Chief chief

Walking in St. Petersburg "Putin's cook" Evgeny Prigozhin during a "special operation", which simply does not exist for residents and guests of the city

“I propose to all senior officials and oligarchs to make a statement on my template:“ I, Prigozhin Evgeny Viktorovich, warmly support the special operation in Ukraine and is ready to support it both ideologically and financially. ” Such a statement by his chief was issued by the press service of the Concord company, who belonged to the businessman of the company, shortly after the International Economic Forum completed in St. Petersburg. The very forum on which this year there was not a single Western financier, but there was a delegation of the Taliban, pop singer Philip Kirkorov, and the Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. The latter, among other things, raised the topic of support by representatives of the Russian elite of “Special operations” in Ukraine.

The president’s old friend Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, as no one else knows about what is needed and what does not need to be supported in his native country. A patriot, a sample and an example to follow, not a couple to most sharks of Russian business, especially those who opposed the war and left the country.

There were no template statements for the appeal of Evgeny Prigozhin, even from colleagues in sanctions, those businessmen who actually support the war and did not go anywhere. Apparently not up to it. Confiscation and arrests of yachts and real estate abroad, divorces with wives - a headache of the last 4 months of Russian oligarchs close to power.

... A week after the economic forum, I wandered along Nevsky Prospekt. The heat stood. Peter was full of tourists, machines and trays with soda and ice cream. No one canceled the show for graduates of the Scarlet Sails schools, despite the special operation. As in past years, a ship with scarlet sails, symbolizing hope and dreams in a bright future, had to appear at midnight in the Neva water area.

Obviously, the organizers proceeded from the fact that a bright future would not overshadow the gloomy present in a neighboring country.

The regulars of the State Commissioners - Polina Gagarina, Khabib, the Hands Up and others were invited to reinforce this argument. And Vladimir Vladimirovich, according to rumors, again hoped to be in his hometown - at a meeting with the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

In general, I wandered around the ceremonial Peter from the times of a special operation and accidentally came to the store of the Eliseev merchants, a luxurious building with stained glass windows on the corner of Nevsky and Malaya Sadovaya, a monument of architecture of early modernity. The walking guests of the Northern capital were in a hurry to be in a hurry.

The building is more than 120 years. The last 12, as it turned out, it belongs to the family of Evgeny Prigozhin, and specifically his wife Lyubov Prigozhina. Eugene and Love restored the building and gave it the original style of the beginning of the 20th century, showing the wealth of the partnership of the Eliseevsky merchants and attracting the attention of potential buyers.

As a potential buyer, I entered this store. A luxurious decoration, the sounds of a piano, huge palm trees in tubs and windows with delicacies exquisite alcohol and pastries immediately fell upon me immediately ...

The head was spinning. But the mind turned on in time. I began to study the price tags. I studied them for half an hour. She closed her eyes several times, held her breath, counted up to ten, as a psychoanalyst taught me to do in moments of anxiety, and opened her eyes again. It was not a dream. And you know what I will tell you: Evgeny Viktorovich has never lied, saying that he was ready to sponsor the special operation. With such price tags in the store and profit from the Russian budget for food supply to schools and senior officials of the state, he can sponsor several special operations at the same time.

So. The usual Russian vodka “Russian squadron” (0.7 liters) is 4200 rubles, while in all other stores, including the luxury “fragrant world”, this vodka costs up to 1,500 rubles. The cheese "Zhura Montan" - 100 g. - 680 rubles, Raklett Mazo cheese - 100 g for 750 rubles, cheese "Parmesan. Argentina ”is the most economical: 100 g costs 390 p. Russian “Matryoshka” sweets - 230 g. For 1200 rubles, sweets with vodka called “President” (on the wrapper image of Vladimir Putin) - 165 for 1200 rubles. Ilyich sweets - 110 g. For 1000 rubles. Sanding cookies - 150 gr. For 6500 p. Hot smoking sturgeon - 100 g for 950 p. Cognac “Noah” (7 years) - 0.7 liters for 8900 rubles (in the nearest stores the same cognac is sold for up to 1400 rubles) oketrovka black caviar - 57 g for 7700 rubles, 113 g of the same caviar will already be at a discount: 14200 p.

Part of the hall is similar to the souvenir stores of the Khitrovo London Airport. In tin boxes depicting the legendary English telephone and mail booths, Russian iris is sold instead of English tea and cookies. The banks say "Made in UK". But on top of each such can, a ribbon is glued with a branded opening of the Eliseev merchants store. Each bank with a volume of 200 g. Price tag: 4800 p.

There is also a frank demonstration of the English flag - on other tin boxes, as “Made in UK” states with Iris. Also 4800 rubles.

I don't think a provocation. Just Nostalgia Evgeny Viktorovich and his family members at the time when they could still be unhindered in the UK and stir up in local grocery boutiques. Now it’s impossible, Evgeny Prigozhin under English sanctions for two years. But no one can prohibit him to sell his tin English banks.

In the end, my curious eye fell on a window with female jewelry. In the store of the Eliseev merchants, beads are sold - round balls of yellow amber. The price tag says “exclusive”, the price of which is 147 thousand rubles. There are beads without the word exclusive on the price tag - 111 thousand rubles. Amber bracelets are sold for 3200 rubles.

“Yes ...” the young woman sighed next to me, studying the beads. - Beauty .. breathtaking. But prices ... - and went to buy coffee in a glass. In Eliseevsky, this is the only thing that can not afford the middle class: coffee in a glass for 200 rubles and eclair is the main thing that you eat it all within the walls of the architectural monument and capture yourself against the backdrop of piano and palm trees. Selfies and photographs are not forbidden to be made here.

There is still a restaurant in the store. But buyers of coffee do not go there. Meaning if the price tag says everything for itself? I stopped on the phrase from the menu “Oysters from our aquarium” and stepped aside.

Leaving the store, I thought about the scale of human potential. After all, Evgeny Viktorovich began his business with the sale of hot dogs and pancakes. And then he grown to the sturgeon of hot smoking, oysters and vodka sweets "President".

Evil tongues are unfair to him. In particular, the opposition figures sitting now in Russian prisons, as well as who, who went where independent journalists called him “Putin’s cook” (although what is the patriot as the patriot as Evgeny Viktorovich?), The creator of the troll factory, propaganda media and the owner of dozens of various companies - both officially and through intermediaries. Some, like Concord Catering, are engaged in the services related to nutrition. Others build military bases, hotels, houses, sponsor private military campaigns (for example, Wagner PMCs, from which Prigozhin itself is regularly rejected) and not private military special operations.

The man just found himself, but they envy him. In the meantime, it became hotter on the street. I walked further along Nevsky and did not cease to be amazed at human envy. She recalled how several years ago the ill-wishers found two court decisions of the Soviet courts in the archive, indicating that the future senior Russian entrepreneur Evgeny Prigozhin had two criminal records in a row in the early 1980s. At first, conditionally 2 years, the Kuibyshev court of Leningrad was written out for theft. And a year later, the Zhdanovsky court sentenced him not probation at all, and by 13 years in prison, too for “theft”, as well as for “robbery”, “fraud” and “involving a minor in criminal activity”. Excerpts from the case file were at the disposal of the Rosbalt publication, after years recognized by a foreign agent. As follows from the materials of the case, somehow Prigozhin and his comrade penetrated the apartment of one of the houses in English Prospekt and stole a vase, candy, napkin, 6 glasses, 6 glasses, 6 piles and 2 horns from there. The amount of damage was 177 rubles - at that time a good monthly salary.

The next time, Prigozhin with friends, according to the materials of the court, stole the orbit from another Leningrad apartment, the orbit radio, crystal, jeans jacket, women's handbag and carpet paths.

The third campaign was brought by a richer catch: crystal, bonds, vases, a fountain pen, souvenirs for the car ...

Fraud was soon added to numerous thefts. Prigogine with a friend and friend invited one man to buy jeans and other scarce goods from them. The attackers received 250 rubles from the victim, Prigozhin led him for things. But at one point, he deftly disappeared from the buyer through the entrance yard, after which he left by car.

On the same evening, according to the case file, Prigozhin and his comrades, including a minor, attacked a girl on the street in order to rob her. “Prigogine suddenly grabbed her neck, began to strangle,” the case said. “She screamed for help, but Prigozhin began to squeeze the throat more. From squeezing the throat, she lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she saw that boots and earrings were removed from her.”

Evgeny Viktorovich received the longest term. 13 years. In the 90s he went out under an amnesty.

Well, with whom it does not happen, I reasoned, and indifferent tourists hurried to me to meet me. What did they know about Prigozhin? The main thing is that a person has embarked on the path of correction, became a respected man and a friend of the president in the city. It’s never too late to start life from scratch.

And you, spiteful, about two stolen horns, some vases and strangulation. After all, the woman was alive. By the way, Evgeny Viktorovich tried to take advantage of the law on oblivion. In 2016, through the court, he demanded that Yandex be removed references to 22 publications, including the materials of the corruption fund recognized in Russia, Fontanka.ru and Novaya Gazeta, revealing the details of his business and details of the biography. But the coverage of the process in the media led to the effect of Streisand (a phenomenon, expressed in the fact that an attempt to remove certain information from public access leads only to its wider distribution).

Evgeny Viktorovich abandoned the lawsuit. And he lives today, not paying attention to the spiteen.

... After 900 meters on the corner of Nevsky and the embankment of the Moika River, I stumbled upon the Stroganov Palace. A man in a white long wig and white livery called the people in the Museum of Chocolate. “The entrance to the museum is free,” the Swiss loudly and not without dignity. This bribed pedestrians. Among them, of course, I turned out to be. The Museum of Chocolate was in the basement and, in fact, was not a museum, but a regular chocolate souvenir store with one saleswoman behind the counter. There were a whole network in St. Petersburg, there are several in Moscow. The souvenir can be bought on the spot, or you can order to your taste and imagination. For example, with a bust of your loved one.

In the boutique on Nevsky, it was proposed to buy a ready -made bust of Joseph Stalin from white chocolate. The price of the issue is 770 rubles for a small Stalin bust, 3700 rubles for a large one. Lenin busts from dark chocolate with gilding are the same. There is no Putin bust, neither small nor big, but you can order it on the spot. Otherwise, chocolate Easter eggs, crows of the Russian Empire, animals, hearts, even tea chocolate sets as a gift to women, and for men chocolate passatters, drill and even chocolate tank and Makarov chocolate gun. The saleswoman, being distracted from tourists, to whom she hung 200 grams of Marcipan, explained to my questions displeased that the tanks in the exposition were presented even before the special operation in Ukraine. And there is no need to look for a catch here.

The owners of the Museum of Chocolate for almost 20 years have been the family of Evgeny Prigozhin. In recent years, his wife and daughter.

“We sell more than 20 tons of chocolate per year,” the Museum website reported. - Buyers also inform that the customers of chocolate boutiques are well -known and respected organizations - Rosneft, Gazprom, NTV, the first, Russia 1, Bank of Russia, BMW and Russian Railways.

Simple mortals leave about the quality of “museum” chocolate reviews are more critical: “a mixture of margarine with plasticine”, “just a store of a nightmare of diabetics in the very center of the city”, “I bought a chocolate pistol to my son, he said that it is impossible.” “If you want to prick the hated teacher or the boss something terrible, then buy souvenirs here. And so pass by and do not waste money. ”

More grocery boutiques of Prigozhin family in the city on this day did not meet on my way.

The excited guests of the cities continued to go towards, who wanted to have time to go on excursions to Peterhof and Gatchina, take a walk along the St. Petersburg roofs and see the Scarlet Sails show on Palace Square in the evening. The center was blocked because of the upcoming celebration and Putin’s possible visit.

The heat intensified. And it seems that my head has overheated. The words “Two horns, vase, sturgeon, earrings, oysters from our aquarium, boots and chocolate passatters” were spinning in it ... ...

The notification on the phone in the mail sobered out, which reported that my letter to the Women's St. Petersburg SIZO Arsenalka did not reach the addressee. The addressee is the artist Alexander Skochilenko, arrested two months ago for changing the Perekrestok supermarket on the Vasilyevsky Island of the price tags on leaflets against special operations, in particular, informing the buyers about the shelling of Mariupol ... In the Russian TV, customers were not told about this. And Sasha decided to tell. And now Skochilenko was transferred from prison for examination to a psychiatric clinic, to check in her mind.

I thought that it would be Sasha or someone else if they changed the price tags for leaflets in the store of the Eliseev merchants or in the Museum of Chocolate ... Immediately a colony? After all, crimes against shops of special state importance. Or also a psychiatric hospital?

However, what's the difference. They would not be left at large.

It was Peter from a special military operation.