Brawling with elite, Russian mercenary boss wishes politician shot

FILE PHOTO: Evgeny Prigozhin (L) assists Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during a dinner with foreign scholars and journalists at the restaurant Cheval Blanc on the premises of an equestrian complex outside Moscow November 11, 2011. REUTERS/Misha Japaridze/Pool/File Photo

LONDON (Reuters) - Yevgeny Prigozhin, the shaven-headed former convict and catering magnate who runs Russia's Wagner mercenary army on the Ukraine frontline, said on Friday that a politician who criticised him should be shot and may end up on a pitchfork.

Fuelling a growing standoff with Russia's political and military elite, Prigozhin evoked the actions of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin during World War Two to excoriate a regional governor who had told him to stick to his food business.