• Yevgeny Prigozhin opened his dazzling, glass-fronted multistory building in Saint Petersburg.
• The Wagner Centre is considered as move to publicize his military credentials.
• It is also meant to influence Russia’s defense policy.

Saint Petersburg is home to Russia’s Wagner Group, a private mercenary organization.

On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close supporter of President Vladimir Putin, opened his dazzling, glass-fronted multistory building with a giant white “Wagner” sign.

The “Wagner Centre” is considered as Prigozhin’s latest move to publicize his military credentials and influence Russia’s defense policy.

Wagner’s public headquarters mirrors Prigozhin’s recent public profile boost.

Prigozhin, along with Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, has publicly criticized Russia’s generals for their failures in Ukraine.

He has denied backing Wagner, whose contract soldiers serve Russia’s army in Ukraine and have deployed in Africa, Syria, and Libya.

Prigozhin announced last month that he founded Wagner.

The EU has accused the Wagner Group, primarily former servicemen, of human rights abuses and clandestine actions on Moscow’s behalf. The US and EU have sanctioned Prigozhin for his group role.

In 2021, the EU accused the Wagner Group of torture and extrajudicial killings in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Mozambique.

“The PMC Wagner Center’s aim is to provide a comfortable environment for creating new ideas to improve Russia’s defense capability,” Prigozhin said in a statement for Friday’s debut.

Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s Chef,” was absent from the event.

On Friday, veterans in military uniforms and young IT and cultural professionals attended the opening of the massive steel and glass office complex, where nationalist and pro-Kremlin leaders said the Wagner headquarters will “make our beautiful country even better”.

An exhibit on military drones attracted camouflage-clad visitors. Russian military in Ukraine parked a truck with the “Z” emblem.

“We are inviting start-ups active in IT, industrial technology and those generating new concepts which they are ready to utilize in the sector of national defense,” said center press secretary Anastasia Vasilevskaya.

“We are interested in import substitution projects,” she stated.

Since the Ukraine incursion, Western sanctions have made it tougher for Russia to obtain foreign weapons technology.

“This center was long overdue. “The only thing is that it appeared pretty late,” Wagner volunteer Alexey Savinsky stated in military camouflage.

“This center had to open a year before the special military operation. “So, it’s two years behind schedule,” Putin remarked, using Russia’s official phrase for its Ukraine invasion.

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