99. Putin's Secret Army: Trump, Wagner And Russia (Ep 2)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How did Donald Trump win the 2016 US election? Was Russian interference really behind his unlikely success? And how does one man rock the electoral system of the world’s most powerful nation? In the second instalment of their series on Yevgeny Prigozhin, David and Gordon delve into the murky story of how the Internet Research Agency interfered in the 2016 election and changed the course of history. ------------------- THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026: Buy your tickets ⁠HERE⁠ to see David and Gordon live on stage at London’s Southbank Centre on 31 January. ------------------- Try Attio for free at ⁠https://www.attio.com/tric⁠ ------------------- Join The Declassified Club: Start your free trial at⁠ ⁠⁠therestisclassified.com⁠⁠⁠ - go deeper into the world of espionage with exclusive Q&As, interviews with top intelligence insiders, quarterly livestreams, ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, and weekly deep dives into original spy stories. Members also get curated reading lists, special book discounts, prize draws, and access to our private chat community. To sign up to the free newsletter, go to: ⁠⁠⁠https://mailchi.mp/goalhanger.com/tric-free-newsletter-sign-up⁠ ⁠⁠ ------------------- Order a signed edition of Gordon's latest book, The Spy in the Archive, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠via this link.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ------------------- Email: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@triclassified⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Social Producer: Emma Jackson Video Editor: Vasco Andrade Producer: Becki Hills Head of History: Dom Johnson Exec Producer: Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	For exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to series,
0:09.0	first look at live show tickets, a weekly newsletter, and discounted books,
0:13.1	join the Declassified Club at the rest is classified.com. Internet operators needed.
0:27.8	Work in a glamorous office in Ogino.
0:30.6	Three exclamation points.
0:32.6	25,960 rubles per month.
0:36.3	The job.
0:43.3	Placing comments on internet sites, writing thematic posts, blogs, social media. Well, welcome to the rest is classified. I'm David McLaughie. And I'm Gordon Carrera. And that is a job advert that appeared maybe somewhat mysteriously in St. Petersburg in 2013 for work with
0:58.5	Yevgeny Progoshin or under Yevgeny Progoshin at what is going to be known as the Internet
1:05.0	Research Agency. We should say, Gordon, I guess we left Yvgeny Progoshin last time. Of course, as Putin's caterer,
1:13.7	he's won big contracts to feed schools, to feed the Russian military. He's kind of building a presence
1:21.6	as a supplier of food services to important Russians. And this chapter is going to show how this guy who frankly has been running a food
1:34.7	service business is going to get connected with the world of Russian politics, disinformation,
1:43.4	and I think really elevate himself on kind of the international
1:47.2	stage. Yeah. This is in a way what made him first famous, notorious, particularly for the United
1:53.5	States, is his role in disinformation and election interference. But it interesting enough,
2:00.1	does connect up to his life as a caterer and onto his life as a
2:06.3	mercenary warlord, as we'll see.
2:08.1	And I think that's one of the kind of curious things about.
2:10.9	This is the missing chapter.
2:12.4	The missing link between caterer and mercenary warlord is, of course, a supplier of disinformation services.
2:21.6	But bear with us.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goalhanger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goalhanger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.