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Their bond was forged in the shadowy environment where Russia's state security services and the criminal underworld congregated.

Vladimir Putin became more and more reliant on Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner military company's victories in the Ukrainian conflict as it developed into one of the most significant institutions in Russia.

However, their paths first crossed in the sleazy St. Petersburg of the early 1990s, in the politically unstable years following the fall of the Soviet Union.

Both men are from the second-largest city and cultural center of Russia.

It is known as the crime center of Russia and the headquarters of strong gangs. It is also home to the Hermitage art museum and the Imperial Winter Palace.

Prigozhin had just been released from prison, and Mr. Putin had just returned from a mission in East Germany as an official with the Soviet security service, the KGB, and was searching for a path into politics. It is uncertain exactly how they first met.

Prigozhin, who was first convicted at age 17, was no stranger to crime. He received a lengthy prison sentence for robbery in 1981 after receiving a suspended sentence for stealing in the late 1970s.

He and two men had attempted to strangle a woman in the street after grabbing her by the neck and stealing her winter boots and jewellery.

Russia was a drastically different state in 1990 when he was released from prison. The Berlin Wall had come down, perestroika (restructuring) was well underway, and Mikhail Gorbachev, a reformer, was in charge in place of the previous Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

Prigozhin began his career selling hot dogs in St. Petersburg, but by the middle of the 1990s, he had built a restaurant. The two men probably initially met at the Old Custom House.

Both the city's strong mayor, Anatoly Sobchak, and local mafia bosses were drawn to the menu of foie gras and oysters. As Sobchak's deputy, Vladimir Putin, who was 40 at the time, also traveled there.

The one restaurant owned by Prigozhin grew into a chain, and officials from cities far outside of St. Petersburg frequented it.

The two men had developed a strong friendship by the turn of the century, when Mr. Putin was elected president, and it was during this period that Prigozhin earned the moniker "Putin's chef."

In a picture, Prigozhin is seen serving dinner to the president and him.

In St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin enjoyed entertaining world leaders like President George W. Bush.

It was essential to have a personal chef for a man like Russia's new leader to make sure his cuisine was hygienic.

He had previously led the FSB, the KGB's successor organization, and was always the suspicious KGB thinker.

It was also practical to have a man he could influence and whose deepest secrets he would have known.

With Vladimir Putin in charge of the Kremlin, Russia's security agencies gradually reclaimed power. Prigozhin took on a variety of Kremlin activities, especially those that fell outside the purview of the security services.

The individual in the Kremlin could now credibly deny involvement since their relationship had been severed.

In order to broadcast false information both inside and outside of Russia, Prigozhin built a media empire. It frequently concocted tales that were so fanciful that no state propaganda machine would dare to disseminate them.

He established a "troll factory" as social media grew in popularity, and its major goal was to give Russians the impression that there was no such thing as truth and there was no use in seeking it.

He didn't acknowledge being the mind behind the "Internet Research Agency" for another ten years.

At a meal in 2011, Yevgeny Prigozhin is seen serving Vladimir Putin (center).

The first information about the Wagner private military business emerged following the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2013–14 and Russia's invasion of Crimea. In the Crimea and the east of Ukraine, Wagner backed separatists who were in favor of Russia.

Despite the fact that Prigozhin and his mercenaries played an increasingly significant role in establishing President Putin's authority, mercenary organizations are illegal under Russian law.

The Kremlin thus insisted that it had no connection to him until March 2022.

Wagner also had a significant presence in Syria, where brutal commander Dmitry Utkin initially gained notoriety as Prigozhin's close ally. From Libya and Mali to the Central African Republic, the mercenary gang has long been involved in several African nations.

Officially speaking, Prigozhin and the president had no particular bond.

Simply stating that they were aware of the presence of a Russian "private businessman" who was engaged in those activities would be all that Mr. Putin or his press secretary Dmitry Peskov would say. However, it was evident that such actions could not be carried out without Kremlin approval.

Wagner had received significant state backing for years and its mercenaries had bravely fought in battle, but President Putin just acknowledged this in June. However, he said that collectively, private military corporations did not exist since they were unlawful.

In a series of video speeches from Bakhmut, Prigozhin was most outspoken in his criticism of the defense establishment.

Reports of Wagner warfare in Ukraine did not surface until the summer of 2022.

Within a few weeks, Prigozhin was visiting Russian jails to enlist prisoners in the fight against the Axis.

He was described as a man "whose heart aches for what's happening" and as someone who was "making a big contribution" by the Kremlin spokeswoman.

In November, Prigozhin inaugurated the Wagner Center in St. Petersburg, and he grew increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the Russian military and the defense establishment.

His criticism peaked as Ukrainian forces forced Russian forces through a series of retreats.

He expressed his displeasure that the army command was refusing to acknowledge the contribution of the mercenaries to the war effort.

He rejected a request from the defense ministry to put all mercenary organizations under its authority. He dared to challenge the basic purposes of the conflict when things boiled over.

He declared a "march for justice" on the way to Moscow on June 23.

According to sources who spoke with the BBC, Prigozhin's rebellion was an indication of his desperation and an effort to draw President Putin's attention to his dispute with the Russian military.

Days after the uprising had been crushed, Vladimir Putin hosted a three-hour meeting with his erstwhile ally and more than 30 Wagner officers at the Kremlin.

Although he was no longer required by Vladimir Putin, the fate of his soldiers remained a mystery.

In his final web video, which was allegedly shot in an African field, Prigozhin made it apparent that he thought his future rested in that continent. In it, he declared: "Here we are, putting God's fear into Isis, al-Qaeda, and other bandits."

However, his story seems to have come to an end quickly after that, following a path akin to other instances in Russian history. A man who was given the responsibility for carrying out the Kremlin's harshest policies was mercilessly punished and ultimately destroyed.

Alternatively, Vladimir Putin himself said of him: "He was a man with a difficult fate and he made serious mistakes in life."