Yevgeny Prigozhin, caterer turned warlord presumed dead had Jewish ancestry

In a video posted by Girkin, he said:“Who is Prigozhin? Is he Russian? He is not a Russian person. He isn’t even a Russian by nationality.”

Earlier this year, Prigozhin's Wagner group marched on Moscow after he had public disagreements with Russian military leaders over the direction of the war.

Dissatisfied with the direction the war had gone in June, Prigozhin dispatched troops towards Moscow. He claimed Russian forces had attacked his men. “We will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” he threatened in audio and video that he posted. The next day, Putin accused his former ally on Russian television of “a stab in the back of our country and our people.” Within hours, Prigozhin called off the march to Moscow.

Prigozhin has been on the move ever since—first in Belarus and then in undisclosed locations, including in Africa. He is of Jewish descent on his father’s and his stepfather’s sides.

Some say that the Wagner Group has pro-Nazi origins, including perhaps being named after Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer Richard Wagner.