Putin and Prigozhin: Inside the Wagner Group

Updated time for this program!

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who went from “Putin’s chef” to leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, was killed in a suspicious plane crash in Russia on August 23. How did Prigozhin build a private army that has sent mercenaries to conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine? And what led Yevgeny Prigozhin, who got rich under Vladimir Putin’s kleptocracy, to literally turn on Putin and march on Moscow. For many observers of Russia, Prigozhin’s demise was only a matter of time after his failed mutiny.

Join the World Affairs Council for a virtual discussion on what's next for the enigmatic Wagner Group, the rise and fall of Prigozhin, and how this positions Putin going forward. We’ll be joined by Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker staff writer and author of "Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia.

Our Speaker

Joshua Yaffa is a contributing writer for The New Yorker. He is also the author of Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia, published in January 2020 by Tim Duggan Books and which won the Orwell Prize in 2021. He has also written for the Economist, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New Republic, and Foreign Affairs. For his work in Russia, he has been named a fellow at New America, a recipient of the American Academy’s Berlin Prize, and a finalist for the Livingston Award. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, and master’s degrees in journalism and international affairs from Columbia University, where he was a visiting scholar at the Harriman Institute and taught at the journalism school for several years. He is originally from San Diego, California.

Amazon is an underwriting sponsor of all World Affairs Council Community Programs.