Could Russian mercenaries conquer the world?
Four days before the invasion of Ukraine, an eerily prescient documentary aired on France 5. Le monde en face:Wagner, larmée de lombre de Poutine assiduously tracks the activities of the Russian Presidents shadow army: the Wagner Group, which arranges military solutions for the Kremlin. Since the film was broadcast, members of the 6,000-strong mercenary organisation have been deployed to Ukraine. Their orders: to kill President Zelenskyy and dismember his government.
This isnt the first time the Wagner Group has taken part in a war; its just the first time its caught the attention of UK newspapers. In France, though, it has been on the radar for years. And with good reason. The Putin regime has long had bases in the south of France (Putin himself was actually holidaying in Biarritz when Yeltsin called him with the order to take over the Kremlin). But more pressingly, in the last decade Wagner have increasingly interfered in French zones of influence in the Middle East and Africa: Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and, in January this year, Mali, the focus of Frances Operation Barkhane against Sahel jihadists.
As Alexandra Jousset and Ksenia Bolchakovas TV documentary made plain, the key problem in understanding the Wagner Group is this: it does not officially exist. No company of that name is registered in Russia. Instead, Wagner is a grey network of Russian businesses and mercenary activity. But what is clear in the murk are two key figures.
Wagners founder and leader is former Russian special forces officer Dmitry Utkin, a veteran of the Chechen wars. Reputedly, Lieutenant-colonel Utkins military call sign was Wagner, after Hitlers favourite composer (Utkin is obsessed with Nazi Germany, suggesting Putins de-nazification programme could start closer to home than the Ukraine). But the power behind the Wagnerian throne is oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is serially sanctioned by the United States, including for his financing of the troll-factory Internet Research Agency, which interfered in American elections in 2016 and 2018.
https://unherd.com/2022/03/will-russian-mercenaries-conquer-the-world/
SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)PortTack
(32,778 posts)Every wanna be emperor, dictator, strong man from the beginning of written history that has tried has failed.
milestogo
(16,829 posts)PortTack
(32,778 posts)Martin68
(22,822 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,034 posts)MarineCombatEngineer
(12,399 posts)They got their asses handed to them.
https://www.newsweek.com/total-f-russian-mercenaries-syria-lament-us-strike-killed-dozens-818073
'A Total F***up': Russian Mercenaries in Syria Lament U.S. Strike That Killed Dozens
Was definitely not a good day for those Kremlin backed Russian mercenaries.
3Hotdogs
(12,391 posts)Eric is a Christian, unlike atheist commie Russians.