All traces of Prigozhin have been cleared from PMC Wagner Center

“It’s a different organization now”

After the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, a spontaneous memorial appeared near the gates of the PMC Wagner Center building in St. Petersburg: flowers, candles, flags, posters, photographs. How the center itself will now function has not been reported anywhere. On July 1, a few days after the rebellion, we visited the building of the center – after the searches, Prigozhin’s units continued to work there, everything was in the Wagner symbol. Now the situation has changed.

Near the Wagner Center, on Zolnaya Street, a spontaneous memorial was smashed by the road. On the day I arrived, there were several men standing here who had parked their cars on the side of the road to take a selfie in front of the Wagner PMC flag.

A girl was sitting nearby on the pavement: “I’m conducting a survey on what people think about Prigogine.”

There was no one in particular for her to question. The girl quickly turned and left.

I went into the building where the Wagner Center was located. A few months ago, emblems of PMCs hung in the lobby, there were computers in the offices, people worked (about this – in the report “Prigozhin is in touch with us: what’s going on at the PMC Wagner Center”).

Now it’s empty. No signs, no emblems. The metal detector frames have been removed, there is no armed guard.

The reception now has the inscription “Sea Capital” in large letters.

PMC Wagner Center opened with pomp last November. “Generation of new ideas to increase the defense capability of Russia” – this is how Prigozhin and Co. formulated the task.

But already in January, the building was formally renamed the Sea Capital. So the development project, in fact, was called back in 2020, when Prigozhin bought it.

– No more “Wagner Center”, now it’s just a business center. We rent out premises. Anyone can take pictures, – the girl at the counter unfolded a booklet with a diagram of offices.

– Did the employees of the Wagner Center vacate the premises, did they take out the things?

– Yes, everything is taken out.

– The workers themselves are not here now, for example, the press secretary?

– There’s definitely no one else here.

– Does the building still belong to the Prigogines?

– I don’t know anything about Prigogine, we don’t talk about him. It is now a different organization.

Judging by the empty parking lot near the business center, there is no strong demand for office rent.

Read the report “There were indications of the secret shelter of Yevgeny Prigozhin: “Northern Versailles” seemed to have died out” .