From the editors: As the Kyiv Post reported on Dec. 14 the European Union imposed restrictive measures against the Wagner Group, a private military corporation that has been named as being among the Russian illegal occupation and invasion forces in Ukraine’s Donbas and Crimea. This year a major scandal – Wagnergate – broke out in Ukraine concerning the handling of a secret plan made by Ukrainian security forces to lure a group of Wagner fighters into their hands.
Diane Francis looks at the broader details about the notorious Russian Wagner “private” army.
Russia’s undeclared “War against Europe” includes the weaponization of its energy market and of illegal migration at the Polish-Belarusian border, but also much, much more. The war extends to Europe’s former colonies: Last month, the American and French governments condemned the nation of Mali for hiring the Wagner Group, an organization named after Hitler’s favorite composer.
But the Wagner Group is not an orchestra: It’s a private armed force that employs thousands of Russian mercenaries to wage war or simply to stir up trouble around the world. Such soldiers of fortune have been around throughout history, but Wagner is unique. It has grown in just seven years into a multinational organization that operates in 10 African nations plus another 17 elsewhere. Washington and some EU countries accuse the Wagner Group of being a proxy force for Russia’s Defense Ministry. The Kremlin denies formal connections with the group.
Wagner struck the first blow in Vladimir Putin’s undeclared War against Europe in 2014 when its personnel helped Russia seize Crimea and invade Eastern Ukraine. It provides political cover for the Kremlin which has steadfastly, and unbelievably, denied any involvement in this war against Ukraine. From that, Wagner has grown exponentially, landing “gigs” such as civil wars in Libya and Syria, and beyond.
Officially, Russia does not acknowledge any direct contact with or ownership of Wagner, but it’s not coincidental that its battle-hardened soldiers and cyber warriors have been involved in conflicts and situations designed to advance Vladimir Putin’s geopolitical aims. Mali is its most recent controversial expansion.
The founder, and presumably co-owner, of Wagner Group, is Dmitry Utkin, a former Russian special forces officer who named his new outfit “Wagner” after the military call-sign he chose in honor of the Third Reich. A big Nazi fan, he left the military and became a mercenary then started his own shop. But he hit the big time when he hooked up with one of Putin’s pals, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a big-time Russian oligarch who began as a juvenile delinquent then took up cooking.
Prigozhin left behind his life of crime and parlayed his skills to become a successful caterer and restauranteur, where he befriended Russia’s powerful. Nicknamed “Putin’s cook”, he soon realized that serving up salads was not as lucrative as serving up soldiers so he formed a partnership with Wagner and, thanks to Kremlin connections, the two have built one of the world’s largest privatized armies.
Wagner mixes business with warfare: Its soldiers fight, kill, or are killed, train military forces, and act as bodyguards or security guards for governments, organizations, and businesses. They are paid considerable fees but also negotiate “in-kind” compensation deals such as mineral rights, oil fields, enterprises, or other non-monetary privileges.
Its recruits are drawn from the Russian military. They are well-paid and sign 10-year confidentiality agreements. Because they are mercenaries, they are not entitled to any protection in armed conflicts as per the Geneva Conventions, because they are not deemed combatants or, if captured, prisoners of war. That’s why they, and others like them, are known as “ghost soldiers”. When they die, are wounded, or are captured their true identities are never disclosed and they simply disappear.
Wagner operated under the world’s radar for years then surfaced in early 2018 after U.S. forces in Syria killed hundreds of Russians in unidentified combat gear. Surprisingly, there was no claim by Russia for the bodies, no diplomatic flap about casualties, and not even a mention of this event by Moscow. In fact, Russian officials distanced themselves from the affair completely. Then the truth came out. At the time, Wagner was quietly assisting Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad in his civil war on behalf of Russia which officially Russia never admitted it was involved. So when the hundreds died, they were simply “ghosted”.
The reality is that Wagner has been the principal weapon in Russia’s hybrid wars around the world. It’s also expanded into cyber warfare and disinformation operations. In 2016, Prigozhin was charged by the United States with setting up an internet “troll factory” to influence the U.S. elections for Donald Trump. And in 2020, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on him and on the Wagner Group following alleged human rights abuses perpetrated in Sudan.
Wagner may be the world’s biggest mercenary force, but it’s also the most successful. Its 2014 operations involved several hundred Wagner operatives in green uniforms who were sent to Crimea, during the chaos that resulted after Ukrainians overthrew their dictator. They disarmed Ukraine’s military installations with the help of Russians stationed there at Moscow’s naval base. They took over facilities, then helped organize teams to take over the local government and institutions. They staged a snap referendum and Crimeans allegedly voted to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.
They also participated in a similar scheme in Eastern Ukraine with the backup of Russian soldiers and tanks. Thousands of Ukrainians and Russian operatives died, the region’s property was confiscated, assets were looted, and two million Ukrainians were displaced. The region, called Donbas, is now occupied by so-called Russian separatists but Wagner is still there along with gangsters. In 2015, Wagner went to Syria and participated in a civil war that destroyed the country, killed millions, and drove out 7.4 million Syrians who fled to Europe or ended up in refugee camps in Turkey or Jordan.
Rumors are that Wagner’s compensation for its Syrian effort included a 25 percent share of a gigantic natural gas and oil field near Deir Ezzor, a template that it has replicated across Africa and beyond. Wagner also signs “defense cooperation” deals and is involved in anti-terrorist activities, or simply provides bodyguards or security guards for mines, oilfields, pipelines, or potentates.
Its first known foray into the Western Hemisphere took place in early 2019 when the Kremlin hired Wagner contractors to protect Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro whose followers were defecting in droves. This deployment was also useful to help guard the oil assets of Russia’s oil giant Rosneft which has made huge investments there.
As Wagner’s involvement shows, Africa has become a focus of Russia’s attention, like China’s, because it is resource-rich, corruptible, and unstable. China snaps up vassal nations through its Belt and Road Initiative — a mercantilist “Marshall Plan” — that builds infrastructure and provides loans and workers. Russia’s approach, on the other hand, is geopolitical and provides the muscle.
Mali is a case in point. Mali hired Wagner to provide 1,000 mercenaries at a cost of millions of dollars per month. A U.S. Defense spokesperson said: “Given the Wagner Group’s record if these reports are true, any role for Russian mercenaries in Mali will likely exacerbate an already fragile and unstable situation… and would complicate the international response in support of the transition government.”
The French were upset because they had planned to leave their former colony and repatriate their 2,000 counter-terrorism forces fighting to keep the peace. Mali’s leader blamed France’s looming exodus as the reason why he hired the Russian operatives to fend off terrorists there. “They are combating terrorism,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a news conference at the U.N. last week. “And they have turned to a private military company from Russia in connection with the fact that, as I understand, France wants to significantly draw down its military component. We don’t have anything to do with that … at the government level, we are also contributing to providing for military and defense capacities of Mali.” The continent is ripe for the picking but so are other regions.
Wagner serves as the tip of the spear in Russia’s global influence maneuvers, unaccountable and ruthlessly effective. Other Russian paramilitary groups have been created too which has forced the US, UK, and others to create or support their own private-sector mercenaries. They also field governmental “mixed teams” comprised of intelligence personnel and special forces operatives who undertake dangerous and daring missions in secret. One such team found and assassinated Osama bin Laden.
Whether run by governments, or private contractors like Wagner, these organizations are responsible for most of the sabotage, counter-terrorism, and disinformation campaigns around the world. Secret hybrid warfare companies have become a huge asset class, but the fact is that skulking around causing trouble has been around forever. As military strategist Sun Tsu wrote thousands of years ago in The Art of War”: “All warfare is based on deception.”
Diane Francis is Editor at Large with the National Post in Canada, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, and publisher of Diane Francis on America at https://dianefrancis.substack.com/
