They simply do not exist. Investigation

© Oksana Viktorova / Collage / Ridus

Over the past week, the media and Internet users have discussed the losses of the Russian private military company Wagner Group. Information about what actually happened in the province of Deir ez-Zor on February 7 is very contradictory.

A source close to the Russian Foreign Ministry said that reports of the deaths of two hundred Russians in an air strike by an international coalition led by the United States are classic disinformation.

Meanwhile, relatives of four members of the Wagner Private Military Company in Syria. Moreover, the dates of their deaths coincide with the date of the US airstrike.

Place of service

The Wagner Group is the unofficial name of a Russian private military company that operated first in Ukraine and then in Syria.

Since 2014, PMC Wagner has operated on the territory of the DPR and LPR. When Russian troops entered Syria in 2015, the fighters were redeployed there. According to Gazeta.ru, Wagner's PMC played an important role, many of the detachment's employees were awarded orders of the Russian Federation.

Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Utkin was repeatedly called the commander of the PMC. Until 2013, he headed the 700th separate special-purpose squad of the 2nd separate special-purpose brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.

Secret Reckless Hero

In 2016, Utkin, with the call sign Wagner, was noticed at the celebration of the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland in the Kremlin Palace. This fact was confirmed by the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. He noted that Utkin was indeed among the invitees, but what was remarkable about him, Peskov did not know.

Utkin himself never gives interviews, however, like his fighters. When they took part in hostilities in southeastern Ukraine, PMCs were called the most secret unit.

Even the ex-wife could not contact Dmitry Utkin in 2016. Elena Shcherbinina applied to the "Wait for me" program.

She said that Utkin received his first award during the first Chechen campaign.

The militants took a colonel prisoner, and Dima and his men fought him off. He is generally reckless, Elena said.

When he was appointed commander of the military unit in Pechory, Utkin "was worried that he was not fighting."

“He wanted a military career — a career as a military officer, not wiping his pants at headquarters,” the woman summed up.

Not on the lists

When PMC Wagner entered Syria, the number of fighters was approximately 400 people. According to some reports, from the fall of 2015 to the spring of 2016, the group lost 32 soldiers in battles, and about 80 more were seriously wounded.

PMCs exist as an independent commercial structure. It offers specialized services related to the security or defense of the site. Often, fighters participate in military conflicts, collect intelligence information and engage in military consulting.

Military observer Viktor Baranets explained to Ridus that PMC Wagner exists outside the law in Russia, since last year the State Duma had private military companies.

From a legal point of view, shelling the units of a certain private military company is not a conflict between combatants from different countries ... PMCs are kind of illegal immigrants. Therefore, the Russian authorities cannot formally present any claims to the Americans for the deaths of Wagner's employees, Baranets said.

At the same time, it is inappropriate to call the participants of the Russian PMC mercenaries, the expert believes.

“By this you are pouring water on the mill of ISIS bandits (banned in the Russian Federation. - Approx. By Reedus), as well as cooks of ISIS and Western propaganda! Likewise, it is inappropriate to call the American-sponsored units, which are hypocritically called the Syrian Free Democratic Army, rebels, ”the military observer explained.

The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment under the articles "Mercenary" and "Participation in illegal armed groups."

He wrote about between the mercenary thugs and the members of the Ridus PMC at the beginning of the week.

Seventh February US pro-government troops in Deir ez-Zor province. Later, the American media reported the deaths of 200 Russians.

Conflict Intelligence Team, which investigates military conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, found out that Stanislav Matveyev, Igor Kosoturov, Vladimir Loginov and Kirill Ananyev. All of them served in the Wagner PMC.

Today it became known that the probable Syrian troops and fighters of "PMC Wagner" at the time of the air strike were oil and gas fields.

Russia's losses in Syria are estimated at dozens of dead. But the press service of the Ministry of Defense is not lying - the fighters do not belong to the military department. Nevertheless, landsknechts from Wagner PMCs receive real military orders.

Stanislav Zalesov / Kommersant

Fighters of a de jure non-existent private military company are suffering 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 they speak about the place of the last battle in an undertone and only among their own. "Fontanka" found out where you can see the true list of Russian losses - in decrees not published anywhere, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The battalion with heavy infantry weapons and armored vehicles, known as "PMC Wagner", 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 absent in the formulary lists of personnel. It cannot exist: in Russia there is no law on private military companies, and there cannot be a civil organization that has armored combat vehicles, 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, the conditional PMC under the command of a man with the call sign Wagner, according to Fontanka, has operated since the spring of 2014 in Crimea, and then in the Luhansk region.

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

Not everyone believed this story about a "semi-legendary" PMC. The words of nameless fighters are not enough for skeptics; they require 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 - the commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate special forces brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense stationed in Pechory, Pskov Region. After his retirement, 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, according to his call sign, received the code name “PMC Wagner”.

Known for his commitment to the aesthetics and ideology of the Third Reich, hence the callsign in honor of the mystic composer. In Lugansk, he shocked the personnel, replacing the usual field panama with a steel helmet of the Wehrmacht - but the commander's quirks are not discussed.

Allegedly killed in January 2016 near Donetsk Ozerianovka, but in fact - 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 frames.

An officer with the callsign "Chub" or "Chupa" is the 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 - checkers are bare," give, son of a bitch, a position! " ... The head thought and did not send people for meat. "

Real name - Sergei Chupov, 51 years old, major in reserve. He died at Damascus. Ruslan Leviev's Conflict Intelligence Team and RBC spoke about his death. They traced the life of the major: the general military school in Alma-Ata, Afghanistan as part of the 56th separate DShB, transfer to the Interior Ministry troops, 46th brigade, Chechnya, in the late nineties - transfer to the reserve.

Sergey Chupov was buried on March 18, 2016 at the cemetery of Balashikha near Moscow, on the plate the date of death is February 8, 2016.

Both CIT investigators and RBC journalists suggested that Chupov could have recovered from the Armed Forces and participated in the Syrian conflict as an officer of the Special Operations Service or some kind of "negotiator".

Apparently this is not the case. According to Fontanka, Sergei Chupov has been in Wagner's group since its inception. He did not work at 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 of them are former MSG employees), he flies from Moscow to Rostov, and from there he leaves for the Vesely farm , next to which the first training base for PMCs is being equipped (later the camp will be moved to Molkino, Krasnodar Territory).

The data on the time of death also differ. 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 confirmation of the existence of an informal battalion, somehow recognized by official structures, Fontanka found 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 - an award ceremony in Molkino. A gray-haired uncle arrives in a leather officer's flight jacket, who looks like a Chekist with the rank of no lower than Major General. First, 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 distrust. The established procedure for submission to the awarding of medals and orders excludes such a possibility. The documents sent are convincing of the opposite.

Crosses from Debaltsevo

On March 6, 2015, Andrei Elmeev and Andrei Shreiner were buried on the Alley of Heroes of the Banykino cemetery in Togliatti. They were both 43 years old, both have the same date of death - January 28, 2015. As the site tltgorod.ru reported, "two Togliatti militiamen who died during the armed conflict in Donbass."

This is not entirely accurate. Both Elmeev and Schreiner did indeed die in January 2015 in the battles near Debaltseve, but they had nothing to do with the real militia. As they had nothing to do with the regular Russian army, since they had been in reserve for a long time and worked under a contract for Wagner. Their names were read out in the ranks on May 9, 2015: "to award the Order of Courage - posthumously."

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

Then the confirmation of the awarding "Fontanka" did not find, but, taking into account the new information, is inclined to believe in the order.

Crosses from Syria

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

As far as Fontanka knows, the combat mission of the Wagner PMC fighter, BMP gunner-operator Maxim Kolganov performed near Latakia. The deceased's co-workers shared some photos.

To top it off - a pillow with awards, which was carried in front of the coffin: the medal "For Courage" and the Order of Courage.

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

The group photo, as our experts suggested, was taken, presumably, 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 "Shlang", who later died in Syria in mid-December 2015: he was blown up by an anti-personnel mine, returning with a group of seven people from a reconnaissance exit.

It was not possible to identify the rest, but looking at the photo with the fighter on a bunk bed, the veterans recognized the Wagner PMC's living quarters 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 the returnees say, a third of 93 people returned alive and uninjured. The main losses began in January - February, in the battles for Palmyra. The difficulty of documenting the victims is that even employees in the same platoon do not always know not only the surnames, but also the names of each other. “Curiosity is discouraged. With whom you chew lead side by side - sometimes they did not know the names. Who did what, who did what, they don’t talk about it, ”Fontanka was told.

In Syria, according to rough estimates, there is a Wagner unit of about four hundred people. All in all, 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 was formed in Molkino, he caused sincere laughter from the interlocutor:

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

Serbian guests

The highlight of Wagner is the Serb platoon, which began to form in the summer of 2014. According to the interlocutors of "Fontanka", the commander of the soldiers-internationalists was a Serb with the call sign "Wolf" named Davor, an old friend of Wagner, allegedly their acquaintance began even before Ukraine and even before the "Slavic Corps". “Fontanka” became interested in a warlike foreigner and became convinced that he was an extraordinary person.

Davor Savicic - Serb, citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, now permanently residing in Russia, by the age of 36 managed to survive the charge of bombing and killing six people in Bosnian Beranam in 2001, wanted by Interpol, sentenced to 20 years in prison and canceled verdict on formal grounds.

According to eyewitnesses, the Serbs came to the unit to Savicic both in 2014 and in 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 don’t have any connection with Syria at all, I am from Bosnia and Herzegovina and am engaged in construction in Khimki,” was the reply. The owner of the page with the name Davor Savicic and his profile photos and albums, claimed that no "Wagners and Beethovens" were familiar to him.

After the journalist asked him to comment on the photo in which Savichich was captured in the summer of 2014 in the company of Wagner's fighters by name - veterans of the Slavic Corps, the version changed slightly. Savichich softened his position, saying that he really fought as a volunteer in 2014 near Luhansk, but his campaign allegedly lasted only three days, after which he was wounded when an armored personnel carrier was fired at the checkpoint and went to receive treatment. As for the people with whom he hugs in the photo, these are casual acquaintances: "I asked them to call their phone, and we drank three beers each."

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

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

With bayonets

The percentage of losses, uncharacteristic for private military companies, as a rule, performing local and narrowly professional tasks in the combat zone, which do not provide for going to the attack, were explained by those who returned alive by the "tactics of the Second World War":

“Only there are not enough bayonets for the AK, otherwise it’s just World War II. As it was near Debaltseve - in the field people were driven out with equipment, and the team - your task is to take the fortification, to take the checkpoint. And forward, just like meat. When they started to lay on us from 120, from "Cords", from RPGs on technology - people ... they just vomited. Direct from RPG - only arms and legs remain. Without training in Molkino, no one will be sent into battle, but what they will have time to teach - just shoot elementary, so as not to die right away. Those who have combat experience - they still somehow more or less live, but still, not that. "

In Syria, Fontanka was told, the Hurray tactics continued:

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

The last question that I managed to ask was about who agrees to go into battle with a probability of "fifty-fifty" for 240 thousand rubles a month. The interlocutor assured that there are much more people wishing to get to Wagner than vacancies:

“Have you left your Petersburg for a long time? Apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, there is no work anywhere. If you are lucky, then 15-20 thousand per month is considered not bad, and the prices for food are as if we live in Antarctica. There is a queue in Molkino. In general, if PMCs would be official, as abroad, it would be great. We have no one to call anyone ”.

Denis Korotkov, Fontanka.ru

The history of secret Russian mercenaries.

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.
Russia launched a military operation in civil war-torn Syria just over a year ago - on September 30, 2015. A lot has changed since then. If at that time the Assad house was kept by a hair's breadth from death, then after Russian intervention the loyalists managed to recapture Palmyra from the Islamic State and win a crushing victory in Aleppo.

All these successes of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), pretty battered in the heat of war, would have been unthinkable without the support of Russia. It carries out air and missile strikes against opponents of government forces, supplies weapons and trains some units.

Officially, there are no fighters in the Russian contingent who do the "dirty work" - the people of 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 both against the Islamic State and against the "greens" - various groups that are considered moderate opposition in the West.

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”.

Oleg is not worried that he might be called a hired killer: "That's right, I went for money. Maybe it's easier, really?" When you meet him on the street, you don't recognize him as a soldier of fortune - Hollywood cliches don't work. A regular guy. A merry fellow, in whose eyes tears welling up when he remembers the fallen comrades.

New Slavic Corps

The Wagner Group is no ordinary private military company. This is a miniature army. “We had a complete set: mortars, howitzers, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers,” explains Oleg.

In some circles, the unit's fighters are called musicians: the unit commander allegedly chose a call sign in honor of the German composer Richard Wagner. According to some reports, 47-year-old lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin is hiding behind this call sign. He served in special forces in Pechory. This is not the first time in Syria - before that, he officially worked as part of a private military company known as the Slavic Corps.

The company was hired by Syrian tycoons to guard the oil fields and columns in Deir ez-Zor. However, in October 2013 in the city of Al-Sukhna, the guards got into serious trouble: they entered into an unequal battle with the jihadists of the Islamic State. “The participants told me, an enchanting battle, almost an oncoming battle for the city. Almost with two thousand militants against two hundred or three hundred, guards,” - says Oleg.

After these events, the contract between the customer and the guards broke down. According to Oleg, they did not agree on the payment: the "Syrian bigwigs" refused to pay extra for more dangerous work and began to threaten the Russians. The Slavic Corps left Syria.

The Wagner Group has another, more serious customer - the RF Ministry of Defense (RF Ministry of Defense). Before being transferred to Syria in the fall of 2015, the "musicians" underwent a three-month training at the Molkino training ground in the immediate vicinity of the base of a separate special forces brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

The Wagner Group got to Syria by plane. And these were not Aeroflot airliners, says Oleg, smiling. The soldiers were transported on transport planes of the 76th Airborne Division, which is stationed in the Pskov region.

"The Pskov aircraft took us. From Molkino by buses to Moscow: we received passports. From there to Chkalovskiy, from Chkalovskiy to Mozdok by plane. Two hours for refueling and maintenance. And another five-hour flight: over the Caspian Sea, Iran, Iraq and landing on the base of Khmeimim. Turkey does not allow it - it is not possible directly, "the fighter explains. After their arrival, they were accommodated in the city's sports complex, which Oleg chose not to name.

Equipment, including artillery and tanks, was transferred by sea using the so-called "Syrian Express" - on the ships of the Russian Navy from Novorossiysk to Tartus. It is known from various sources that the group was sent to Syria twice: for a short period in the fall of 2015 and to participate in a longer operation in the winter and spring of next year. Each trip is a separate contract.

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

Oleg admits that he didn’t go to Wagner the first time - he didn’t trust: “Practically, they get on an acquaintance and nothing else. There is no free set as such. ".

Among the Wagnerites there are quite a few of those who fought in the Donbass on the side of the separatists. They undergo an additional polygraph test. They may even ask if they are FSB agents - the special services in Wagner do not favor. The group has its own security department that fights information leaks. Finding photos of Russian condottieri on the Internet is a great success. This is a misdemeanor that entails serious sanctions for the offenders.

In Syria, fighters were paid 300,000 rubles (about 4,500 euros) per month, plus bonuses. There was also a kind of insurance system: about 300,000 rubles for injury and coverage of treatment costs in high-quality clinics. For the 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.

Gone is the fierce hell

The civil war in Syria is merciless - the interests of many countries are intertwined here. Hundreds of factions with varying motivations are fighting on both sides of the front, but none can be denied brutality. Why does Russia need this stupid war, Oleg prefers not to think. “I haven’t seen smart wars yet,” he retorts.

According to Oleg, a predominantly secular lifestyle reigns in government-controlled territories. A woman in a burqa is very rare, although many wear a hijab. In the liberated areas of Latakia, the local population is more likely for Assad.

"In Latakia, all around are portraits of Assad and Hafez Assad - the president's father. But locals do not show the relationship. This is a civil war - you are either for or against. If you try to be neutral, then you will most likely feel bad," Oleg describes.

The locals treat Russians well, and the Syrian military almost idolizes. "We are Russians for them. You see, they are very glad that the Russians have arrived. Finally, they think, I can sit down and drink mate again, let the Russians fight," says Oleg, smiling. They were dancing there all night in the squares, shooting into the air with joy. But how upset they were when we left! "

The once prosperous Murek, after the departure of the Russian "musicians", the Syrians left. The years of war have depleted the manpower reserves of the Syrian Arab Army. Coupled with a lack of fighting spirit and military training, only individual units remain combat-ready: "Firstly, they have no training: they cannot even shoot. Secondly, they have a terrifying attitude towards weapons: they do not even clean them."

This is largely why, according to various sources, the Wagner Group was used as a fire brigade - it operated where it was most difficult and, with the exception of the operation near Palmyra, in small groups.

“We have always been where there was the most garbage, the very hell. All that I saw was the most fierce hell, - Oleg does not hide his disdainful attitude towards the Syrian militias and the military, which, according to him, cannot be distinguished. - God forbid, have such allies. Because they always do the ***. Always. "

In Latakia, due to the inaction of the Syrians, the "Wagner group" suffered significant losses. Oleg retells the circumstances of that battle he heard from his colleagues with poorly concealed irritation. On that day, the Russians were supposed to cover the Syrian attack on the mountain and suppress enemy firing points on neighboring heights. After the end of the artillery preparation, the Syrians refused to go into the attack. The Wagner group had to take over the job. The ascent to the mountain went without incident, but at the top point the Russians were under fire from three sides.

"The mountain is completely naked. If you are not in the trench, the end is. The wounded appear, they need to be evacuated. How many people are leaving? At least two are dragging, others are covering. The path along which the guys were climbing turned out to be under fire - you cannot go. I had to go down the mined slope." , - says Oleg.

Wagner's soldiers lost about twenty people wounded that day and not a single one killed.

The Russians tried to rouse the allies to attack by force - they jumped into their trenches and shot at their feet, but they did not budge. "And the Syrians did not stop firing at the height. It turns out they were shooting our ass. It was hell," Oleg complains.

According to him, in the fall, the "Wagner Group" lost about 15 people killed. Half of them in one day: from a burst of ammunition in a campground. What it was, Oleg does not know, there were versions about a mortar mine or an American bomb. In winter and spring, the losses were greater, but he could not give exact figures.

This is not the only reason why Oleg dislikes government forces. "They steal everything that is not nailed down. They drag everything: pipes, wiring, even tore off the tiles. I saw how they took the toilet," he explains. Oleg did not hear about the punishments for looting from the Syrians.

Fought for Palmyra

However, Oleg does not have a high opinion of "babakhs" either - that is how the armed opposition is called, which is considered moderate in the West. According to him, the concept of the Free Syrian Army should be understood as hundreds of groups, including those of the Islamist persuasion, which periodically fight each other for territory: "They also need to eat something." Although he admits: "Greens are different."

"Turkomans are good guys. Good, I respect them. They fight desperately because they are fighting for their villages. If they leave the village, everyone leaves. They are completely different people. It would be beneficial for the Syrians to oust them from Latakia completely. - he states.

In 2016, the Wagner Group was united and transferred under Palmyra to fight the Islamic State. If in the fall there were about 600 mercenaries in Syria, then in the winter and spring their number doubled. “It was easier near Palmyra, because we were all packed into a heap and we were performing one integral task,” says Oleg.

According to him, there were no battles in the city as such. In difficult battles, "Wagner's group" occupied all important heights, after which the jihadists simply left the devastated city: "There is a highway behind the ridge. Ours took out tanks and began to destroy everything that moved along it. We pressed a bunch of cars. Then they drove for trophies." ...

ISIS have established themselves as fanatical fighters: they sow terror among Iraqis and Syrians alike. Oleg points out that Islamists from Europe are probably fighting well, but they have not encountered such. “Blacks” are also different. They have local militias: a soldier has a machine gun and nothing else. Such a "black" cannot fight either. There was a case. The observers reported that unknown persons arrived in cars, lined up in a wedge, and were walking towards us. They were covered with artillery, no one fired from a machine gun - they all were put down, "he recalls.

However, there are obvious advantages on the side of the Islamists: “They are very literate. Ours occupied the ridge, but they left Palmyra: they did not arrange Stalingrad.

After completing the task, Wagner's group left the city. The laurels of the victors went to the Syrian troops, who entered the empty city. However, the government troops won the victory won by the Russians: on December 11, 2016, the Islamists recaptured Palmyra.

The fall of this city is an eloquent confirmation that despite all the recent successes, the war is still far from over. Assad's supporters are not able to act everywhere - they lack strength and specialists. And not only at the front: the "Wagner Group" was used, among other things, for the repair of equipment.

"There is a huge armored plant in Hama. Before our guys arrived, the Syrians were repairing two tanks a month. When our guys arrived, they immediately began to issue 30 tanks a month. They worked from morning to evening: they were not even allowed into the city, the poor. They worked hard like slaves - in the evening they fell without legs. Our all left, but these repairmen remained there, "Oleg recalls, laughing.

The Wagner Group was withdrawn from Syria at the end of spring this year. The last operation of the Russians was the cleanup of the vicinity of the airport near Palmyra. "Among the palm trees and a labyrinth of stone fences," says the mercenary.

Since then, there have been no signs of the participation of Russian condottieri in this war. After the liberation of Palmyra, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation held a concert in the ancient amphitheater of the city. We played music by Prokofiev. It is quite possible that musicians may appear in this city again. Only these will be "musicians" with automatic weapons - the ghostly "Wagner group".

Oleg is ready: "Of course I will. At least I will go to Africa, Lord. In general, it does not matter where, I really like this work."

"Putinism As It Is" was conceived in 2015 as an encyclopedia of the Putin regime. So that everyone can come in and read about Putin's past and present, and think about the future: where is this character from the bandit Petersburg leading the country (and has already led).

And recently, many questions have arisen about Wagner's private military company (PMC) - a murky office that fights for hire in Putin's local wars: from Ukraine to Sudan. What is this structure? What is its place in Putin's mafia state? - This is an interesting question and it is worth dwelling on it in more detail.

The name "PMC Wagner" first became widely known in January 2015, when the LPR field commander Bednov ("Batman") was killed near Luhansk. He and 5 people with him were shot and burned from flamethrowers on the road. It was officially announced that the LPR authorities wanted to detain Bednov for some crimes (torture, looting, etc.), but he resisted and was killed.

In fact, it was a classic ambush, they wanted to kill him, not detain him. And before that, he had a conflict with his superiors in the LPR. In various blogs and resources supporting the DPR-LPR, then a wave of indignation arose: Bednov (and he was a very popular person in these circles) was killed by Wagner's PMC, these are mercenaries, they don't care who to kill, etc.

The wave quickly died out, the killings of field commanders, Cossack chieftains continued, but the details about Wagner's PMC were still little known. They appeared only in the fall of 2015, when first the St. Petersburg "Fontanka", and after it other media began to write on this topic.

They told the amazed public that the Wagner PMC is a private army, which was created by the GRU special forces Utkin (call sign "Wagner") with money from Putin's chef Prigozhin. That the cook and Utkin are recruiting mercenaries throughout the country, they pay a lot in cash, and they send them to fight in the Donbass, Syria, Sudan, etc.

At the same time, the cook himself never served in the army, tk. spent all his youth in prison: he has 2 convictions and is a former Petersburg criminal. His business is taverns, banquets in the Kremlin and government orders worth billions (not rubles). This is the second Rothenberg, only with a smaller caliber.

His companion Utkin-Wagner, on the contrary, was a military man all his life, a veteran of Chechnya, no stake, no court. True, in recent years his well-being has noticeably improved: apartments in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, some luxurious houses with servants.

"Fontanka" also reported that his call sign "Wagner" is not accidental: Lieutenant Colonel Utkin is a neo-Nazi, a fan of the Third Reich. And in the Reich, the composer Wagner (a supporter of the Aryan racial theory) was especially revered.

It all looked absolutely amazing. An alliance of repeat offenders with fascists in Putin's kitchen? - How far, however, Russia has gone in the process of "getting up from its knees." But even more questions were raised by the PMC itself, which they created.

PMCs in America are a serious business, legal, in Russia it is Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. If you read this article, then the recruitment, and funding, and the participation of the mercenary himself in hostilities are all crimes with considerable time frames. Pulls for 8 years, and with the use of official position - up to 15.

Those. strictly speaking, Wagner's PMCs are not PMCs. This illegal armed group is an illegal armed formation. Putin's chef created an international gang? Myself?

The figure of the second “founder of the business”, Wagner-Utkin, also caused bewilderment. Who brought together a sick lieutenant colonel who walked around Lugansk in a fascist helmet, and a cook from Putin's servants, the owner of glamorous taverns and a billionaire? Is this their business at all?

In general, this whole story about the Utkin-Prigozhin PMC has left more questions than answers. And the main questions here were just about the cook. So let's start with him.

2. Surprise from the chef.

The very nickname "Putin's chef" stuck to Prigozhin, tk. he regularly hosted banquets for Putin and his guests. Salad, snacks, hot dishes, dishes, serving, everything is right. This is his job. Service staff? - Yes, but closeness to the body, which (with the right approach) promises considerable benefits.

This is how it is, life at court: “I became one of my own in the company of Putin,” “something like a royal jester at receptions,” built a relationship with Zolotov. Pâté served with prunes, beef fillet with black truffles and morels with young carrots, caviar on ice again and port caramel. And also - government orders for billions and its own PMC, where, as they say, more than 3,000 bayonets.

But the most amazing thing about the cook was told by the Washington Post on February 22, 2018 with reference to US intelligence: judging by the wiretapping of calls from the cook to Syria, he not only finances the Wagner PMC, but also participates in the planning of military operations (!). Those. he is a commander. Between caviar on ice and port.

For example, according to American wiretaps, on January 30, 2018, the chef called Mansur Azzam (Minister of Presidential Palace Affairs in Syria) and said that he had agreed on a certain action in Moscow between February 6 and 9, 2018, which would be a "pleasant surprise" for President Assad. In response, the Syrian minister assured that they would not remain in debt, they would pay, if anything.

The cook, in his call to Syria on January 30, 2018, did not specify what kind of surprise he was preparing. As it turned out later, it was about the seizure by Wagner PMCs of one of the oil fields on the Euphrates River (the PMC has 25% of the income from all captured oil wells).

True, the attack failed. They were expected, and on the night of February 7-8, 2018, the attackers were killed by the Americans. And since they walked in a column through the desert, everything was in full view, it turned out to be a real massacre, shooting like in a shooting range. Here's a "surprise" from the chef.

A separate question arose about the losses incurred by Wagner's PMC on the Euphrates. Russian official sources at first denied everything at all, then the Foreign Ministry press secretary announced 5 dead. Meanwhile, people whose friends and comrades are actually fighting in the Wagner PMC (Girkin, Polynkov, ataman Shabaev, Alksnis and others), reported the death of more than 300 people.

The France24 TV channel, citing representatives of the Ural Cossacks (of whom there are many in Wagner's PMC), reported more than 200 killed. Of these, about 150 people were removed from the battlefield in a state of "minced meat", according to France24's interlocutors.

However, an alternative version of events was also voiced in the Western media. About three weeks after the battle on the Euphrates, Der Spiegel journalist Christophe Reuters reported from Syria that “two sources in the al-Baqir militia” (the Syrians fighting for Assad) told him that there were allegedly no Russians in the assault group at all. They were standing somewhere nearby and accidentally came under fire (and lost 20 people).

Apparently, it is worth arranging a confrontation between "two sources from the al-Bakir militia" with friends and relatives of those who died or were wounded on the Euphrates. And then it's really interesting who is fighting in Syria on the front line for Assad and who is then buried in Russia?

City of Asbestos, Sverdlovsk region. The cry of the soul of Elena Matveyeva, widow of the mercenary Stanislav Matveyev (call sign "Matvey"), who died on the Euphrates.

Why did Stas Matveev die? - For the oil fields. Beef fillet with truffles, served with morels and young carrots. And how you wanted.

The house where the deceased lived in Asbestos. From here he went to Syria, to fight for morels.

Coffins in PMC Wagner - 5 million rubles (if killed on the front line). There is a chance to get out of poverty and slums. In addition to money, a medal is also given posthumously. PMC Wagner has its own private awards. Something in between the Order of Courage of the Russian Federation and the Iron Cross.

Of course, 5 million and a medal for father and husband will not replace. And there, in her interview, the widow of Stas Matveyev in her hearts demands from the government to avenge her husband. But this is unlikely, dear Elena. Why are they going to take revenge on themselves?

3. The culinary path.

So, the military operations of Russia in the Middle East are planned by a chef-commander. But how did he get to the Kremlin at all? - And straight from the bandit Petersburg, friends.

Prigogine - born in 1961. He graduated from a sports boarding school (ran on skis). He did not serve in the army, because at the age of 18 (in 1979) he was sentenced to 2.5 years suspended for theft. After the suspended sentence in 1981, he got into prison for 12 years already: gang robbery, fraud and the 210th Criminal Code of the RSFSR to the heap.

The cook did not fully serve his term. It was released ahead of schedule in 1990. Now Prigozhin says that he started from scratch: stalls with hot dogs, "they mixed mustard in my apartment," and so on. However, he didn't get into big business on hot dogs. Childhood friend Boris Spektor was a member of Misha Kutaissky's organized crime group (Mikhail Mirilashvili). The bandits held the Conti gambling empire, the largest casino chain in the city, and Spector had a stake there.

In the 1990s, Mirilashvili's organized crime group was the second gang in the city after the famous Tambov-Malyshevskaya lads (and other comrades of Putin). Mikhail (Mikho) Kutaissky was actively expanding his business, buying up shops, real estate in the center. He had his own TV channel in St. Petersburg ("Russian Video"), sea berths for rent in the military ports of Lomonosov and Kronstadt (tobacco and alcohol smuggling channels in those years).

And it so happened that Boris Spektor, a friend of Prigozhin's at the boarding school, turned out to be a close ally of Miho. And he invited Prigozhin to work. The chef became responsible for grocery stores in the group - as a manager and junior partner. So he got into a serious business, where he earned his initial capital.

Authority Misha Kutaissky. One of the richest people in St. Petersburg (fortune over $ 3 billion). A prominent figure in the community of Georgian Jews. It was in his organized crime group that the criminal Prigozhin, who was released in 1990, got his start in life.

Prigogine walked under Misha Kutaissky until about 2001. By that time, trade had already ceased to be his main occupation. Since 1996, he began to open restaurants in St. Petersburg, mostly expensive and glamorous. The Kutaisi lads were in his share, but later they parted ways.

The divorce was not easy. In an interview with Forbes magazine on March 18, 2013, Prigozhin said that “Misha Mirilashvili did harm wherever he could”. He demanded to give him the restaurants, tk. believed that Prigogine had risen at his expense. He even frightened Putin: “Everything is in chocolate - our man became president”.

The connections between Mirilashivili and Putin really went far, back in the days when Putin and Kudrin issued casino licenses at the mayor's office. They were received entirely by bandits, for kickbacks, including the "Conti" gambling empire. However, at the time of Prigozhin and Miho's divorce (early 2000s), the cook's ties with Putin turned out to be much cooler than those of Misha Kutaissky.

Prigogine later explained that Putin, they say, just fell in love with going to his restaurants. Appreciated the kitchen, respected it, invited me to work at my banquets. Respected even more. So two respected people came together. This is partly true. They are similar - both are athletes, both were brought up by a gateway, a criminal environment. It brings people closer together. However, there was another important factor. Here is this colorful character who helped them forge business and personal connections:

This is the authority Roma Tsepov, the legend of the bandit Petersburg. An officer of the Interior Ministry troops, who left the service in 1990 and put together a brigade in St. Petersburg that worked under the guise of the Baltic Escort private security company. They dealt with everything - from security to racketeering and robbery. Tsepov's unspoken companion in the private security company was a man named Viktor Zolotov - at that time Sobchak's bodyguard, and now the head of the Russian Guard.

Tsepov very quickly established contacts in the highest echelons of the city and was a well-known fixer. He developed a particularly warm relationship in the mayor's office with a man named Vladimir Putin. Together - Tsepov, Putin and Zolotov made up a criminal trio that fully fell under Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the modern version. In short, a gang.

By the way, it was Tsepov who collected money from the casino, working for Putin as a confidant (cashier). After Putin came to power, Roma was known as simply omnipotent. He resolved any issues, removed and appointed generals, killed some, saved others, and resolved conflicts among oligarchs.

In 2004 he was killed. Roma ruined his relationship with his friend Vova, got into the Yukos case (he wanted to save this company for 30% of the shares for himself). And in general he began to forget, flaunting connections with the first person to the place and out of place. As a result, I drank tea with polonium (yes, 2 years before the Litvinenko case). You can read in more detail the biography of Roma Tsepov in this article:.

Roma was killed, but the people, the cadres that he put forward are still alive. One of them whom Roma left us as a keepsake is Putin's chef Prigozhin. He could not have gotten so close to Putin and Zolotov if Tsepov had not helped. As the saying goes, the person died, but his work lives on.

4. The forces of special machinations.

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

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

At first it was a project to clog the Internet with Putin's propaganda. With Prigozhin's money (ie from the budget), the famous troll factory in Olgino appeared in St. Petersburg, which then moved to 55 Savushkina, then to the Lakhta-2 business center, and so on.

Petersburg, business center "Lakhta-2" on the street Optics, 4. Most of Putin's comments on social networks are written here.

In addition to this factory for writing comments, in 2014 there was also the "Federal News Agency" (FAN) - a group of sites that spread Putin's and GB-shny nonsense on the Internet under the guise of news. From the series: “The USA is in a panic over our new fighter. The Russophobes of the State Department have strangled themselves with laces. " True, they overdid it, and in 2017 Google threw out all FAN sites from Google News, along with the archive for all the years. But Yandex News continues to give out this Prigogine garbage in batches.

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

Moscow, 2016. The commanders of the Wagner PMC in the Kremlin. Judging by the Russian press, in Lugansk Utkin liked to go out wearing a Wehrmacht helmet. In the image that is. It is strange that he did not wear it to the Kremlin. Still, a meeting with the Fuhrer.

The one to the left of Putin is Andrei Troshev ("Gray"), Utkin's deputy at the PMC. A former paratrooper, then he served in the SOBR. According to Russian media reports, in June 2017 he was found on the street in St. Petersburg in a state of "severe alcoholic intoxication", taken to the hospital. I had 5 million rubles with me, some maps of Syria, papers for the Wagner PMC. I almost drank the military secret, in short.

Another participant of the reception in the Kremlin is Ratibor, aka Alexander Kuznetsov. This is a major from the "Senezh" center in Solnechnogorsk ("sunflowers", special operations forces of the Ministry of Defense). In 2008, Major Ratibor sat for robbery and kidnapping. In 2013, he miraculously got out of prison and became a mercenary.

It is noteworthy that in the same place in Solnechnogorsk, where the "sunflowers" grow, the private security company "Stealth" is now based, about which Litvinenko once wrote. The private security company was established in the 1990s. jointly with the FSB and the Izmaylovo organized criminal group to commit contract killings - for hire and by order of the Motherland. Special forces fighters were involved in the private security company. The office was a living symbol of the merger of the FSB and the mafia - where one ended and another began, it was already impossible to determine.

The PSC Stealth was founded by FSB Colonel Lutsenko (he still works there), and General Khokholkov (“Yeltsin Sudoplatov”) was his curator in the 1990s. The general also covered the heroin trade, and the PSC was his help in the showdown. In short, the special operations forces (lads with the Chekists).

Returning to the Wagner PMC, it is worth noting that it also arose on the basis of the under-roof office of the special services: the backbone of Wagner PMC was formed back in 2013 as part of a security company Moran Security Group headed by Putin's KGB colleague Vyacheslav Kalashnikov.

Moran is a company that has been recruiting mercenaries since 2010 to guard sea-going ships abroad (including those carrying contraband). It was to Kalashnikov in "Moran" that Utkin first went, quitting the army in 2013. Major Kuznetsov (Ratibor) also began his career there as a mercenary after leaving prison, and many others.

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

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

This detachment included Utkin and the future command staff of Wagner PMC. The first pancake came out lumpy, but in 2014 they were remembered again, creating a new, larger bandit formation, which went to fight on a grand scale - in Ukraine, again in Syria, etc. And the lackey cook was brought in to pay for all this (from the budget money in the end, so it's not a pity).

As for the Chekist Kalashnikov, who gave Wagner and the company a start in life, there are many questions. Officially, he served in the SGB from 1981 to 1994 in the administration for Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Counterintelligence officer with knowledge of the German language. In 1994 he quit and worked in private security structures. Since 2009 - President of Moran Security Group.

He retired in 1994 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. However, in 2013, there were interviews in the Russian media with mercenaries whom he recruited for work. In person, Kalashnikov introduced himself as an FSB general. It turns out that he never left the organs.

In addition, Mr. Kalashnikov is a man with extensive mafia connections. Some of them are quite unexpected.

5 Putin's emissary

There is an interesting detail in the biography of the Chekist Kalashnikov: in 2001-2003 he was an assistant to Senator Alexander Torshin in the Federation Council. Torshin is one of the highest officials of the Russian Federation, in 2002-15 - vice speaker of the Federation Council, and now - deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia.

One of the people who knew him well, banker and oppositionist Sergei Aleksashenko, told Bloomberg in 2016 that Torshin had "long ties with the FSB" and was their creature. Those. this is another product of the life of the office at the address: Moscow, st. Bol. Lubyanka, 1. Although in the case of Torshin, the subcontractors also had a hand. The organization sitting in the forest at the 38th kilometer of the Moscow Ring Road (for which they are called foresters, as well as welders - from S.V.R.):

Throughout the 1990s, Torshin was hanging around with Gorbachev, then Yeltsin in various positions. Under Putin, he went on a promotion, but he became the hero of two international scandals. One is purely mafia (in Spain), the other is spy (in America).

In 2013-14. in Spain, 10 members of the Taganskaya organized criminal group were arrested on charges of money laundering. Among others, the leader of the Taganskaya gang, Alexander Romanov ("Roman"), was arrested. Before that, for several years, the phones of all the defendants in the case were tapped by the Spaniards.

The Spanish police were surprised that Roman, it turns out, was not the main one in the Taganskaya organized criminal group. There is a better person who gives him instructions on where and what millions of dollars to send. The novel respects this man and refers to it as "the godfather." Well, you guessed it, the godfather of the Taganskaya organized criminal group was Mr. Torshin.

In particular, there is an episode in the case where Torshin gives instructions to Roman how to invest and launder his (Torshin's) personal 15 million dollars. At that time, Torshin was the deputy chairman of the Federation Council, a member of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee and much more. One of the first persons of the state. In 2015, Putin appointed him deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia.

Bloomberg Agencies (August 2015): Mafiosi or Central Bank Banker? The Spanish police say that this Russian is both ".

As for Torshin's espionage cases, the situation here is even more ridiculous. The fact is that for a long time Torshin had a very unusual hobby for a Kremlin official - he was a member of the US National Rifle Association (NSA).

This is a conservative organization that stands up for traditional American values, to which the right of citizens to arms belongs. Moreover, their ideology is such that this is necessary not only for self-defense, but also to prevent tyranny in the country: if suddenly some local Putin turns up there who wants to steal in power for 20-30 years - so that he does not go out on the street empty-handed.

Paradoxically, in this organization, which has nothing to do with the "traditional values" of Putin's Russia, the vice-speaker of the Federation Council, Mr. Torshin, was hanging out for many years. What for? - This became clear only in 2016, when Trump was elected in the United States, and the shooting association supported him in every possible way.

In the midst of the election campaign, Torshin, through one of his acquaintances in the NSA, Paul Erickson, went to Trump's headquarters with a proposal to establish a direct channel of communication with Putin. Erickson passed the proposal to Rick Dearbon (Trump's aide), where he described Torshin as "Putin's emissary."

Referring to Torshin, he conveyed that Putin would like to meet with Trump before the election, and that Putin is “deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump”.

Torshin's mission, however, failed: Trump's headquarters showed no interest in the proposal. But all the correspondence of the parties was successfully intercepted by the FBI, and its participants had problems: they had to explain that they were not the initiators of the negotiations, and it was Putin's emissary who was stuffing himself for communication.

Nevertheless, the fact is quite indicative: for such a character, the “emissary of Putin” abroad (and the Taganskaya organized criminal group at the same time), the Chekist Kalashnikov, the future founder of Moran Security Group and the godfather of Wagner PMCs, worked at one time.

Of course, I foresee the question: well, Wagner's PMC is a product of the special services and Putin. But what about Blackwater in America? - PMCs at the CIA and the Pentagon, which was engaged in all sorts of dark affairs? And in which there was an equally controversial and notorious founder - the former "Navy Seal" Eric Prince. PMC Wagner - Russian "Blackwater". Is not it?

Well, let's take a quick look at the history of Blackwater, since they are so often compared to Wagner. And you will understand what the difference is.

6. Blackwater.

In 1992, a young guy from Michigan, Eric Prince, decided to go to serve in the army. Passed testing and ended up in the special forces of the Navy, which they call SEALs. Translated from English "seals" - seals, although the abbreviation SEAL itself stands for differently: SEa, Air, and Land teams (sea, air and land teams).

Service in teams of "seals" is difficult, all over the world, the best of the best are then selected to the SAD - the CIA's Special Operations Department. SAD is already the US foreign intelligence special forces. Like Vympel in the former Soviet KGB.

Here is such a difficult path for a boy from Michigan, Eric Prince:

Interestingly, this Michigan kid is the son of a billionaire. His dad, Edgar Prince, is a talented engineer who in 1965 founded a company to manufacture auto parts. He started with one workshop, for 30 years he produced metal casting, sun visors for car interiors and was very successful in this. In the end, he had a network of factories, orders from the largest auto concerns in America. Well, the son went to "cats".

By the way ... Show me the son of at least one billionaire in Russia, who at least served an emergency? And the billionaire engineer who founded his factories himself, without privatizing anything? And so in mechanical engineering? Stupid Americans are rotting and will soon fall apart, yeah.

Edgar Prince died in 1995. The family (wife and 4 children) sold his company for $ 1.35 billion and divided the inheritance. Son Eric Prince retired from the army after serving in the SEALs for three years and decided to start his own business. But also associated with the army and special forces. So, in 1997, the private military company Blackwater was born.

With his own money, Prince bought 1,600 hectares of land in an empty swampy area in North Carolina (300 km from Washington), where he equipped the largest private training ground in the United States for shooting and military training. Veterans of the CIA with combat experience came to work in the company. Thus began to form the private army "Blackwater".

Its finest hour came in 2001, after the September 11 attacks. When the smoke from the collapsed twin towers cleared, it was quickly established that nearly 3,000 people had been killed by al-Qaeda suicide bombers. Their headquarters then was in Afghanistan, under the wing of the Taliban regime - Islamic fanatics who seized power in this country in 1996.

Under the blows of the US Air Force, the Taliban regime quickly collapsed, and a long-term hunt for al-Qaeda in the mountains began. And in 2003, the war in Afghanistan was added to the war in Iraq. The two wars immediately created a colossal demand for private security services. Blackwater has received more than $ 2 billion in contracts from the US government to protect various sites and citizens. In a short time, Eric Prince made more money in the war than his dad did in his entire life on spare parts.

Blackwater in Iraq:

Moreover, an important detail: under contracts with the US Department of Defense, mercenaries were involved for auxiliary and logistical tasks, NOT on the front line (this is prohibited). If it becomes known in America that the Pentagon is using mercenaries at the front as assault infantry ... Moreover, it will lay down hundreds of them and hide the losses. Moreover, the president's cook pays for everything. And the cook himself is a mafia and his PMC is illegal ... In short, even before the situation reaches such a cloaca, there will be a scandal and the whole gang will be dispersed. And that's okay (in normal countries).

And nevertheless, friends, although Prince's PMC worked officially, did not go to the attack from the trenches, still a scandal arose with it in America. And no small one: Prince had to sell the company and leave the United States.

7. "We did work for the CIA, but we were betrayed ..."

In 2007, clouds thickened over Eric Prince's PMC. His men shot 14 people in broad daylight in a square in Baghdad, and wounded 17 more. The opening of fire was declared unmotivated. Four mercenaries were brought to trial in the United States. The third from the left in the photo (Nicholas Slatten) received a life sentence, others - 30 years.

The incident caused a great resonance (including diplomacy). Numerous journalistic investigations began on the activities of Blackwater PMC and Prince personally. A lot of dirty laundry has surfaced. One of the curious facts that the American media discovered then was that Prince had secret contracts with the CIA for the physical elimination of al-Qaeda members outside the United States. Those. PMC "Blackwater" was engaged not only in security. Could and soak someone to order.

Orders were given by the government. Following the 9/11 attacks, President Bush directed the CIA to find and eliminate al-Qaeda members wherever they are. Cofer Black, head of the CIA's counterterrorism center, was named in charge of the case. Once he became famous for having caught Carlos "Jackal" - the main international terrorist of the 1970s and 1980s. Now there was another task - not to catch, but to bring down.

Kofer Black, CIA chief of wet affairs in the first half of the 2000s.

Extrajudicial killings on foreign soil are risky business. In the event that the operation is carried out mediocre or adventurous, the costs can be high (see Polonium-210). Therefore, Kofer Black decided to secretly hire a "subcontractor" - PMC "Blackwater".

And in 2005, Kofer Black quit his job altogether and went to work ... there at Blackwater. At some point, it became difficult to determine where the CIA ended and the PMC began. They formed a symbiosis.

How did this symbiosis work? In 2009, journalists from the weekly Atlantic were able to find two former Blackwater mercenaries who agreed to tell what PMC Eric Prince was doing in Afghanistan, but without revealing their names in the press. These were two former SWAT soldiers, dark-skinned Mexican Americans. They were chosen on purpose - if they change their clothes, outwardly they can pass for Afghans.

As the journalist "Atlantic" writes, the guys from the American special forces reacted calmly to the work of executing the murders, but asked the employer ("Blackwater") how legal it was. They assured that everything was OK.

They were brought to Kabul, dressed up like the locals and given the task: to come to the bazaar and kill the driver of a pickup truck, whom a CIA officer would indicate to them. They had no idea who this driver was. He had to be banged and quickly leave according to the escape plan. The work was done successfully, after which the performers were given a new order.

Actually, this is the main reason for the Blackwater scandal - something that scared the American public. The symbiosis of the CIA with an under-roof office of armed thugs and the execution of assassinations (albeit terrorists) is a promising start. In the absence of proper control, everything easily turns into an organized criminal group. Tomorrow they will kill for hire, sell drugs and provide a criminal cover. Those. the FSB will turn out. Until it came to such a cloaca, the public and sounded the alarm.

In 2009-10. the Blackwater scandal has reached its climax. There were two more former PMC employees who filed a lawsuit against Prince with quite criminal charges. The Blackwater founder was accused of trading in weapons in Iraq. That part of the money from the CIA was transferred to them no one knows where (possibly stolen). That some of the witnesses familiar with the inner kitchen of Blackwater had strangely not died of their own kind. That Prince is generally a psychopath, an ultra-right "Christian fundamentalist" who fancies himself a crusader of our day.

The English magazine "The Economist", issue of August 6, 2009 Testimony of former employees of PMC "Blackwater": Eric Prince - "the last crusader", a racist who, being in Iraq, in a narrow circle called Iraqis and Arabs exclusively "ragheads or hajiis" - racist nicknames from American slang, analogous to the Russian "churkobes", "churkobes".

In general, the roll was serious. The Blackwater issue was heard before the Intelligence Committee in Congress. The contract killings program was closed. In 2010, under threat of losing contracts, Prince had to sell the company and leave the United States. The former Blackwater now has new owners and a new name - Academi. Eric Prince lives abroad, he has a new PMC in Abu Dhabi with the local emir. It is called "R2".

Criminal charges against Prince, which were heard in America, remained unproven. Now he calmly comes to the United States, a big fan of Trump, his sister works for him in the government.

PMC "R2", which Prince commands in the Emirates, fights wherever the emir has interests - from Yemen to Libya. There are no UAE citizens there, only foreigners. Sometimes they are used as infantry in the very heat and with heavy losses. Those. quite in Putin's way. Only the emir's mercenaries are from other countries.

Working for the Arabs, Prince did not lose his crusader manners (at heart). He regularly appears on the far-right American website Breitbert News. For example, in June 2016, he stated there that: "Those who threaten American Christian values ​​should be barred from entering the United States."

And in July 2016, Prince ran into the French (this was immediately after the terrorist attack in Nice, where an Arab terrorist killed 84 people in a truck):

“This is a war against Islamic fascism. They are fighting against us. But we are clearly not fighting against them. My question to the French: where is your Charles Martel [the king who defeated the Arabs at the Battle of Poitiers in the 8th century. AD]? Where is the person who will stop the invasion of radical Islam? What kind of leadership is generally at the head of France? "

Speaking once again in America about "Islamic fascism", Prince goes to his villa in Abu Dhabi to do business further. In the UAE, where people simply disappear without a trace for quitting Islam, for any criticism of the authorities, everything suits him.

The former owner of "Blackwater" does not like to remember the past. "We did work for the CIA, but were we betrayed by the bawdy politicians?" , — stated he is on the air of "Russia Today" in 2014.

However, according to conservative estimates, only about the contract murder program, he received $ 250 million from the CIA. This money is for taxpayers, and why shouldn't the bawdy politicians ask what and how? Do not delve into dirty laundry. Otherwise, why were they chosen at all?

Compare this with Putin's Russia, where there are not even bawlers in the Duma, but clowns who do not care about anything: illegal PMCs, hundreds of murdered mercenaries, sources of money to pay for them. With Putin's Russia, where the special services are generally not controlled by anyone and have long turned into organized crime groups in uniform. Against this background, the scandals with the CIA and Blackwater in the United States are simply manifestations of civil society, parliamentary and independent media control over the activities of the secret services. In Russia, there is neither one nor the other.

Another small example. When Trump was elected in America, Putin's emissaries also approached Eric Prince through the Emir of Abu Dhabi with a proposal to establish an informal communication channel (Prince's sister works for Trump, as already mentioned).

One of Putin's close associates came out - banker Kirill Dmitriev from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RPFI). This is an office under the control of the SVR, created in 2011 to launder money under the guise of foreign investments (including the money of Putin himself).

The meeting between Prince and Dmitriev was in the Seychelles in January 2017.Dmitriev flew in by private jet (in this case, you can enter Seychelles without a stamp in your passport). The meeting was secret, although the FBI found out about it anyway (Prince is not alone in looking through his email).

This ended with Prince being summoned to the Intelligence Committee of the US Congress to provide an explanation. There he claimed that he simply “drank beer” with Dmitriev in the Seychelles, discussed trade, terrorism, but no more. Those. the communication channel did not work out here either.

However, it is significant that only the American parliament was interested in the topic. In Russia, she did not even rise. Although it would seem: Putin's close associate travels specifically to the Seychelles to meet with a noble CIA officer. What kind of meetings are these? What are the billions of dollars in Dmitriev's fund, whose are they and where are they spent? - In a normal country (not an African-type dictatorship), the parliament would immediately become interested. But there is no parliament in Putin's Russia. And in the circus, such questions are not discussed.

8. Epilogue.

The average salary in Russia in 2017, according to official data, was 39,144 rubles. Net of taxes - 34,055 rubles. Roughly - 34 thousand on hand. Or 516 euros (the average rate in 2017 is 65.9). This is after 18 years of Putin's rule.

Let's go further. There is such a country - Romania. One of the poorest in Europe. The average salary in Romania in 2017 after taxes is 2383 Romanian lei. The average leu / ruble exchange rate in 2017 was 14.9. Thus, the average net salary in Romania is 35,506 rubles.

Again: Russian in Putin's Russia earns an average of 34 thousand on his hands, Romanians in a completely impoverished (by EU standards) Romania - 35.5 thousand. What is left? - That's right, shoot nuclear torpedoes at the United States. Hire more mercenaries in Syria, break into Sudan, deepen friendships with South American drug cartels and dictators in Asia.

And continue to believe that Russia is not a Third World country at all, and Putin is not a crazy king of a raw materials colony, whose roof has gone down from the stolen dough.

In our wonderful post-perestroika era, entrepreneurship is not only developing at a gigantic pace, it is crushing new spheres of influence. As soon as we got used to private medical clinics, the so-called LLCs appeared, developing drugs and medical equipment, followed by LLCs for protection and investigation. Now private military companies in Russia are trying to obtain legal status. They do not exist legally, but there are few people who would not know about their existence. Despite the fact that only for “simply serving” in a PMC you can earn 7 years in prison instead of a heap of money, and for agitation to join any of these companies or for training there military skills for recruits to get as many as 15 years, young people surf the Internet in search of information. how to get into a PMC. Why is there such a gap in the views of the government and the people? What illegal actions dangerous to society are committed by PMC members? Why are these companies so attractive to young guys that they are ready to risk their freedom and even their lives to get there? Let's try to figure it out.

How PMCs appeared

I must say that private military companies in Russia are far from know-how. Back in 1967, in conservative and respectable England, David Sterling, a colonel in the British army, formed the first division of mercenaries who served (or worked as they liked) in a private company that did not grow flowers at all. Prior to that, David Sterling created the world's best SAS special unit, which was mainly engaged in reconnaissance and hostage release, as well as actively participating in armed conflicts. The real colonel named his new brainchild Watchguard International. Its members have been deployed in the Middle East and Africa for multidisciplinary military purposes.

Further PMCs began to appear in America, France, Israel, in all countries where this was regarded as the norm. In the United States, for example, the number of volunteer mercenaries has tripled in three years. Members of PMCs took on any difficult and life-threatening work, took part in hostilities, for example, in Angola. Even the UN used their services.

In 2008, seventeen countries signed the Montreux document, which stipulated the duties and rights of PMC members, plus regulated their practice in hostilities. That is, private military companies abroad have long been legalized. Their existence is recognized as useful to society, since PMCs are capable of performing the most extraordinary tasks, and in addition, they reduce the death of conscripts in the regular army.

The status of PMCs in Russia

Private military companies in Russia, or rather their prototypes, began to appear during the perestroika period - the glorious times of permissiveness and impunity. True, then these spontaneous groups resembled the current PMCs only in that their composition included strong, healthy men who did not disdain any "truly male" work and the fact that they were paid for it.

But little by little, the situation in the country was put in order, which also affected the military groups. Now these are already well-coordinated teams, the leadership of which strives not to violate the basic principles of the legislation. Yes, and no one else is taken there, if only there was strength in the hands, but men with an adequate psyche, who had no convictions and were not registered anywhere.

Over and over again, the government tries to finally adopt the law on PMCs, that is, to legalize what is already obvious. The last such attempt took place in the spring of 2016, when Oleg Mikheev and Gennady Nosovko (both are deputies of "Fair Russia" and are not members of PMCs) brought the draft of a private military security organization to the Duma's court, but the Duma decided to postpone the issue until better times, and Nosovko withdrew his project for revision. The main argument of the government's refusal is the contradiction of the law on PMCs with Article 13 (part 5) of the Constitution, although the draft included a clause prohibiting PMCs from participating in armed conflicts.

Finally, in December 2016, the government made the Solomon's decision - to legalize the activities of employees in PMCs, but still leave private military companies themselves on the bird's side. This half-hearted legalization looks like amendments to the law on military service. As soon as the president signs them, it will be possible to conclude short (for a month) or long (for a year) contracts to participate in the fight against international terrorism and to establish peace and security in any country where it is needed.

The scope of activity of Russian PMCs

Private military companies in Russia, according to knowledgeable people, are engaged in very useful activities:

Protect individuals;

Escort convoys with valuable cargo;

Ensure the safety of people working in places where the political environment is unstable;

Help to eliminate panic and restore order in emergencies (for example, terrorist attacks);

They guard important objects of any kind (oil rigs, platforms, gas pipelines, oil refineries, civil airports and seaports);

Convoy ships in areas where pirates operate;

Are engaged in military intelligence;

Provide various (according to their profile) services to government agencies;

Help the population in disaster zones (earthquakes, tsunamis and others);

Participate in humanitarian aid.

This list does not include the item "conduct military operations", although there are many witnesses, of course, who do not give their names, that PMCs also take part in hostilities. The most recent examples are Donbass and Syria. There is no documentary evidence of this, there are only guesses of journalists and behind-the-scenes conversations, and there are also crosses on the graves, where only the service number of the soldier is indicated and nothing else. Even the relatives of the deceased PMC members refuse to comment on the death of their loved ones and declare that provocations are being arranged against them.

Why the Wagner Group is so secret

There are a lot of rumors about this PMC, in the mess of which there are grains of truth. So, it is known for certain that the infamous "Slavic Corps" became its prototype. This PMC was officially registered, however, not in Russia, but in Hong Kong, and consisted not of Chinese, but of Russians (who had previously served in SOBR, Airborne Forces, GRU). "Slavic Corps" did not hide their intentions and openly advertised the recruitment, promising a salary of $ 5,000. We recruited people to guard facilities in Syria. They also guarded the oil fields in Deir ez-Zor. For this purpose, the fighters were given anti-aircraft guns (caliber 37 mm), PM-43 mortars without mines, three BMP-1s (one inoperative), two BM-21s with rocket shells without fuses. With such a wonderful weapon, the PMC, while on the march, was attacked by a gang of ISIS members. With great difficulty, with the support of an attack aircraft and two Akatsiya installations, the PMC managed to retreat to the Tifor airbase, where it took up defensive positions.

Meticulous Fontanka employees are trying to find more compromising evidence and catch the Wagner group in hostilities on Syrian soil. But if these warriors really fought there against ISIS, they would deserve not accusation, but respect. A pack of inhumans calling themselves the "Islamic State" are doing such atrocities, from which blood freezes in their veins. Their destruction of the great monuments in Palmyra is the smallest evil they have brought to the world. According to some reports, there were about 400 Wagnerians in Syria. They took part in the liberation and demining of the most beautiful city of Palmyra, for which the Russian Ministry of Defense instituted two medals. How many fighters from Dmitry Utkin's group died there, only members of his PMC know. In the late spring of 2016, the Wagnerites were taken out of Syria. Only the repairmen remained there. But on August 1, D. Utkin was again seen near the downed Russian helicopter in Idlib.

What to say? The commander of the private military company PMC "Wagner's group" is back in business.

How many PMCs in Russia

There are other private military companies in our country, not only the Wagner Group. Among them:

There are many other PMCs in Russia, more or less well-known and completely classified.

How is recruiting in a PMC

On forums on the Internet, you can see questions from young guys about where they are admitted to PMCs. Some even ask for the exact address. Since these companies are officially banned, you can get there only under the patronage of those who have connections with them. Such information is not publicly disclosed. It is known that only Russian citizens are taken there (Utkin, being a Ukrainian, took Russian citizenship), and preference is given to those who have special military training. Other admission criteria:

The absence of any chronic diseases and health problems;

Good physical fitness;

Unencumbered by marriage;

No criminal record.

Working in a PMC entails mostly good wages (although everything in life is relative). So, according to some reports, if missions take place on their native land (convoy, security, and so on) they pay at least 80 thousand rubles a month. Now that kind of money can be earned in any reputable company. For missions abroad, they pay up to 500 thousand rubles. For example, in Syria, the salary was 300 thousand rubles. per month. For comparison: in Iraq, the soldiers of the Academi PMC received from $ 600 to $ 1,000. e. per day. If an employee in a Russian PMC is injured, he is paid a penalty, the amount of which depends on the severity of the injury. If he is killed, his family can hope for compensation of up to 5 million rubles.

Pros and cons of PMCs

Many people believe that private military companies are needed in Russia. Their pluses:

The opportunity to employ former military personnel who are not able to adapt to a peaceful life;

Reduction of losses in the army among conscripts;

Creation of military bases in any country in the world;

Income to the state treasury;

Resolving complex problems (for example, kidnapping abroad) without violating international law;

Reliable protection of important strategic objects;

Assistance in resolving issues of national security;

The ability for a country to defend its interests without open military action;

Higher efficiency compared to the regular army.

Counterweight for the armed forces;

The inability to fully exercise state control over PMCs;

The high cost of PMC services;

The emergence of armed groups in the country that the state is unable to control;

Non-transparency of contracts concluded by PMCs;

Dedication of PMCs to state secrets;

Fears of a certain part of the population (representatives of big business) that legalized PMCs may become a threat to their activities in the person of paramilitary mercenaries who blindly carry out the order.