alliance with the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, in opposition to the Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. In this article, Meduza’s special correspondent Andrey Pertsev tells the story of Prigozhin’s conflict with another key player in Putin’s government — Alexander Beglov, St. Petersburg’s acting governor. The power struggle between Beglov and Prigozhin, Andrey Pertsev suggests, may play a part in shaping the future of Putin’s regime.

Evgeny Prigozhin has long wanted Alexander Beglov to resign from his post as the governor of St. Petersburg. This animosity had to do with Beglov’s reluctance to contract Prigozhin and his businesses for large state-funded projects in the region. In the past, Prigozhin tried to pressure Beglov by encouraging inconvenient media coverage of the governor’s various shortcomings. Now, Prigozhin is doing something bolder: he has called the Russian government to block YouTube in Russia, and to sanction Google an “undesirable organization.” Earlier this month, The Washington Post propaganda, and actively promote St. Petersburg’s “patronage” of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city demolished by the Russian armed forces. Alexander Beglov has more than once Support Meduza