Russian Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhins troll farm and media outfit are looking for fresh ownership after his aborted rebellion and exile in Belarus, independent mediareported Thursday.After years of denials, Prigozhinconfirmed in February 2023 the widely held belief that he was behind Russias network of troll farms known as the Internet Research Agency.
The networkexpanded in 2019 into the Patriot media group, with a mission to create a favorable information space about Russia and Prigozhin appointed chairman of its board of trustees.Patriots work has been paralyzed for nearly a week after police raided its St.
Petersburg headquarters during Wagners dramatic march toward Moscow on Saturday, the business news website The Bell reported, citing current and former employees.Russia has also blocked Prigozhins main media outlet RIA FAN, which is part of the Patriot media group, after Wagners short-lived rebellion.Theres no more central management, The Bell quoted an anonymous Prigozhin staffer as saying.Patriots de facto director Ilya Gorbunov was in negotiations with potential buyers earlier this week until his abrupt disappearance, The Bell said.The private media holding National Media Group (NMG)was identified as one of Patriots potential buyers.NMG was founded by billionaire banker Yury Kovalchuk, a close friend of President Vladimir Putins.
Its board is chaired by retired Olympic gymnast and Putins rumoredmistress Alina Kabaeva.The Bell said all of its sources believed Patriot will now be directly supervised by the presidential administration regardless of its formal owner.The holding companys destruction is out of the question.
The question being decided is new management, one anonymous source was quoted as saying.The FBI placed Prigozhin on its wanted list in February 2021 on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud the United States, interfering in U.S.
domestic politics and attempting to influence a presidential election.
It offered a cash reward of up to $250,000 for information that could lead to Prigozhins arrest.Russias Foreign Ministrysaid Wednesday that no Russian citizen would be extradited to the United States.