Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was sanctioned by the U.S. for financing online efforts to distort the 2016 presidential election, used a company to buy out debts owed by Navalny so that he could increase the financial pressure on the anti-corruption campaigner.

He chose the moment that Navalny was at his weakest—unconscious in a hospital bed—to make the announcement.

“I intend to strip this group of unscrupulous people of their clothes and shoes,” Prigozhin said.

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/putin-chef-threatens-destroy-navalny-133100944.html