Wagner Group

Wagner Group   (PMC, Hit squad)
Formation	2014
Founder	•  Dmitry Utkin •  Yevgeny Prigozhin •  GRU
Extinction	2023?
Headquarters	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Staff	50,000
Membership	Yevgeny Prigozhin
A well known ruthless private military contractor. It it used by Russia as a secret black ops squad. Its founders were involved in a chaotic alleged coup in 2023.

For centuries, leaders often depended on bands of mercenary warriors to make up their military strength in times of war, but as national militaries evolved, these formations shank from prominence, with modern PMCs generally being focused on support roles like base or VIP security or logistics (even if their contracts grew massively post 2001). Wagner doesn't follow that example. A force tens of thousands strong, Wagner has helped spearhead the Russian offensives around Bakhmut, and taken on international prominence. In this episode, we look at the evolution of PMCs, Russia's modern employment of them, and the implications of Wagner's role in Ukraine and its public spats with the Russian MoD - Perun - 2023.

Wagner Group (Russian: Группа Вагнера, tr. Gruppa Vagnera), officially known as PMC Wagner (Russian: ЧВК «Вагнер», tr. ChVK «Vagner»; lit. 'Wagner Private Military Company' is a private military contractor with close ties to the Russian Deep state and Vladimir Putin. In 2023, Wagner was allegedly dissolved and integrated into the Russian Ministry of Defence after an alleged "coup" attempt by its members on Russia.

Origin

Set up with help of the former chef of Russian president Putin, The group operates beyond the law in Russia, where private military companies are officially forbidden, Wagner allows the Russian state to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad. Although Russia denied Wagner to exist at first, or even receive any money from Russia, it was revealed as state sponsored hitmen group in 2023.

Structure

From 2016, Wagner had 1,000 employees, which later rose to 5,000 by August 2017, and 6,000 by December 2017. The organisation was said to be registered in Argentina and has offices in Saint Petersburg and Hong Kong. In early October 2017 Wagner's funding in 2017 was reported to be over 185 million rubles ($3.1 million) with a increased presence of Ukrainians and Serbian officers working for Wagner as the Wagner Group had offices in 20 African countries.

American Cooperation

The Intercept reported in 2020 that Eric Prince sent a proposal to the Russian firm offering ground forces as well as aviation-based surveillance, after Wagner lost more than ten fighters in Mozambique. Wagner officials said they are not interested in working with Prince.

Coup

The Wagner Group - Russia's most successful PMC after Far West - was ordered to be integrated into the Russian military in early 2023. Wagner was the only group making significant gains in 2023 in the Special Military Operation. The group - after an alleged strike on their base - invaded Rostov and attempted to drive to and eventually invade Moscow on the 23rd on June, only for leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to announce to suddenly halt what Putin called a "coup attempt". At the end of these 24 hours - Wagner's leadership left - allowedly - for Belarus. The 20 other PMCs were interestingly not under the scope of the mainstream media on this day.

Several pundits, including CIA and DIA former officer Rebekah Koffler said "Putin 'orchestrated' the Wagner coup with Prigozhin as a 'classic false flag' to boost recruitment for the army and make West think he is weakened". University of Melbourne professor William Parlett argued Putin tried to lure generals and elite investors to join the "coup" to execute double agents and deep political operatives in Russia by filtering them out, perhaps to stall the war until NATO or the US stops their aid.

Activities

"Russian Mercenaries Are Allegedly Raping and Murdering Central African Civilians" - "Vice News" - 2021.

Rape, murder, neo-Nazism, robbery, torture in Syria, Libya, Central Africa, Mali and Ukraine.

 

An event carried out

Event	Location	Description
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine/Wagner coup attempt	Rostov Russia	An attempted coup, by some seen as false flag by Putin to lure out generals and double agents within the Russian State, by others as the sign the Russian state will collapse in the 2020s.

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