Pictures of what appears to be Prigozhin’s home show the opulence of the Wagner boss’s lifestyle, including lavish décor, a private heliport and spa along with well-equipped medical and private prayer rooms. It also shows gold bars, boxes filled with reams of cash, several passports, a cache of weapons, several items bearing the Wagner insignia, and several wigs.
A giant sledgehammer was also displayed in one of the rooms, a potential nod to a video shared online earlier this year that appeared to show a Wagner fighter who had defected to Ukraine being sledgehammered to death by his former comrades.
Izvestia said it obtained the images on Wednesday, without naming the source. She did not say when exactly the footage was shot.
NBC News was unable to independently verify the images.
The same images and videos were also broadcast on the state television channel Russia-1, which announced them as exclusive on Wednesday night.
The propaganda show “60 Minutes” mocked signs of Prigozhin’s lavish lifestyle in contrast to his self-constructed image as a “people’s hero” and critic of Russian military corruption. The show’s host, Yevgeny Popov, called Prigozhin “a traitor”, and the reporter who showed the footage stressed that the armed rebellion was still being investigated.
The public attacks on Prigozhin came as his future was shrouded in new doubts.
He was believed to be entering life in exile after a deal with the Kremlin to end the riot, but Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that Wagner’s boss was currently in St Petersburg, not in his country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that he does not track Prigozhin’s whereabouts and “does not have the ability or the desire to do so.”
Prior to the mutiny, Russian state media and the country’s increasingly influential community of military bloggers gave Prigozhin largely positive coverage, even as he was locked in a bitter dispute with the country’s defense ministry.
But that has changed dramatically since the revolt, and Prigozhin is now being portrayed as a self-serving traitor who forced his still-hero-heroed Wagner fighters into mutiny.
The amplified propaganda campaign against Prigozhin comes as the Kremlin works to show order and consensus, with Putin and senior officials praising the “unity” of Russian society for helping to thwart Prigozhin’s revolt.
Wagner’s boss has not been seen in public, but has apparently released two audio messages since the riot. He has remained defiant, stating that his revolt was aimed at “fighting traitors and mobilizing our society” rather than overthrowing Putin, and vowing that “in the near future” people will see “our next victories on the front ”.
