Man Who Claims 'Putin's Chef' Is Gay Invites Skeptics to Meet Him

A video making the rounds on social media purports to show a man claiming that a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin is gay, and he is inviting skeptics to meet with him.

The video, shared Tuesday by an Estonian Twitter user who goes by "Dmitri," begins with a Russian man introducing himself as Sasha Kurara and claiming to be an ex-convict, having served time in prison at the same time as Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin is a wealthy businessman with a close relationship with Putin, sometimes dubbed "Putin's Chef" because of his various restaurants and catering businesses.

Kurara further said in the profanity- and slur-laden clip that Prigozhin is gay, or at least, performed sexual acts on other men during his time in prison. He directed the message toward members of Wagner, a mercenary outfit also run by Prigozhin.

"Prigozhin is the 'offended,'" Kurara said in the video, using a slang term for Russian prisoners considered to be of the lowest class. "Who had his place and knew his place and agreed to his place."

Later in the video, Kurara claims that Prigozhin performed a sexual act on him, explaining that such things are what the prisoners did for entertainment.

Prigozhin was first convicted of a crime in 1979 when he was 18, serving a suspended sentence in Leningrad for theft. In 1981, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for robbery, fraud and involving teenagers in crime. He ultimately served only nine years of the sentence, receiving a pardon in 1988 and being released in 1990.

In response to skeptics of his first video, Kurara released a second one in which he stood by his claims and invited doubters to meet with him in person. In addition to threatening skeptics with violence, the man also claimed that his numerous tattoos are proof that he served time in prison and said that he has gone "through a whole lot in this life, and I'm responsible for every word of mine."

"So there's more to the story with the ex-convict who claims Prigozhin was adventurous in prison," Twitter user Dmitri wrote in his post sharing the second clip. "There's a second video where the man confidently confirms his statements."

Newsweek, which was unable to independently verify the claims made by the man in the two clips, reached out to Russian officials for comment.

In addition to his close relationship with Putin, Prigozhin has been singled out by commentators as a possible successor to the Russian president should he be forced out of office in the near future. Ex-Kremlin adviser Sergei Markov called Prigozhin a "voice of the people" given his recent public criticism of the Russian military and other oligarchs.