In today’s #vatnik soup I’ll continue discussing Prigozhin, and focus on his mercenary group Wagner. It’s a paramilitary organization that deals with Putin’s “dirty problems”. Private military contractors are forbidden by law in 🇷🇺, and the group operates mostly beyond the law. 1/9

Wagner doesn’t have any central ideology, but it has ties to neo-nazi movements in Russia. (Ex-)Wagner leader Dmitry Utkin even has nazi symbols tattooed on his body and neo-nazi groups such as the Rusich work under Wagner. (see my previous report:

https://twitter.com/P_Kallioniemi/status/1589145838869434370

). 2/9

Wagner has been involved in the 🇷🇺-🇺🇦 conflict since 2014 when it aided separatist forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk areas. The group has also been involved in other conflicts around the world, including Syria, Libya and Mali. 3/9

Wagner has a tendency to bring war crimes such as rapes, torturing and robberies where ever they go: Raping women in Mali, (theafricareport.com/239790/mali-in…) and killing civilians in Ukraine (theguardian.com/world/2022/may…) are just for examples of this kind of activity. 4/9

Before the war in 🇺🇦, Wagner mostly employed retired servicemen aged between 35 to 55. This all changed after Russia started getting their ass kicked in Ukraine, and now they are going through Russian prisons, looking for anyone who’s interested in joining the meat grinder. 5/9

Allegedly cannibals and serial killers have joined the fold, and many of these prisoners also have serious infectious diseases, including hepathisis and HIV. These “soldiers” are marked with approriate bracelets.
theins.ru/en/news/255084
6/9

Recruitment of serious criminals will no doubt lead to increase of Russian war crimes in Ukraine. By Russian standards, the group pays really well - monthly salary is estimated to be something between 670 and 2100 USD. 7/9

The company shares bases with 🇷🇺 military and they train its personnel in 🇷🇺 MoD facility masked as a “children’s vacation camp”: reuters.com/article/us-mid…

🇺🇦’s Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Hrytsak said that, in their opinion, Wagner was in essence “a private army of Putin”. 8/9

Prizoghin has sued Bellingcat, Meduza and EoM for reporting his links to Wagner. Finally, in Sept 2022, he finally admitted to finding the group: theguardian.com/world/2022/sep…
Prigozhin was filmed during a recruit process in 🇷🇺 prison on 14th of Sept, 2022:

https://twitter.com/christogrozev/status/1570087287643414528

9/9