![]() Radio Liberty cited insiders as saying that the leadership of the Wagner Group are followers of the Slavic Native Faith, a modern Pagan new religious movement. Members of Wagner Group say Utkin is a Rodnover, a believer of Slavic native faith. As such, some believe he is a neo-Nazi, with The Economist reporting that Utkin has several Nazi tattoos. Others say the group's name comes from Utkin's own call sign "Wagner", reportedly after the German composer Richard Wagner, which Utkin is said to have chosen due to his passion for the Third Reich (Wagner being Adolf Hitler's favorite composer). In 2021, the Foreign Policy report noted the origin of the name "Wagner" to be unknown. Subsequently, Russia's Federal Security Service in November 2013 arrested some members of the Slavonic Corps for illegal mercenary activity. Utkin was deployed in Syria as a member of the Slavonic Corps, surviving its disastrous mission. The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up the Hong Kong-based Slavonic Corps, which headhunted contractors to "protect oil fields and pipelines" in Syria during its civil war. Īfter leaving the military, in 2013 he began working for the Moran Security Group, a private company founded by Russian military veterans, which was involved in security and training missions worldwide, and specializes in security against piracy. Until 2008 or 2013, Utkin served as lieutenant colonel and brigade commander of a unit of special forces of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade. Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, a veteran of the First and Second Chechen Wars, reportedly founded the group. The group was also active in 2014, fighting with Russia-backed separatists in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. The Wagner Group first appeared in Ukraine in 2014, where it participated in the annexation of Crimea. Īfter years of denying links to the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Putin, admitted in September 2022 that he "founded" the paramilitary group. In 2023, Russia granted combat veteran status to Wagner contractors who took part in the invasion. Others put the number of recruited prisoners at more than 20,000, with the overall number of PMCs present in Ukraine estimated at 20,000. In December 2022, United States National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby claimed Wagner has 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts. Wagner has played a significant role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where, among other activities, it has been reportedly deployed to assassinate Ukrainian leaders, and has recruited prisoners for frontline combat. The accusations include rape and robbery of civilians, and torturing accused deserters. Wagner operatives have committed war crimes in areas where they are deployed. ![]() Its contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts around the world, including the civil wars in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Mali, often fighting on the side of forces aligned with the Russian government. The group came to prominence during the Donbas war in Ukraine, where it helped pro-Russian separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics from 2014 to 2015. It is widely speculated that the Wagner Group is used by the Russian government to allow for plausible deniability in certain conflicts, and to obscure from the public the true casualties and financial costs of Russia's foreign interventions. While the Wagner Group itself is not ideologically driven, various elements of Wagner have been linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism. Because it operates in support of Russian interests, receives equipment from the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and uses MoD installations for training, the Wagner Group is said to be a de facto unit of the MoD or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU. The group operates beyond the law in Russia, where private military companies are officially forbidden. It is variously described as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, or a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'Wagner Private Military Company'), is a Russian paramilitary organization. Gruppa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner (Russian: ЧВК «Вагнер», tr.
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