Just two decades ago, relations between the US and Russia were so friendly that Vladimir Putin took George W Bush out to celebrate his birthday at a floating restaurant in St Petersburg.
The Russian president had been in office for just over two years and the West was still optimistic that the youthful leader would usher in a new era for the former Soviet Union.
Then-president Bush famously claimed to have looked into Putin's eye and glimpsed his soul, declaring him "very straightforward and trustworthy".
And so, to celebrate Bush's 56th birthday, Putin took him for a night out in his hometown.
New Island had once been a seedy disco boat that floated down the Neva River, but it had since been converted into a chic restaurant for St Petersburg's elite.
The world leaders sat with their wives Laura Bush and Lyudmila Putina eating duck-liver pate, black caviar and steak with mushrooms while the media took photographs.
But there was one mysterious figure who stood behind Putin's shoulder that caught the attention of the press.
The man, named Yevgeny Prigozhin, hovered behind the Russian president, personally serving him plates of food.
"Putin — as everyone knew — was mistrustful. Especially about food and drink, the easiest way to poison someone, as the KGB well understood," the Guardian's Russia correspondent Luke Harding wrote in Shadow State.
"How did Prigozhin gain Putin's confidence?"
As he won contracts to cater lavish events for the Kremlin, Prigozhin, who always made a point of personally serving the Russian leader, earned the nickname of "Putin's chef".
For years, he denied he was anything more than a successful entrepreneur who had cooked his way into Putin's inner circle.
But there were always whispers that he was responsible for more than just the hors d'oeuvres.
He has sued media outlets and the investigative group Bellingcat for claiming that he founded a military organisation that essentially served as Putin's private army.
But last month, he finally emerged from the shadows and confirmed Russia's worst-kept secret: he is the owner of the Wagner Mercenary Group.
As Russia's military faltered on the battlefields of Ukraine, Prigozhin's guns for hire have played a critical role in keeping Putin's war going.
Now, the man who used to quietly stand behind Putin's shoulder has revealed himself to be one of his most influential figures inside the Kremlin.
The thief who became Putin's chef
Like most in Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Prigozhin grew up in Leningrad, but he had a grittier childhood than most.
Born in 1961, the boy known to his friends as Zhenya was raised by his single mother, who worked at a local hospital.
He would later tell reporters his father had died when he was young, and that the family struggled to get by while caring for his sick grandmother.
Prigozhin graduated from an athletics-focused boarding school, where he became a champion cross-country skier.
But at 18, his future looked bleak: he was sent to work in a chemical factory as penance for stealing.
Within two years, he was back at it again, this time for more serious offences.
Along with accomplices, Prigozhin was accused of a spree of break-ins at apartments in Leningrad's upscale neighbourhoods, lining their pockets with stolen crystal, fountain pens, a tape recorder, denim jacket and an expensive leather steering wheel cover.
The gang, also accused of selling jeans on the black market, were eventually arrested after they accosted a woman on the street, grabbing her by the neck and making off with her boots and earrings.
Prigozhin was convicted of robbery, theft, fraud and was sentenced to 12 years in a high-security prison camp.
By the time he was released from the gulag in 1990, he re-entered an entirely different world.
As the Soviet Union crumbled around him, Prigozhin returned to his roots in what was now St Petersburg, and found a lucrative new career path.
After setting up a humble hot dog stand, Prigozhin swiftly expanded his food empire through a series of restaurants, private supermarkets and catering services.
It was at one of Prigozhin's more elite establishments, New Island, that his first meeting with Vladimir Putin is said to have taken place.
A year before the birthday dinner for George Bush, Putin brought his French counterpart to sample the local fare. They were reportedly served by the owner himself.
"Vladimir Putin saw how I built up my business from nothing. He saw how I wasn't above serving two crowned heads. They were my guests, after all," Prigozhin said in an interview with St Petersburg magazine Gorod 812.
Putin became a regular diner, and soon Prigozhin managed to expand the business relationship.
His Concord Catering company secured significant contracts, servicing elite schools in St Petersburg and Moscow, a banquet dinner for Dmitry Medvedev's presidential inauguration, and eventually feeding Putin's troops.
The two-year military contract alone was worth 92 billion rubles ($2.38 billion), according to Russian news outlet Menduza.
But over the years, "Putin's chef" went from fixing the president's meals to fixing far stickier predicaments.
The election-meddling troll farm
Around 2013, Prigozhin established a new venture called the Internet Research Agency (IRA).
Funded through Concord Catering and a similarly named management consultancy company, IRA employed hundreds of young Russians to create fake personas promoting the Kremlin's agenda.
From a little office in St Petersburg, Prigozhin's dedicated "troll farm" would work around the clock flooding social media and comment sections of Western newspapers with pro-Putin messages and political posts about Ukraine.
"We had to write 'ordinary posts', about making cakes or music tracks we liked, but then every now and then throw in a political post about how the Kyiv government is fascist, or that sort of thing," one former worker told The Guardian.
But Prigozhin's online army would eventually turn their attention further afield, to the upcoming US election.
And it was this criminal misadventure that landed Prigozhin on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
According to a 37-page indictment, the organisation — led by Prigozhin — developed a "strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 presidential election".
Two employees allegedly travelled to the US as tourists, making their way through at least nine states over two weeks to collect intelligence and obtain US servers that would help with the operation.
IRA trolls armed with virtual private networks and stolen identities would pose as US citizens, sharing support for Donald Trump and derogatory information about Hillary Clinton.
During an experiment to see how effectively they could orchestrate live events from afar, IRA staffers lured New Yorkers to Times Square using a familiar resource: hot dogs.
The operation went on to coordinate pro-Trump political rallies, enlisting — and, in some cases, paying — American citizens to do their bidding.
By 2018, the US Department of Justice had gathered all the evidence they needed to indict Prigozhin, his companies, and 12 other individuals for "a conspiracy to defraud the United States".
While the US had traced it all back to the elusive Prigozhin, rumours were emerging he was also linked to another shady outfit using more overt tactics to interfere in global affairs.
It seemed as if Putin's chef was content with operating in the shadows, far from the prying eyes of international media and enemies of the Kremlin.
And then one day he stepped out into the spotlight.
Inside the mysterious Wagner group
For years, Prigozhin has denied any associations with the Wagner Group, a mysterious band of mercenaries that are loyal to Putin and have often been referred to as his "shadow army".
Prigozhin even went so far as to sue a British journalist for claiming he was its founder.
Then last month, not only did he out himself as the man behind the elusive organisation, he went so far as to reveal its origin story.
Shortly after Russia's annexation of Crimea on May 1, 2014, Prigozhin claims he recruited a "group of patriots" to support Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine.
"I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself," he said in a statement last month.
From that motley crew, the Wagner Group was born.
Reportedly named after Hitler's favourite composer, Richard Wagner, the group initially developed in "fits and starts," according to observers, acting as a vehicle for the Kremlin to recruit, train and deploy mercenaries.
Ex-soldiers and cash-strapped young men are recruited with the lure of earning big money, sometimes earning six times the average monthly wage in Russia.
"I was depressed and a friend told me about this private military company that I could qualify for because of my military background," Marat Gabidullin, a former Russian mercenary of the Wagner Group, told NPR of his recruitment.
Under the leadership of Dmitry Utkin, a retired veteran from Russia's military agency, the GRU, the organisation's brief is believed to have evolved over time as the Kremlin attempted to replicate the idea of a permanent military force (PMC).
While the Russian criminal code outlaws the participation of mercenaries in armed conflict or hostilities, "Wagner provides the government with a force which is deniable," according to Tracey German.
"Wagner can get involved abroad and the Kremlin can say: 'It has nothing to do with us,'" the professor of conflict and security at King's College London told the BBC.
Forces linked to the group have been spotted carrying out covert, armed operations across Africa — including in Mali, the Central African Republic and Libya.
In the US State Department's view, their actions threatened "stability, good governance, and respect for human rights".
Wagner mercenaries have also been accused of committing rapes and robberies against civilians in the Central African Republic, according to the United Nations.
Prigozhin, despite having no military or secret service background, is believed to have profited from Wagner operations abroad.
In 2016, Wagner managed to secure a cut of the profits from oil and gas fields it seized and protected from the Islamic State group.
This income stream later became essential when Prigozhin fell out with defence minister Sergei Shoigu over who should claim credit for military successes in Syria, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Wagner's military funding and contracts suddenly dried up, though the Kremlin's reliance on the group has never completely faded.
"[Prigozhin] can fulfill any task for Putin, ranging from fighting the opposition to sending mercenaries to Syria," Lyubov Sobol of the Anti-Corruption Foundation told the New York Times.
"He serves certain interests in certain spheres, and Putin trusts him."
Wagner's involvement in Ukraine
The Wagner Group's efforts in Ukraine have become essential as Putin's own troops struggle to maintain territory or make significant gains in the field.
Just over three months into the war, the British Ministry of Defence noted Russia had started using Wagner personnel "to reinforce front-line forces and mitigate manning shortfalls and casualties".
But up against Ukraine's Western-backed forces, Prigozhin and Utkin appear to be lowering their recruiting standards, inviting convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals to join the fight in July.
In mid-August, Ukrainian paramilitary claimed to have struck a base in Popsana, Luhansk, that it identified as Wagner's eastern headquarters.
By September, Wagner was ramping up recruiting efforts, with a video showing Prigozhin himself appealing directly to Russian convicts, boasting that he could buy their freedom in exchange for six months on the front line.
"It's either private military companies and prisoners, or your children — decide for yourself," he added in a statement after the footage was leaked.
However, the group does appear to be achieving some tactical gains.
The British Defence Ministry noted last week that Wagner likely remained heavily involved in fighting around Bakhmut in Donetsk, where pro-Russian forces have advanced.
"Russia continues to prosecute offensive operations in central Donbas and is, very slowly, making progress," an official noted during Friday's briefing.
"However, its overall operational design is undermined by the Ukrainian pressure against its northern and southern flanks, and by severe shortages of munitions and manpower."
What next for Yevgeny Prigozhin?
While it remains unclear why Prigozhin chose this moment in the war to finally confirm his connection to the Wagner Group, Kremlin watchers have noted the power dynamics are shifting.
In recent weeks, the infighting among Putin's inner circle appears to have reached unprecedented levels, with Prigozhin leading the pack and even directly taking aim at Putin's flailing defence chief, Sergei Shoigu.
Following a defeat in Luhansk, Prigozhin joined Chechen leader Roman Kadyrov in strident criticisms of the Russian military command, declaring: "All these bastards should be sent barefoot to the front with automatic guns."
The Institute for the Study of War noted last week that Prigozhin had been increasingly critical of his government in public, claiming Russian gains in Ukraine have been reliant on the Wagner Group, and talking up a "quiet civil war" playing out at home.
"Prigozhin's narratives have the ingredients to appeal to the ... nationalist constituency that has long called for oligarchs to finance supplies for the armed forces, demanded transparency about what is really going on at the front, and criticised Russian higher military institutions for their failures on the frontlines," the ISW wrote.
"While Prigozhin does not directly oppose or criticise Putin, his growing notoriety within the nationalist community may undermine Putin's 'strongman' appeal by comparison.
"The emerging discussions about a civil war in Russia may further disrupt the Kremlin's narratives about the national, ethnic, and religious unity within Russia."
Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky recently told Politico he suspects the tactic to push for a more aggressive win-at-all-costs approach in Ukraine is driven by another motive.
"Prigozhin is under the control of Putin today," he said.
"But he's also getting ready for life after Putin."
