Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian mercenary leader, has died in a plane crash, according to Russian officials. Prigozhin had a notorious career that took him from selling hot dogs on the streets to becoming a powerful figure under Vladimir Putin. He became one of the faces of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, leading a private army that served as a tool of Kremlin foreign policy in Africa and the Middle East. Known as the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, Prigozhin was born in St Petersburg in 1961 and had a life that involved petty crime and time in prison before his rise to power.