On 6 February 2022, a court in Moscow confirmed an earlier guilty verdict against journalist Alexey Venediktov, handed for calling Russian oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin the “overlord of PMC Wagner”. Venediktov pronounced the phrase in summer 2021 on air at Echo of Moscow, Russia’s largest independent radio at the time, where he was editor-in-chief. Multiple Russian and international media reports confirmed Prigozhin’s role in managing the private military company prior to the airing Echo of Moscow’s program.
In August 2022, a court in Moscow found Venediktov guilty, but refused Prigozhin’s demand to have Echo of Moscow pay a fine and publish a correction, as the media outlet was closed following the introduction of war censorship in Russia in March 2022. In September, Prigozhin himself publicly admitted that he ran Wagner, following which Venediktov’s lawyers demanded a new examination of the case citing the oligarch’s statement. Despite this, the Moscow’s Presnenskiy District Court ruled that Venediktov’s statement was untrue.
Multiple media reports confirm Wagner’s crucial role in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.