Putin’s chef’ among Russians indicted by Mueller

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Misha Japaridze, Pool / AP

In this Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, file photo, Yevgeny Prigozhin, left, serves food to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during dinner at Prigozhin’s restaurant outside Moscow, Russia

Fri, Feb 16, 2018 (2:54 p.m.)

MOSCOW — One of the 13 Russians indicted for U.S. election interference is a wealthy Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is known in Russia as "Putin's chef." He once owned a hot dog stand and went on to become a wealthy businessman and restaurateur.

Prigozhin has been charged by the U.S. government as part of a vast and wide-ranging effort to sway political opinion during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

According to the indictment, Prigozhin and his companies provided significant funding to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based troll farm that allegedly used bogus social media postings and advertisements fraudulently purchased in the name of Americans to try to influence the White House race.

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