Wagner's private military company in Syria. — Well, Assad called Russia for help? Prospects for the legalization of “Wagnerians”

4. Forces of special machinations.

In general, as you understand, Putin’s chef is a man with a rich biography. And in 2000-2001. she made another zigzag: Prigogine left under the roof of Misha Kutaissky and moved to Tsepov-Zolotov. And soon he completely fell into Putin’s inner circle.

After this, our hero’s affairs went uphill sharply. From a mediocre restaurateur, he turned into a supplier of ready-made meals for schools and military units worth huge sums. But at some point even this seemed not enough. And somewhere in 2012, Prigozhin began to be attracted to non-core (non-kitchen) business.

At first it was a project to clog the Internet with Zaputin propaganda. With Prigozhin’s money (i.e. from the budget), the famous troll factory in Olgino appeared in St. Petersburg, which then moved to Savushkina, 55, then to the Lakhta-2 business center, etc.

St. Petersburg, business center "Lakhta-2" on Optikov street, 4. Most of Zaputin’s comments on social networks are written here.

And finally, since 2014, Prigozhin began to participate not only in informational, but also in real wars of the Putin regime - in the east of Ukraine, the Wagner PMC received a baptism of fire. And in the fall of 2015, she was transferred to Syria.

Moscow, 2016. Commanders of the Wagner PMC in the Kremlin. Judging by the Russian press, in Lugansk Utkin liked to go out in public wearing a Wehrmacht helmet. In the image that is. It's strange that he didn't wear it to the Kremlin. After all, a meeting with the Fuhrer.

The Stealth private security company was founded by FSB Colonel Lutsenko (he still works there), and his supervisor in the 1990s was General Khokholkov (“Yeltsin’s Sudoplatov”). The general also protected the heroin trade, and the private security company was his help in the showdown. In short, special operations forces (brothers with security officers).

Moran is a company that, since 2010, has been recruiting mercenaries to protect ships abroad (including those transporting contraband). It was to Kalashnikov at “Moran” that Utkin first went, having left the army in 2013. Major Kuznetsov (Ratibor) also began his career as a mercenary there, after leaving prison, and many others.

Lieutenant Colonel FSB Vyacheslav Kalashnikov from St. Petersburg. The person who selected key personnel for Wagner PMC:

In 2013, through the Kalashnikov company, the first (unsuccessful) attempt was made to send mercenaries to Syria for operations on land. They assembled a small unit (267 people), with the loud name “Slavic Corps,” and sent them to fight for Assad. However, the mercenaries could not fight without air and artillery support; they fled in the first battle and were sent back to Russia.

In this detachment there was Utkin and the future command staff of Wagner PMC. The first pancake came out badly, but in 2014 they were remembered again, creating a new, larger gang, which went to war on a large scale - in Ukraine, again in Syria, etc. And they hired a lackey cook to pay for it all (from the budget in the end, so it’s not a pity).

Russia's losses in Syria number in the dozens. But the press service of the Ministry of Defense does not lie - the fighters do not belong to the military department. Nevertheless, Landsknechts from Wagner PMCs receive real military orders.

Stanislav Zalesov/Kommersant

The fighters of a de jure non-existent private military company suffer losses in Ukraine and Syria, and at the same time do not spoil the official statistics. On the grave crosses there are dates of life and death, but the place of the last battle is spoken of in a low voice and only among one’s own. Fontanka found out where you can see the truthful list of Russian losses - in decrees signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which have not been published anywhere.

The battalion with heavy infantry weapons and armored vehicles, known as the “Wagner PMC,” does not formally exist. Such a unit cannot be found either in law enforcement agencies or in the register of legal entities. The fighters are not on the personnel lists. It cannot exist: in Russia there is no law on private military companies, and there cannot be a civilian organization with armored fighting vehicles, man-portable anti-aircraft systems and mortars in its arsenal. But it is there.

Formed on the basis of the “Slavic Corps”, battered in Syria in 2013, a conditional PMC under the command of a man with the call sign “Wagner”, according to Fontanka, has been operating in the Crimea since the spring of 2014, and then in the territory of the Lugansk region.

Since the fall of 2015, the main efforts have been transferred to Syria. Her story can be read in the Fontanka investigation.

Not everyone believed the story about the “semi-legendary” PMC. The words of nameless fighters are not enough for skeptics; they demand names and supporting documents. Fontanka is ready to provide them.

Wagner

Reserve Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Utkin, 46 years old. A professional military man, until 2013 he was the commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate brigade of the Special Forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, stationed in Pechory, Pskov region. After leaving the reserve, he worked for Moran Security Group, a private company specializing in the protection of ships in pirate-prone areas. When MSG managers sent him to Syria to defend Bashar al-Assad in 2013, he participated in this failed expedition. Since 2014, he has been the commander of his own unit, which, based on his call sign, received the code name “Wagner PMC.”

Known for his commitment to the aesthetics and ideology of the Third Reich, hence the call sign in honor of the mystical composer. In Lugansk, the personnel shocked, replacing their usual field Panama hat with a steel Wehrmacht helmet - but the commander’s quirks are not discussed.

Allegedly killed in January 2016 near Donetsk Ozeryanovka, but in fact he is alive and well. Now he is either in Syria or in a training camp in Molkino.

He doesn't like to be photographed, but we found him in old footage.

An officer with the call sign “Chub” or “Chupa” is a deputy commander for combat training. Unlike Wagner, who is not favored for his adherence to straightforward tactics in the style of “Machine guns are not machine guns - sabers drawn, “give me a position, son of a bitch!”, Chub earned the sincere respect of the personnel: “If only there were more commanders like him, and everything would be fine . I thought with my head and didn’t send people to meat.”

Real name: Sergei Chupov, 51 years old, reserve major. Killed near Damascus. Ruslan Leviev’s Conflict Intelligence Team and RBC spoke about his death. They traced the major's life path: a general military school in Almaty, Afghanistan as part of the 56th separate airborne battalion, transfer to the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 46th brigade, Chechnya, in the late nineties - transfer to the reserve.

Sergei Chupov was buried on March 18, 2016 in the cemetery of Balashikha near Moscow, on the sign the date of death is February 8, 2016.

Both CIT investigators and RBC journalists suggested that Chupov could be reinstated in the Armed Forces and participate in the Syrian conflict as a Special Operations Service officer or some kind of “negotiator.”

Apparently this is not the case. According to Fontanka, Sergei Chupov has been in the Wagner group since its formation. He did not work for Moran Security and was not in the Slavic Corps, but already in May 2014, together with Utkin and a group of veteran instructors (almost all former MSG employees), he flew from Moscow to Rostov, and from there he went to the Vesely farm , next to which the first PMC training base will be set up (later the camp will be moved to Molkino, Krasnodar Territory).

Data on the time of death also vary. The grave cross indicates February 8, 2016, but according to the recollections of the participants in the events, this could have happened in January.

Courage and Courage

The only documentary evidence of the existence of an informal battalion, somehow recognized by official structures, was found by Fontanka in documents signed by the President of Russia.

Fontanka was told that Wagner’s fighters receive state awards for military operations in Ukraine and Syria.

“On February 23, on May 9, there will be an award ceremony in Molkino. A gray-haired man in a leather officer's flight jacket arrives, looking like a security officer with the rank of no lower than major general. First, to those who are alive in the ranks, to whom the Order of Courage, to whom - “Courage”. Then he reads out those who are not in the ranks – posthumously.”

Fontanka's first reaction was disbelief. The established procedure for submitting for awarding medals and orders excludes this possibility. The documents sent prove otherwise.

Crosses from Debaltsevo

On March 6, 2015, Andrei Elmeev and Andrei Shreiner were buried on the Alley of Heroes of the Banykinsky cemetery in Tolyatti. They were both 43 years old and both had the same date of death - January 28, 2015. As the website tltgorod.ru reported, “two Tolyatti militiamen who died during the armed conflict in Donbass.”

This is not entirely accurate. Both Elmeev and Shreiner actually died in January 2015 in the battles near Debaltsevo, but had nothing to do with the real militia. They also had no relation to the regular Russian army, since they had been in the reserves for a long time and worked under a contract for Wagner. Their names were read out in the ranks on May 9, 2015: “to be awarded the Order of Courage – posthumously.”

The Order of Courage is a common distinction for fallen Wagnerites, veterans assured Fontanka, so these are not the only orders awarded to PMC employees. Mentions of awards have been found before - for example, there were reports of the posthumous awarding of the Order of Courage to a 37-year-old fighter of the Slavic Corps and the Wagner PMC, St. Petersburg resident Vladimir Kamynin, who was buried in September 2014 at the Sestroretsk cemetery.

Then Fontanka did not find confirmation of the award, but, taking into account the new information, I am inclined to believe in the order.

Crosses from Syria

The tradition is continued on Syrian soil. 38-year-old Don Cossack Maxim Kolganov, a comrade of the ataman of the Zhigulevskaya village, died on February 3, 2016. As reported on the official Internet forum of the Don Cossacks forumkazakov.ru, “when performing a combat mission,” the location of the mission is not specified.

As far as Fontanka knows, Wagner PMC fighter and BMP gunner-operator Maxim Kolganov carried out a combat mission near Latakia. Colleagues of the deceased shared some photographs.

To top it off, there was a pillow with awards that were carried in front of the coffin: the medal “For Courage” and the Order of Courage.

We asked veterans to comment on photographs recently distributed on the Internet by supporters of the Islamic State banned in Russia. The authors claimed that the photo shows Russians killed in battle.

The group photo, as our experts suggested, was presumably taken not in Syria, but in the summer of 2014 in the Starobeshevsky district of the Donetsk region. One of those present in the photo was identified as a fighter with the call sign “Hose”, who subsequently died in Syria in mid-December 2015: he was blown up by an anti-personnel mine while returning with a group of seven people from a reconnaissance mission.

It was not possible to identify the rest, but looking at the photograph with the soldier on a bunk bed, the veterans recognized the residential module of the Wagner PMC near Damascus.

Invisible Battalion

How many of Wagner’s fighters died in Syria can be said either by the “personnel department” of the PMC, or by Wagner himself, or by the department of the presidential administration that prepares decrees on posthumous awards. Our interlocutors talk about dozens. The company, which entered Syria in September 2015, left it at the end of December of the same year, but, as those who returned say, out of 93 people, a third returned alive and uninjured. The main losses began in January - February, in the battles for Palmyra. The difficulty of documenting victims is that even those serving in the same platoon do not always know not only their last names, but also each other’s first names. “Curiosity is not welcome. With whom you chew lead side by side - sometimes they didn’t know their names. Who did what, who did what, they don’t talk about it,” they told Fontanka.

In Syria, according to rough estimates, there is a Wagner unit of about four hundred people. In total, in a ghostly PMC - personnel and weapons, as in a reinforced battalion, or, as they say now, a battalion-tactical group. When the journalist, asking, suggested that a detachment of 250-300 people had been formed in Molkino, he caused sincere laughter from his interlocutor:

“Are you kidding me? Count. Three reconnaissance and assault companies, each with from ninety to one hundred people. Three platoons with LNG and AGS - a fire support company. Air defense company with "Needles". Communications company. Security company. Medical unit. Plus civilians - service personnel. Without civilians – about six hundred people.”

Serbian guests

The highlight of Wagner is the Serb platoon, which began to be formed in the summer of 2014. According to Fontanka’s interlocutors, the commander of the internationalist soldiers was a Serb with the call sign “Wolf” named Davor, an old comrade of Wagner, allegedly their acquaintance began before Ukraine and even before the “Slavic Corps”. Fontanka became interested in the militant foreigner and became convinced that he was an extraordinary person.

Davor Savicic is a Serb, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, now permanently residing in Russia. By the age of 36, he had already survived charges of bombing and killing six people in Bosnian Beranam in 2001, an Interpol search, a sentence of 20 years in prison and the reversal of sentence on formal grounds.

As eyewitnesses said, Serbs came to Savicic’s unit in both 2014 and 2015 - only in the spring of 2015, four of Savicic’s acquaintances allegedly arrived, leaving the French Foreign Legion for Wagner.

“I don’t know what Molkino is, I have no connection with Syria at all, I’m from Bosnia and Herzegovina and I’m doing construction in Khimki,” came the answer. The owner of the page with the name Davor Savicic and his photographs in his profile and albums claimed that he was not familiar with any “Wagners and Beethovens”.

After the journalist asked him to comment on the photo in which Savicic was captured in the summer of 2014 in the company of Wagner fighters known to the editors - veterans of the “Slavic Corps”, the version changed slightly. Savicic softened his position, saying that he actually fought as a volunteer in 2014 near Lugansk, but his campaign allegedly lasted only three days, after which he was shell-shocked when an armored personnel carrier fired at a checkpoint and went for treatment. As for the people with whom he is hugging in the photo, these are random acquaintances: “I asked them to call me on the phone, and they drank three beers.”

With strained sincerity, Internet user Davor Savicic convinced us that he had not been near Krasnodar since the spring of 2015, when he went there to work on a construction site, and was now engaged in peaceful construction: “If you need repairs in your apartment, tiles, parquet, contact us.”

The correspondent almost believed him, and probably would have believed it completely, if not for the documentary evidence that Savicich visited Molkino no later than January 2016, and in October 2015 he was seen on the same plane and in adjacent seats with Sergei Chupov.

With hostility

The percentage of losses, which is not typical for private military companies, which usually perform local and highly professional tasks in a combat zone that do not involve going on the attack, was explained by those who returned alive as “World War II tactics”:

“Only there aren’t enough bayonets for the AK, otherwise it’s like World War II. As it happened near Debaltseve, people were driven into the field with equipment, and the team - your task is to take the fortification, take the checkpoint. And go ahead, just like meat. When they started attacking us with 100s, with Cords, with RPGs based on technology - people... they were simply vomiting. Direct with RPG - only arms and legs remain. They won’t send anyone into battle without training in Molkino, but what they will have time to teach is just basic shooting so as not to die right away. Those who have combat experience still somehow live more or less, but still, it’s not the same.”

In Syria, they told Fontanka, the Ur tactics continued:

“What are we doing there? We're going in the first wave. We direct aviation and artillery and drive out the enemy. Syrian special forces cheerfully come after us, and then Vesti-24, together with ORT, with cameras at the ready, go to interview them.”

The last question that we managed to ask was about who agrees to go into battle with a fifty-fifty chance for 240 thousand rubles a month. The interlocutor assured that there are many more people who want to get to Wagner than there are vacancies:

“Have you left your Petersburg for a long time? Apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, there is no work anywhere. If you’re lucky, 15-20 thousand a month is considered good, and food prices are as if we were living in Antarctica. There is a queue at Molkino. In general, if there were PMCs officially, like abroad, it would be great. With us, we are nobody and can’t be called.”

Denis Korotkov, Fontanka.ru

https://www.site/2018-03-05/kak_vyglyadit_lager_chvk_vagnera_v_krasnodare

“Everyone is lying, son, they are sharing the oil! They make money off the blood of the guys.”

What does the Wagner PMC camp look like near Krasnodar?

Krasnodar is quite far from the combat zones in south-eastern Ukraine or Syria. But here is probably the most famous private military organization in Russia now - the Wagner PMC, whose fighters have made their mark in Crimea, Donbass and Syria in just a few years.

The fact that the camp of this PMC is based near the village of Molkino, which is 30 kilometers from Krasnodar to the south along the M-4 Don highway, was written by RBC magazine back in the summer of 2016. Journalists of the publication reached the village and talked with servicemen of the 10th brigade of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation at the first checkpoint. What is happening behind it, whether the Wagner PMC camp actually exists and what it looks like - all this remained unknown..

From Krasnodar you can get to Molkino by bus, which goes from the bus station towards the regional center Goryachiy Klyuch, or by taxi. In one case the tariff is 80 rubles, in the other - “ruble”, that is, 1 thousand rubles. Actually, Molkino itself is a pair of two-story brick apartment buildings, several private ones, one street - Ofitserskaya and one grocery store with a very modest range of goods. The checkpoint of the 10th GRU brigade is located a hundred meters from the village, on the other side of the M-4 Don highway and the railway, which runs parallel to the autobahn.

Traffic around the checkpoint is quite busy. Some cars are constantly driving in and out, people in civilian clothes and uniforms pass back and forth. For the most part, they rush to the left - to where the asphalt road goes and where the actual military unit of the Ministry of Defense is located. By the way, at the local training ground, judging by open sources, “Tank Biathlon” is regularly held, as well as reenactor games.

The Wagner PMC camp, as far as is known from the RBC publication, is located in the opposite direction.

“You see, the dirt road goes to the right. Follow it, you will pass another checkpoint and further, they are standing there,” the soldiers admonished me at the first checkpoint. At first, I must admit, no one wanted to let the stranger in my person. But the phrase “to Syria” seems to have a magical effect here. At the “second checkpoint” there is another GRU serviceman guarding it. Just like his colleagues at the main checkpoint, he is armed with a bayonet and his equipment includes a bulletproof vest and a helmet. But he pays almost no attention to those passing by. He sits quietly on a chair in a booth, listens to the radio and drinks tea and cookies.

It takes about 10 minutes to walk to the Wagner camp, about a kilometer. I came across a young man in civilian clothes with a camouflage backpack over his shoulders and wearing headphones, a couple of cars with people in uniform, but without insignia. About 200 meters before the camp the road makes a sharp turn to the left. From here, two-story houses lined with light green siding, with green roofs, a lattice fence around the perimeter and a parking lot with a dozen parked cars in front of the gate become clearly visible.

- Is this the Wagner brigade? — I ask the man who is getting behind the wheel of a car.

- Yes, here. “There’s a checkpoint,” he pointed to the gate in the fence.

By the way, there are video cameras installed along the perimeter, but they all face the lenses inward, not outward. Apparently, no one here is afraid of any actions from outside and it is much more important to control what is happening inside the camp.

There are three houses. As it turned out a little later, these are barracks. Judging by their appearance, the buildings are quite new. A little further away you can see stacks of boards made of fresh, whitish-yellow wood. It seems that despite the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor, no one is going to curtail their activities here. On the contrary, the camp is planned to be further developed.

Near the barracks, about two dozen men are clustered in several groups. Their affiliation is difficult to establish. Everyone is wearing a mixture of military and civilian clothing. There are several cars - two UAZ and Toyota pickups, as well as a blue-painted all-wheel drive KamAZ “shift vehicle”. There are signs on the fence warning that the facility is secure and there is video surveillance.

I open the gate and go up to the green trailer where the guard is sitting. In front of me is a man in green clothing and again without insignia. Once again I try to make sure I got there: “Is the Wagner brigade here?” In response, there was only a nod and a counter question: “What did you want?” I catch a tenacious, searching gaze on myself.

Initially, it was clear that I, a journalist, would not be welcome here. Pretending to be someone who wants to serve under a contract is also problematic: I don’t look too much like a military man.

But since I got here, I’m trying to find out at least the fate of those whose names were on the list of those killed on February 7. After all, it is still unknown whether these people are alive, missing or dead. My interlocutor, with the words “tell me who we need to know, bro,” writes down the names on a simple piece of paper. A second later another Wagnerian appears behind me. I can’t hear any steps, I guess the second one only from the facial expressions of the first one, the one in the booth. I leave my contact number and retreat. I assume that immediately after I left, the sheet of paper with the list of names ended up in the trash bin.

On the way back I meet another one with a duffel bag over his shoulders. I’m trying to get him to talk, but I only managed to find out that tomorrow we’ll be sent out, so today it’s like a day at the camp. They give you the opportunity to rest a little and get yourself in order. However, very quickly this interlocutor figures out that this is by no means a potential colleague. The look becomes cold, the conversation ends abruptly. I’m returning to Molkino.

Google Maps

The street is deserted. After some time, we managed to talk with one of the residents of the village, an elderly man. The interlocutor introduced himself as Alexander (his name has been changed for his safety. - Website note). He is a former military man, now lives permanently in the village, is in contact and even continues to “work” (he did not specify how exactly) with servicemen of the military unit. Regularly interacts with the Wagnerites. According to him, they appeared in Molkino about 5 years ago, “even before Ukraine.” In the first year, none of the locals even suspected the existence of this special detachment. Only then did information begin to somehow leak out.

— Why can’t the “Wagnerites” say anything to their relatives, at least send some news?

- They won't say anything. This is such a company that there is complete *** (end), you can’t find out anything there. Even I live here and work with them, but I still know little. They have everything organized in such a way that no one should tell anything. You talk to them, and they pretend that they don’t know anything, that they don’t understand anything about what you’re talking about. Although open the Internet and everything is shown: how they were covered, how many cars, how much of what. And I even know the guys who were right there at the epicenter.

Website of the Ryazan diocese

- What they're saying?

“You can’t tell this, especially to mothers.” They will only rip your heart out. It’s better to hope and wait than to do this. There is no need for them to know all this, you understand?! It’s only in Moscow that they say that ours weren’t there. 87 guys died there and many more disappeared - more than 100 people.

- Missing?

- Without a trace. They were torn into pieces right there, the meat was collected across the field and sent here.

-Where were they sent?

- To Rostov (meaning Rostov-on-Don. - Note.. They will now restore who is who using tokens and DNA.

- How long will it take?

- ABOUT! For a long time. If no one from home is interested, then they will remain silent. It’s beneficial for them - they don’t have to pay.

Jaromir Romanov

- How much do they pay?

— At first they paid 5 million for the deceased, but now they have reduced it. I heard that they are already giving 3 million.

— Were the wounded brought here too?

— This time also to Rostov and St. Petersburg. Half there, half here.

— Haven’t you heard of such people, what’s wrong with them: Alexey Shikhov, Ruslan Gavrilov, Kirill Ananyev, Igor Kosoturov, Alexey Lodygin, Stanislav Matveev? (all of them appeared on various lists of the dead previously published by the media. - Approx. website).

“No one here knows anyone by last name.” Only nicknames, call signs. They are all either “Fox”, or “Boar”, or who knows who else.

— They hand over all the documents there when they arrive?

- Everyone gives up. Passports, IDs - everything in full. They are given tokens, and only by these are they identified later. There are now up to *** (many) of these tokens collected this time. Now they will analyze all this. But the fact is that no one was captured. (Says with pride.)

“They were hit from the air.”

“We were the first to start.” There, first their artillery, ours that is, *** (hit) the Kurds. And the Kurds walk under the Americans. They also warned me to stop. But ours - no, ***! They need to take away this oil refinery. So we got it. First, American artillery completely covered our artillery and completely destroyed it. And then their drones arrived and started bombing. First, this entire area was cleared and leveled with bombs. Then we started with helicopters. Anyone who moved was immediately finished off. That's the whole story. How many young boys have died, where are they going, *** where?!

— Well, Assad called Russia for help?

- We need this *** (bad) Kurdistan, or what? For whom did they win this oil refinery, for Putin? These *** are completely lying to us! What the TV says is a complete lie! Bastards! No one is hitting any Russians anywhere, son, they are sharing the oil. These *** people make money from the blood of these guys! Who are these oil rigs for - for me, for you, maybe?

— Why is there such a mess in Ukraine?

— What do you think Donbass is? This is coal, the entire main industry of Ukraine is there. Now we are sitting deep in the ass and getting even further into it! The whole world is already up in arms against us, who are they relying on in this Kremlin? Okay, Chechnya was - it was our territory, and we cannot allow this to happen to us. Putin was right about this, I don’t mind. With Ukraine, it could have turned out either way. It is still possible to understand. But why now? They stuck their head in *** knows where! Across nine seas and ten lands, ***. And these guys, the ones who go twice, are already completely sick. They can’t live without it anymore, they’re already crazy.

Jaromir Romanov

- Like this?

— Just recently one of these people came, who was there in February. I barely escaped, ***. A shell exploded right next to him, and he was thrown back by the blast wave. He says that the guys who were nearby, about 15 of them, were immediately torn to pieces, only the shreds flew away. And he was only caught a little, but that was enough. All legs are in a sieve! He was barely repaired, he already came here on crutches, fir-trees and sticks, to receive money. I received the money, but he said: “Just let my legs heal, I want it back, to get even for my own people!” Yes, motherfucker, I say, God saved you! He, along with those who were scattered in pieces, could have remained there. Stay home and eat your bread! No, they are already sick. I'm telling you exactly! The psyche is everything.

- Money, maybe?

- Yes, ***. Well, how much will they get there, 200? Just work at home, don’t drink too much and don’t be lazy - a man will earn 40-50 a month. If it runs, then you can earn 3 million here in a year. I will never send my children to such *** in my life. I won’t allow it, I’d rather kill him with my own hands than this! Who did they do well? They left for nothing, and that’s all!

Interview with the wife of a Ural PMC Wagner fighter who died in Syria

— They say that a new batch is being prepared for shipment?

- They should send it today or tomorrow.

— Do they send them from the port in Novorossiysk?

— From a military airfield. From here by bus to Rostov and from Rostov by plane there. Those who came this time will go half to Syria, half to another.

- Donbass?

- No, they haven’t sent anyone from here to Donbass for a long time. These will go to Africa. (It was previously reported that Wagner PMC will be involved in South Sudan. - Approx. website).

- What about in Africa?

- ***, everyone is silent here, but they do such *** that *** (end)! They will not fight in Africa. There won't even be any weapons.

- What will they do then?

— They will be instructors, they will teach.

- Whom?

“Everything is being done against America again, we are undermining their interests.” They are against us, we are against them. All over again. At least they were paid better before.

— How much is better?

- 400 thousand a month with combat ones and even more. Little by little, little by little, and now we’ve made 200. They cut it in half, count it. Although now they are fighting even more bitterly than before. This is no longer Donbass, where they stood still and shot here and there. There with ISIS (a terrorist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation. - Website note). These are no longer crests, seasoned guys, ***. It’s a pity, of course, for these our guys. I knew many of them.

Jaromir Romanov

— There are about 20 of them in the camp on the street now.

- It's only on the street. As long as there are 150 people there, the team does not gather, they are not sent anywhere. 150 people is the smallest party. This time they recruited up to *** (many) recruits. They almost put all the old people there in February. Four days ago, five buses left - the first batch. Now four more buses will be sent. Five or six buses leave, two or three buses return. As long as this Wagner has been there, everything has been going on like this. Two or three buses will return, and then the wounded, who are being discharged from hospitals, begin to appear in groups of five or six people, up to ten people, for money. So it goes.

- How long do they last?

- For six months. This time some were detained for seven months. Not everyone, just specialists, snipers for example. Today they only have junior commanders there. You can't get half a word out of them. Their security service works very well, you shouldn’t joke with them. They can kill themselves if you do something wrong. They will later say that you died in battle, or they will put you in such a place that you will never return.

— They say that they used to have one base near the village of Veselaya in Rostov.

- No, they always trained and sent from here. But Rostov only received them, they were paid money there. Now everything has changed, they send money here and receive money. What is this money? There are no arms or legs - and this is a disability for life. What will he do now? If I could before, then why the f*** went there?! What to do now without legs - stand on a wheelchair in the middle of the road and beg for money? If you, as expected, give your life or health for the country, then this is understandable. A military pension is assigned, leaving is mandatory. And who needs these? This is all an illegal company, and if they even find out that he visited there, this will be a criminal sentence. Nobody tells them that abroad those who were in PMCs are considered murderers and are tried as murderers. They don’t look abroad whether you shot there or not! He worked in a private military company, was there - that's it, a killer.

I'm returning to Krasnodar. It's plus 15 outside, it's spring. Green grass is growing everywhere on the lawns, and people are getting ready to plant potatoes in the fields. There are no hints that there is a war going on somewhere. What catches your eye, however, are dozens of police officers and Cossack vigilantes who have taken the railway and bus stations under tight control. “The homeless are probably being chased away again. “A lot of them have multiplied again,” suggested a saleswoman at a kiosk on the station square, from whom I take a bottle of water.

In the spring of 2014, fighters of the Wagner PMC, the portal notes, were spotted in Crimea, then in the Donbass. They are allegedly stationed in the village of Molkino, Krasnodar Territory, where the 10th separate special forces brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense is also stationed.

The PMC is headed by Dmitry Utkin; "Wagner" is his call sign. The second person in the “Wagner group” is allegedly Andrei Troshev, who is also called the chairman of the “League of Veterans of Military Conflicts”. It is known that he previously served in the Airborne Forces and participated in combat operations in Afghanistan and Chechnya. After leaving the army, he served in the riot police and special forces. Awarded two Orders of the Red Star and two Orders of Courage."

It is known about “Slavonic Corps Limited” that this PMC was registered in 2013 in Hong Kong. TO The company published advertisements for the hiring of contract workers to protect pipelines and industrial facilities in Syria, offering a salary of $5,000.The announcements attracted the attention of former professional soldiers from the CIS countries, many of whom fought in the conflicts along the southern “arc” of the collapsed USSR back in the early 1990s.

The “Slavic Corps” arrived in Syria back in 2013 - even before the start of the Ukrainian Maidan. By that time, according to some sources, it numbered just over 250 people. The corps guarded oil fields in the same ill-fated province of Deir ez-Zor. The contract soldiers received heavy weapons from the Syrian government. However, after arriving in Russia, the members of the “Slavic Corps” were arrested. In October 2014, the court sentenced the company's leaders, Vadim Gusev and Evgeniy Sidorov, to three years in prison each.

“These Russians have long chosen their own path, not coordinated with the state,” said its editor-in-chief Alexey Venediktov on the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “Back in 2013, even before Syria and before Ukraine, there was a Russian private military company that was registered in Hong Kong – a Russian company in Hong Kong called “Slavic Corps”. It was headed by former intelligence officers who hired people - well, for what? - security, sabotage - all over the planet. In particular, this “Slavic Corps”, as far as I know, worked for the President of South Sudan ( in fact, most likely Sudan,- editor's note.), which is currently under sanctions...

In 2013, the “Slavic Corps” was thrown back - in the same oil fields, this very Deir er-Zor, there were six wounded soldiers, all were evacuated to Moscow. At the same time, as far as I know, an ordinary fighter - maybe not an ordinary one, there was just Dmitry Utkin, who later began to be called “Wagner”. That is, his battles in Syria began before Putin announced us in Syria - as part of a PMC, purely to make money. The head of this operation, Vladimir Gusev and Evgeny Sidorov, upon arrival in Russia, at Domodedovo, were arrested by the FSB...

Then the Russian state realized the benefits of these guys... They fought in Donbass with the support of the state, no FSB arrested anyone there, then in Syria. Moreover, they consisted and consist not only of Russian citizens - our colleagues from Fontanka write about this in detail, and I recommend everyone to read their investigations, but a significant number of fighters there are residents of Donetsk and Lugansk who joined...

These people then come here with weapons and have nothing to do, roughly speaking. And they become dangerous, in fact, for order in Russia. In Russia, after all, the right to violence belongs to the state... Where to put these people?.. During the Hundred Years' War in France, a huge number of detachments of marauders were formed who did not care - the British, the French, the Normans, the Spaniards. And then King Charles the Fifth ordered his best commander to hire them, gather them and take them to Spain. Where they all died...

The Estonian website err.ee wrote about the service of Wagner fighters back in 2016: " Oleg served in Syria in a military unit that did not officially exist on paper, but which was known as the “Wagner Group” or “musicians”, fought on the side of the Syrian pro-government forces and was formed from experienced fighters by order of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Oleg took part in the battles for the liberation of Palmyra. His salary was 4,500 euros per month plus bonuses...

Officially, the Russian contingent does not include fighters who do “dirty work” - people from the “Wagner Group”. Such a unit or private military company does not formally exist. But this is on paper. In reality, the Russians managed to fight in different parts of Syria. When asked why Oleg went to Syria, he replies: “I was a hired worker, and I don’t care about this war at all. I like this job, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t work there...

The Wagner Group is not an ordinary private military company. This is a miniature army. “We had a full set: mortars, howitzers, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers,” explains Oleg...

The Wagner Group entered Syria by plane. And these were not Aeroflot airliners, Oleg says, smiling. The fighters were transported on transport aircraft of the 76th Airborne Division, which is stationed in the Pskov region... Equipment, including artillery and tanks, was transported by sea using the so-called "Syrian Express" - on Russian Navy ships from Novorossiysk to Tartus...

As a rule, Wagner's men are experienced fighters who have gone through several conflicts. And although you won’t see recruitment advertisements in newspapers, the group had no problems recruiting specialists.

Oleg admits that he didn’t go to Wagner the first time - he didn’t trust him: “Practically, they get in by acquaintance and that’s all. As such, there is no free recruitment. When recruiting, they carry out a couple of tests: for alcohol and drug use. Then there are physical tests. In fact, there are no exams ".

Among the Wagnerites there are many who fought in the Donbass on the side of the separatists. They undergo additional polygraph testing. They may even ask if they are FSB agents - intelligence agencies are not welcome in Wagner. The group has its own security department that combats information leaks. Finding photographs of Russian condottieri on the Internet is a great success. This is an offense that entails serious sanctions for the offenders...

A unique insurance system: about 300,000 rubles for an injury and coverage of treatment costs in high-quality clinics. For death - five million rubles to the family. Although from a legal point of view the contract with the Wagner group is an insignificant piece of paper, Oleg confirms: they paid everything to the last penny and even more. But there is no talk of complete safety.

That is, do you have at least some kind of protection?

From what?

From the state.

From the state, I think not."

“The contract period is from three to six months,” reports the website onpress.info. The contract is signed at the PMC base in Molkino. The future fighter reads the multi-page document, signs, and it remains in the company’s office. It is strictly forbidden to communicate with representatives of the media, therefore in this collective interview they appear as Sergei Ts., Gennady F. and Stepan M...

There was a medical examination, but the selection was more visual: arms and legs in place - and forward, says Sergei. – They took everyone, because the PMC suffered heavy losses in Syria. They also had to run 3 km and do 40–50 push-ups (this was rated as “good” and “excellent”). Many did not pass these standards, but were enrolled. A lie detector was considered a much more serious test. Every candidate takes a polygraph. For example, out of eight people in the group in which Gennady was, only two successfully passed the lie detector, including himself. Gennady still has no idea what the others were using, what kind of lies the PMC psychologists were looking for. But, in his opinion, this selection certainly did not concern the criminal background of the candidates...

We departed from Rostov-on-Don International Airport on April 25, 2017, on a regular charter flight. They did not put a visa in the passport; the border guards only stamped the departure note (and upon return, another arrival note). The Syrian Border Service does not appear in the documents at all. In total, one and a half hundred PMC fighters flew in the Boeing; a day or two later, the second half of the “brigade” arrived in the same way.

We flew to Damascus in civilian clothes and changed clothes at the Syrian base, that is, in the middle of the desert. They took military uniforms with them, and everyone dressed according to their own taste. The desert uniform of the British SAS special forces is considered the most comfortable, the best in strength and color, followed by the uniform of the American special forces. So, in appearance, the Russian fighters were no different from a detachment of Anglo-Saxon special forces. The Syrian uniform, according to the unanimous opinion of the interlocutors, is of very poor quality...

The brigades are commanded by retired special forces officers (not a single career officer); there are practically no army officers. “For example, the Syrian commander turned to the commander of our brigade,” says Gennady, “and offered several tanks for nothing, since the Arabs did not have crews for them...

Over the six months of the mission, the casualties of one brigade amounted to about 40 dead (“two hundredths”) and about 100 wounded (“three hundredths”). The other brigade was more “lucky”: their losses amounted to about 20 killed and 70 wounded. And in the third brigade, in the first two weeks alone, they lost about 50 killed. Most died during the lifting of the blockade of Deir ez-Zor. Thus, a tenth of the personnel died, a fifth were wounded...

“The losses would have been much less,” says Sergei, “if the supply of the PMC group had not been so bad, simply bad.” Broken armored cars, five trucks lost in three days, there was nothing even to transport personnel. And the losses from this are high... and that’s it - they stopped! Collapse. No one is going anywhere, God forbid the wounded are taken out. And experience says that it is high time to transfer soldiers to armored vehicles designed for no more than 10 people. Although a year ago the equipment was decent - both weapons and equipment.

“This is just a beautiful television picture: tanks are moving across the desert in a row, followed by infantry fighting vehicles, and helicopters circling above them,” says Stepan. – In fact, there was very little equipment. Our “armada” moved partly on foot, and partly on KamAZ and Urals vehicles. If an ATGM hits a truck, then the losses are, of course, huge...

“Despite the fact that many PMC soldiers served in the army and special forces, I will not be mistaken if I say that 90% do not understand where they are going,” says Sergei. – The desire to earn money completely blows your brain away. Therefore, having found themselves in a real mess, they declare that they came here not to die, but to earn money. These are called “five hundredths,” that is, deserters and refuseniks. They are immediately sent to rigging teams, that is, shell loaders, etc.

“And in life, those who came to Syria are mostly losers,” says Gennady. – As a rule, former cops, prisoners and military personnel. About 40% of the personnel served time for serious crimes - murders, robberies, etc. PMC fighters even greet each other like this: “Hello, losers!” It is noticeable that for many months before the business trip, and even years, they drank without drying out. In Syria it is forbidden to drink, their heads lighten up a little, and they make a vow to quit for the rest of their lives. They return to Russia with a million in their pocket and go into such a dive, a month later they crawl back to the base without pants...

“I have an ambivalent attitude towards these private military companies,” Stepan adds. – On the one hand, they deceive, and it’s insulting. On the other hand, if you look at the situation from the outside, PMCs are removing unnecessary elements from civilian life (this is literally what the fighter said about his comrades, and therefore about himself. - A.Ch.)."

However, not all unflattering reviews about Wagner's fighters are truthful. Among them there are many convinced fighters against the “world behind the scenes”, international terrorism, from which they are. protect Russia on distant approaches.

A number of domestic media outlets report heavy losses suffered by the Russian private military company in Syria. According to these publications, the number of deaths is in the tens, or even hundreds.

It is reported that on February 7, in the province of Deir ez-Zor, American artillery launched a targeted strike on the 5th detachment of the Wagner PMC, which was on the march, after which the remnants of the column were finished off by coalition aircraft, including helicopters and an AC-130 gunship.

The sources of this information are posts on social networks and messages from several bloggers, including the leader of the “January 25 Committee” Igor Girkin, as well as a transcript of a certain recording in which two unknown people discuss the losses they have suffered.

Official Russian sources do not confirm this information. Recognizing the fact of the American attack on the government forces of the Syrian Arab Republic, representatives of the Ministry of Defense reported that there were no Russian military personnel at the scene of the incident.

“The militias were subjected to “sudden shelling from mortars and MLRS, after which they were attacked by helicopters of the US-led “international coalition,” the department noted. “As a result of the shelling, 25 Syrian militiamen were injured,” the Ministry of Defense said.

However, PMC employees are not military personnel, and representatives of the defense department have never reported their losses.

Let us note that similar incidents have already occurred during the war in Syria. Thus, according to reports from a number of Iranian, Western and Russian media, on September 20, 2016, a Caliber missile launched from a Russian ship destroyed the headquarters of the operational control of Syrian terrorists, which included about 30 instructors from the USA, Italy, Great Britain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia , Qatar and Israel.

This precise strike was Russia’s response to the bombing of the SAA positions by US Air Force aircraft in support of the advancing terrorists in the province of Deir ez-Zor.

This was not only retribution, but also a warning, a “red line” designation.

The Americans and their allies remained silent then. And not only because the destroyed bunker was located on territory controlled by the organization Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in the Russian Federation (collaboration with which would have to be recognized), but also because official recognition of these losses would require retaliatory steps to which Washington was not prepared for.

There were no statements from the Russian side either - the hint was made and understood, and there was no point in aggravating the situation further.

Several times, American instructors operating in the Kurdish People's Self-Defense Units came under fire from Turkish special forces and Ankara-controlled forces. It is believed that there were American casualties. But even in these cases, no official statements were made.

However, the current situation does not fit into this, which has become familiar, scheme. The American media almost immediately announced that Russian PMC fighters were in the “international coalition retaliatory strike zone.”

CBS News, citing a Pentagon spokesman, announced that Russians were among the Syrian militias hit. Moreover, as the source believes, Russian citizens, together with the militias, did not intend to attack the Americans and the Syrian Democratic Forces, but planned to take control of the territory of the oil refinery.

The channel emphasizes that if the information is confirmed, these are the first Russians killed by US forces in Syria.

Similar messages are heard on other American resources, and suggest a very clear idea that the task of the US military was precisely to strike at Russian fighters. And this is not just a “warning” fire, designed to mark a “line” and call for a cessation of the offensive. The forces that were reportedly involved - MLRS, F-15s, F-22s, AC-130s, and Apache helicopters - directly indicate the intention to create a real meat grinder for the enemy.

At the same time, as we see, Pentagon representatives themselves admit that irregular Syrian formations (and, possibly, Russian PMC fighters) did not threaten either them or their allies, but intended to take control of the oil plant.

In light of this, what happened appears to be a completely conscious provocation, the deliberate creation of a casus belli. Moreover, the fact that representatives of the military department are telling the media about this may mean that Russia is being deliberately driven into a corner, seeking a response from it in order to “save face.”

It may well be that the Americans are not sure that there are Russians among the victims of their attack, or even know that there are none. But they are trying to get the maximum propaganda effect from the current situation - to demonstrate to their fellow citizens their ability to give a decisive rebuff to Moscow, and to try to undermine the position of Vladimir Putin on the eve of the presidential elections, who is “not able to answer for the dead soldiers.” After all, it is in this spirit that many opposition bloggers and media outlets in Russia are covering the incident in Deir ez-Zor.

Moscow remains silent for now, choosing the most appropriate place and time for its “response.” Which, there is no doubt, will follow regardless of whether the Russians or “only” the Syrians died from American bombs and shells.

Washington is playing to “raise the stakes”, and there is no way to give in to it in such a situation.