Prigozhin was born in the former Soviet Union and served ten years in prison when he was younger. After he was freed from jail, he ran a hot dog stand before becoming the owner of several fancy restaurants in Saint Petersburg. His restaurants brought Prigozhin into close contact with Putin.
I feel like we missed a few steps on the way there, but it’s still an interesting origin story.
Born to a poor ethnic Georgian family in the town of Gori [...], Stalin joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party [...] and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings and protection rackets.
Local thugs/mafia-leaders raising to power in Russia/USSR is not a new thing.