Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, responded to comparisons between himself and early 20th century monk Grigory Rasputin on Sunday by talking up his own bloodthirsty actions. Prigozhin—who is sometimes dubbed “Putin’s chef”—was responding to a Financial Times article that likened him to the monk, who treated the son of the last Russian tsar for the blood condition hemophilia. “I am not very familiar with the history of Rasputin, but as far as I know, an important quality of Rasputin is that he staunched the blood flow of the young prince with incantations,” Prigozhin’s press service quoted him as saying in response to the article. “Unfortunately, I do not staunch blood flow. I bleed the enemies of our motherland. And not by incantations, but by direct contact with them.” Rasputin was ultimately assassinated in 1916 by Russian nobleman who distrusted his powerful influence over the tsar’s family.