:37.264 --> 0:11:41.264 It's also confusing to me, very confusing because Putin is 0:11:41.304 --> 0:11:46.224 not at all an ethno fascist who is using and 0:11:46.464 --> 0:11:52.104 rehashing and recycling a lot of Hitler's tactics and excuses 0:11:52.104 --> 0:11:56.864 for invading neighboring countries. So it is very strange. And 0:11:56.944 --> 0:12:02.544 what is this Wagner Group. Wagner Group, so Wagner is 0:12:03.784 --> 0:12:08.144 it's technically a private military company, which are illegal in 0:12:08.224 --> 0:12:12.904 Russia to this day and for a long time. Both 0:12:13.024 --> 0:12:16.824 Progosion denies its existence and his own connection to it, 0:12:16.944 --> 0:12:19.664 and the Russian government denies any connection to it. But 0:12:19.744 --> 0:12:23.584 what it really is is a way for the Kremlin 0:12:24.264 --> 0:12:27.704 to have boots on the ground and deny that they 0:12:27.784 --> 0:12:30.104 were in any way connected to the Kremlin. They popped 0:12:30.184 --> 0:12:33.624 up in places like the Central African Republic, where the 0:12:33.704 --> 0:12:36.784 Kremlin denied having anything to do with anything. I guess 0:12:37.184 --> 0:12:39.784 Wagner just grabs things for themselves and takes the profit 0:12:39.864 --> 0:12:44.504 from them. On one hand, Wagner's funded out the back 0:12:44.544 --> 0:12:47.024 door of Concord, which is why the food and Concord 0:12:47.104 --> 0:12:50.304 is so bad. Concord gets these insanely big contracts from 0:12:50.344 --> 0:12:53.344 the Russian government, but most of it goes right out 0:12:53.384 --> 0:12:56.144 the back door to fund Wagner, to create that veneer 0:12:56.184 --> 0:13:01.424 of plausible deniability, but also to keep progosion happy. Anywhere 0:13:01.464 --> 0:13:08.264 Wagner goes, they find some local renewable revenue streams. So 0:13:09.064 --> 0:13:11.304 we're in Africa, it might be a diamond mine or 0:13:11.304 --> 0:13:16.784 a cobalt mine, right, So it's just like stealing stereo equipment, right, Yeah, 0:13:16.864 --> 0:13:21.424 except stereo. The stereo you can sell once. If it's 0:13:21.424 --> 0:13:24.024 a refinery, you can keep using it. If it's a 0:13:24.064 --> 0:13:26.544 diamond mine, you can keep using it. If it's the 0:13:26.664 --> 0:13:29.624 rights to if it's mineral rights to a piece of 0:13:29.704 --> 0:13:33.424 land somewhere in the Central African Republic, that will feed 0:13:33.464 --> 0:13:37.504 Wagner for a long time. And again the Kremlin can say, like, 0:13:37.904 --> 0:13:40.784 we're not funding this, Like show us where in the 0:13:40.824 --> 0:13:45.664 budget we're funding Wagner. In the meantime, Wagner is training 0:13:45.824 --> 0:13:49.344 on bases in Russia. In the meantime, they're getting all 0:13:49.384 --> 0:13:54.944 their weapons from the Defense Ministry of Russia. There's this 0:13:55.144 --> 0:13:58.504 one crazy scene in Syria that made me understand how 0:13:58.544 --> 0:14:01.864 Putin works. Wagner is trying to get hold of this 0:14:02.064 --> 0:14:05.104 oil field, but they do not have Putin's permission for this, 0:14:05.264 --> 0:14:08.984 right exactly. Progosion didn't have Queen's permission. He hadn't checked 0:14:09.104 --> 0:14:11.944 in with the Defense Ministry, who would have told him 0:14:12.024 --> 0:14:15.384 that this refinery is controlled by the Kurds, who are 0:14:15.984 --> 0:14:18.664 allies of the Americans, and that to get there they 0:14:18.664 --> 0:14:22.784 would have to cross through territory that is way too 0:14:22.824 --> 0:14:25.784 close to the American Special Forces, a base that the 0:14:25.824 --> 0:14:30.024 American Special Forces had there. And they went too close, right, 0:14:30.344 --> 0:14:33.784 They got two clothes and the Americans radio through the 0:14:33.824 --> 0:14:38.064 deconfliction channel to their Russian counterparts that the Russian Defense 0:14:38.064 --> 0:14:42.024 Ministry and said, hey, your guys are coming at us. 0:14:42.064 --> 0:14:44.984 They're getting too close. Get them away from us or 0:14:44.984 --> 0:14:46.984 we'll shoot. It's a lot of guys. It's like three 0:14:47.064 --> 0:14:51.824 hundred guys. Yeah, and they're heavily armed. They're not on foot, 0:14:51.864 --> 0:14:53.704 you know, they're not just on foot. They're like in 0:14:53.904 --> 0:14:57.624 APC's and they're heavily armed. They're not. They don't have 0:14:57.664 --> 0:15:01.784 just like pistols. And so the Russians did they call 0:15:01.864 --> 0:15:04.984 them back. No, the Russians said, what guys, those aren't 0:15:04.984 --> 0:15:09.224 our guys. But the Americans know that. Russians. Yeah, and 0:15:09.064 --> 0:15:12.904 and they're like, as one person who was there in 0:15:12.944 --> 0:15:15.984 the room when they were talking to the Russian said, no, 0:15:16.104 --> 0:15:20.024 those are your fucking guys. Pull them back because we 0:15:20.104 --> 0:15:24.264 will shoot. And the Russian said, I don't know what 0:15:24.264 --> 0:15:27.704 you're talking about. And the Americans were like, okay, doak, 0:15:28.904 --> 0:15:33.304 that's what they do. They opened fire, and according to 0:15:33.344 --> 0:15:38.184 another person who witnessed this, it was like an advertisement 0:15:38.264 --> 0:15:42.704 for the American Defense catalog. They shot everything they had 0:15:42.704 --> 0:15:50.304 at them, drones, a jet, machine guns, artillery fire, and 0:15:50.984 --> 0:15:56.064 apparently the Americans would periodically stop, like pause and be like, Okay, 0:15:56.104 --> 0:15:58.624 you're gonna pull back. No, Okay, we're gonna keep going. 0:15:59.104 --> 0:16:00.744 And they did that a couple of times, and they 0:16:00.744 --> 0:16:04.344 didn't pull back, and within a couple of minutes it 0:16:04.424 --> 0:16:08.424 was just, oh, they just completely wiped them out. And 0:16:08.584 --> 0:16:12.704 they had heard the Wagner guys screaming over the radios 0:16:12.744 --> 0:16:19.504 that they're letting us just die. Out here. When we 0:16:19.544 --> 0:16:22.304 come back, we'll find out how Progosion was involved in 0:16:22.344 --> 0:16:26.424 the Russian interference in the twenty sixteen presidential election, and 0:16:26.504 --> 0:16:29.304 how now he's playing a key role in the invasion 0:16:29.304 --> 0:16:34.144 of Ukraine. But first, our advertisers are going to sell 0:16:34.184 --> 0:16:37.384 you some stereo equipment that's totally in its original packaging 0:16:37.424 --> 0:16:48.504 and absolutely works. So, Julia, this guy, if getting Progosian 0:16:48.784 --> 0:16:51.664 has started a private militia that's funded by the Kremlin 0:16:51.784 --> 0:16:55.824 through a backdoor, which is his catering company. But if 0:16:55.904 --> 0:17:00.104 that's not enough, Progosian's also involved in the interference in 0:17:00.144 --> 0:17:04.144 the twenty sixteen US presidential election. I mean, he is 0:17:04.184 --> 0:17:07.024 the Russian meddler. Yeah, and he admitted to it, for 0:17:07.104 --> 0:17:10.064 he was charged. He was charged in twenty eighteen by 0:17:10.144 --> 0:17:14.464 Robert Muller. He denied it forever, the Russian government denied 0:17:14.504 --> 0:17:17.704 it forever, And in twenty twenty two he said, yeah, 0:17:17.704 --> 0:17:19.504 it was me, and I'd do it again, and I'm 0:17:19.544 --> 0:17:22.104 gonna do it again in twenty twenty four because I 0:17:22.104 --> 0:17:24.024 don't like the way you guys do your politics, and 0:17:24.104 --> 0:17:27.504 I'm gonna, you know, I'll engineer some shit in your 0:17:27.544 --> 0:17:29.664 political system to make sure it goes the right way. 0:17:29.824 --> 0:17:31.944 You're welcome. Has he ever actually met Trump or he's 0:17:31.984 --> 0:17:33.944 just a fan from a distance. I don't know of 0:17:34.064 --> 0:17:36.784 him meeting Trump, but progosion unless he was in the 0:17:36.784 --> 0:17:39.664 background during the Miss Universe content, you know, like I'm 0:17:39.704 --> 0:17:41.784 sure somebody will find a photo of him just in 0:17:41.864 --> 0:17:45.944 the background. Like wa. How does he handle journalists that 0:17:46.104 --> 0:17:49.704 uncovers some of this stuff about him? He hires a chemist, 0:17:49.864 --> 0:17:54.064 and the chemist will like load up these syringes full 0:17:54.104 --> 0:17:57.544 of poison and they'll rove the streets and they'll just 0:17:58.224 --> 0:18:03.504 jab you know, journalists or critics of Pretagosha, and they'll 0:18:03.544 --> 0:18:07.064 just jump them with these syringes full of poison. They 0:18:07.064 --> 0:18:09.824 won't they didn't kill most of their people. They just 0:18:10.344 --> 0:18:11.864 you know, it was just to kind of scare them 0:18:11.904 --> 0:18:15.184 a bit. But you know, these people would end up 0:18:15.184 --> 0:18:18.344 in the hospital for a week. They're just like Yeah. 0:18:18.464 --> 0:18:22.344 Then the invasion of Ukraine happens, which is supposed to 0:18:22.384 --> 0:18:26.144 take a week, it starts to take a lot longer. Yep. 0:18:26.584 --> 0:18:30.904 Putin clearly politically a draft would be a disaster, so 0:18:30.984 --> 0:18:34.984 he starts to rely on Wagner, and Wagner has to 0:18:34.984 --> 0:18:36.864 come up with a way to get a lot of 0:18:36.904 --> 0:18:41.104 soldiers very quickly, and Progosion comes up with what seems 0:18:41.104 --> 0:18:46.824 like an insane plant. So Wagner participates in the invasion 0:18:46.864 --> 0:18:52.064 of Ukraine almost immediately because they have the most some 0:18:52.104 --> 0:18:55.864 of the most experienced soldiers. They remember, they've been fighting 0:18:55.864 --> 0:18:58.824 in eastern Ukraine, they've been fighting in Syria, they've been 0:18:58.824 --> 0:19:03.264 fighting in Libya, in other parts of Africa. They are seasoned, 0:19:03.304 --> 0:19:05.824 experienced soldiers as opposed to some of these eighteen year 0:19:05.824 --> 0:19:08.624 old conscripts that are just getting picked off by javelins 0:19:08.624 --> 0:19:12.824 in Ukrain Rain, and they're able to actually deliver some 0:19:12.904 --> 0:19:18.384 results early on in the war. And so Putin gives 0:19:19.264 --> 0:19:24.504 Progosion permission to recruit from his old stopping grounds from 0:19:24.544 --> 0:19:33.424 the jails. So Pogojan starts helicoptering into these prisons. Literally, 0:19:33.464 --> 0:19:39.144 he literally takes his helicopter like a bond villain. He 0:19:39.184 --> 0:19:43.424 would chop her into whatever penal, colony, number, whatever, and 0:19:43.744 --> 0:19:46.424 the prison guards would gather all the prisoners in the 0:19:46.424 --> 0:19:50.464 prison yard and make them listen to Progosian, who would 0:19:50.504 --> 0:19:54.984 deliver a speech in this language that you know he 0:19:55.064 --> 0:19:57.064 sounds like one of them, because he is one of them, 0:19:57.064 --> 0:19:59.704 and it's a it's a language that's very heavily inflected 0:19:59.744 --> 0:20:03.704 with prison slang and that kind of prison yard swagger. 0:20:04.304 --> 0:20:08.984 And he's addressing his fellow mujiks and he's like, listen, 0:20:09.744 --> 0:20:12.224 you can die in prison, or you can die free. 0:20:12.904 --> 0:20:15.824 You can serve out your sentence for another ten years, 0:20:16.104 --> 0:20:19.104 or you can go fight and in six months, if 0:20:19.104 --> 0:20:22.424 you make it out alive, you're free, your record is expunged, 0:20:22.624 --> 0:20:26.264 and you'll get some money. And if you don't, we'll 0:20:26.344 --> 0:20:31.144 bear you like a hero. And people sign up. This 0:20:31.184 --> 0:20:34.744 is like the Hunger Games. Yeah, and also, just to 0:20:34.864 --> 0:20:39.144 be clear, for this to happen, you need to sign 0:20:39.144 --> 0:20:43.224 off at the very very very top of the Russian system. 0:20:43.264 --> 0:20:46.824 You could not chopper into a Russian penal colony and 0:20:46.864 --> 0:20:52.344 deliver the speech without Putin's explicit permission. And the reason 0:20:52.504 --> 0:20:55.464 is like, yeah, we can't do a draft right now. 0:20:55.544 --> 0:20:58.384 We're committed to a semblance of normalcy, especially in the 0:20:58.384 --> 0:21:00.824 big Russian cities, because this is not a war. This 0:21:00.904 --> 0:21:04.104 is a special military operation. We don't want people to 0:21:04.144 --> 0:21:06.824 think it's going to be a long war. So listen, 0:21:06.824 --> 0:21:12.504 nobody cares about prisoners. We need cannon fodder. Great and 0:21:12.544 --> 0:21:16.384 what's interesting is that Stalin did this in World War Two. 0:21:16.824 --> 0:21:23.104 They were called straffbat which means was short for which 0:21:23.144 --> 0:21:28.024 is a penal battalion. These were people from the Gulags 0:21:28.064 --> 0:21:32.344 who were sent in literally as cannon fodder, often without weapons. 0:21:32.744 --> 0:21:36.104 And these guys are too right, Oh yeah, the casual 0:21:36.224 --> 0:21:39.904 rates are how bad? Something like, oh my god? And 0:21:39.984 --> 0:21:43.344 what's crazy is that as this recruitment drive starts in 0:21:43.344 --> 0:21:45.504 the in the summer and we see these videos of 0:21:45.984 --> 0:21:51.704 Pen's pitch coming out Russian ngeo's notice that the Russian 0:21:51.744 --> 0:21:55.584 prison population just plummets by tens of thousands of prisoners. 0:21:56.024 --> 0:21:58.304 Does this scare the Russian people that they know these 0:21:58.304 --> 0:22:01.224 scary criminals might be coming back to their country alive 0:22:01.544 --> 0:22:06.344 and free. Well, nobody's asking them, but some people find 0:22:06.384 --> 0:22:09.024 this kind of distasteful, in part because of the Stalinists 0:22:09.784 --> 0:22:13.984 associations and because they're really poorly armed. They're really just 0:22:14.064 --> 0:22:18.904 being sent as cannon fodder. And pigoshan response to them 0:22:19.704 --> 0:22:23.024 on his social media channels and he says, look, assholes, 0:22:23.144 --> 0:22:25.784 and he calls the assholes. He's like, you want to 0:22:25.864 --> 0:22:28.424 drive around in your nice car with your napple leather 0:22:28.584 --> 0:22:31.144 and you want to carry around your snell bag while 0:22:31.184 --> 0:22:34.384 we fight in Ukraine and you don't want to send 0:22:34.424 --> 0:22:38.424 your sons to war, fine, then let me send these comics. 0:22:38.424 --> 0:22:40.264 Like you don't give a shit about them, They don't 0:22:40.264 --> 0:22:42.744 give a shit about themselves. I'm literally quoting him here. 0:22:43.344 --> 0:22:47.024 He says, So if you don't have another solution, sit down, 0:22:47.344 --> 0:22:49.384 shut the fuck up, and let me do my thing, 0:22:50.064 --> 0:22:52.944 because if you're not willing to send your son, then 0:22:53.544 --> 0:22:56.584 let me do this. Okay. If these soldiers try and 0:22:56.704 --> 0:23:00.384 quit in the war, as some have, how does Progosian 0:23:00.504 --> 0:23:06.024 handle that. The most famous case was a guy by 0:23:06.024 --> 0:23:09.304 the last name of Musion, and he ran over to 0:23:09.344 --> 0:23:11.984 the Ukraine because some people signed up with the express 0:23:12.064 --> 0:23:15.424 purpose of escaping immediately. Sure, yeah, because you don't want 0:23:15.424 --> 0:23:16.784 to be in jail. But a lot of these people 0:23:16.824 --> 0:23:19.344 were like, this is stupid war. Why are we fighting Ukraine? 0:23:19.504 --> 0:23:21.184 And as soon as they got to the front, they 0:23:21.184 --> 0:23:23.464 were like, well, this is fucking dumb and I don't 0:23:23.504 --> 0:23:25.344 want to die, like they're not. They're giving me a 0:23:25.384 --> 0:23:27.904 gun with three bullets and I'm supposed to charge a 0:23:27.984 --> 0:23:34.384 Himar's installation. Fuck that. So people deserted and what's crazy 0:23:34.544 --> 0:23:38.144 is that the Ukrainians would turn them over in these 0:23:38.184 --> 0:23:42.704 prisoner exchanges, which is terrible because Ukrainians from the beginning 0:23:42.744 --> 0:23:46.104 of the war have been encouraging Russian soldiers to desert 0:23:46.344 --> 0:23:49.904 on mass and saying we will treat you well. Come 0:23:49.944 --> 0:23:53.104 over to our side, lay down your arms, don't do this. 0:23:54.104 --> 0:23:56.384 And then what happened to Nusion is he was turned 0:23:56.424 --> 0:24:00.504 over by the Ukrainians in a prisoner exchange. He originally 0:24:00.544 --> 0:24:03.304 said that he was walking down the street in Kiev, 0:24:04.344 --> 0:24:06.224 felt a bump on his head and woke up in 0:24:06.264 --> 0:24:10.064 a Wagner basement in the dawn bass There's a videotaped confession. 0:24:10.904 --> 0:24:15.464 Then his head is taped to a cinder block with 0:24:15.624 --> 0:24:20.704 packing tape and he says, yeah, I'm guilty, I'm a deserter, 0:24:21.144 --> 0:24:27.984 and somebody smashes his head and with a sledgehammer, and 0:24:28.024 --> 0:24:32.704 then Wagner puts this video under the title of the 0:24:32.704 --> 0:24:38.984 Sledgehammer of Justice on their various telegram channels because they 0:24:39.024 --> 0:24:40.704 want it to be clear that this is what we 0:24:40.784 --> 0:24:45.704 do to deserters. And we have since heard from other 0:24:45.864 --> 0:24:49.944 people who have escaped, including Wagner officers, that this is 0:24:50.104 --> 0:24:55.104 a very common execution method for Wagner, this isis. It's 0:24:55.104 --> 0:24:58.824 like isisis and then Progosion puts it on his telegram 0:24:58.904 --> 0:25:02.504 channel like he's isis and he says, this is what 0:25:02.584 --> 0:25:04.944 this dog deserves. Well, he was worse. He wrote it 0:25:05.064 --> 0:25:07.344 seems to me that this film should be called A 0:25:07.504 --> 0:25:11.104 Dog Dies, a Dog's dea. It was an excellent directional 0:25:11.184 --> 0:25:14.584 piece of work watched in one breath. I hope no 0:25:14.744 --> 0:25:19.744 animals were harmed during filming like that, he's a shit beyond. 0:25:20.064 --> 0:25:23.344 It's the choking. Oh, it's the choking. Right, It's like 0:25:23.624 --> 0:25:27.744 you didn't have to do that extra thing, but you did. Yeah. 0:25:27.784 --> 0:25:33.784 And what's even fucking crazier is that then Russian politicians 0:25:33.784 --> 0:25:38.864 and members of parliament have been posing on social media 0:25:39.144 --> 0:25:43.624 with sledge hammers that Progosian has given to them autographed. 0:25:44.864 --> 0:25:49.224 What is wrong with your old country? So many things, 0:25:50.064 --> 0:25:55.264 a hundred years of violent negative selection. What is Progosian's 0:25:55.984 --> 0:25:59.744 ambitions at this point? He's got his own army. He's 0:25:59.864 --> 0:26:02.864 not afraid to like sledge hammer people. It's not even 0:26:02.864 --> 0:26:05.144