Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. Afterwards, the men posed for a photograph with the suspended body, across the torso of which they wrote: For the VDV [Russian airborne forces] and an out-of-focus word that appears to say razvedka, a term for military intelligence. Right now in Syria, were in the most aggressive E.W. A 2017 video posted online showed a group of armed people, reported to be Wagner contractors, torturing a Syrian man, beating him to death with a sledgehammer and cutting his head before mutilating and then burning his body. The reports revelations have chilling implications, as Russian mercenaries motivated by both money and far-right ideology are increasingly operating unchecked in some of the worlds most fragile countries. They inspected their weapons and ensured the trucks were loaded with anti-tank missiles, thermal optics and food and water. By one estimate from Harvard University, more than 130,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or severely wounded, in addition to the deaths of more than 7,000 Ukrainian civilians. A Russian-speaking man who filmed the torture and killing of a prisoner in Syria has been identified as a member of Wagner, a Russian private military company The outcome of the battle, and much of its mechanics, suggest that the Russian mercenaries and their Syrian allies were in the wrong part of the world to try a simple, massed assault on an American military position. Join in-depth conversations and interact with foreign-policy experts with. Twitter:@ak_mack, NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Mr. Utkin is said to have chosen Wagner to honor the composer, who was a favorite of Hitlers. The GRU often directs and supports the group in combat, and the available evidence indicates close coordination in Questions remain about exactly who the Russian mercenaries were, and why they attacked. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Bangui, Central African Republic, in 2019. relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts. In an interview with the Russian human rights group Gulagu.net late on Sunday, Ilya Nuzhin said his family learned of their fathers death through Telegram, which left them horrified. In addition to their involvement in Syria, Libya, Central African Republic and Ukraine, Wagner operatives have also fought in Sudan, Mali and Mozambique, exerting Russian influence by proxy, doing the bidding of authoritarian leaders and, at times, seizing oil and gas fields or securing other material interests. The prospect of Russian military forces and American troops colliding has long been feared as the Cold War adversaries take opposing sides in Syrias seven-year civil war. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. Marine rocket artillery was fired from the ground. The American commandos took cover, then ran behind dirt berms to fire anti-tank missiles and machine guns at the advancing column of armored vehicles. One person sanctioned by the EU was described as "the security advisor" to PresidentFaustin Archange-Touadera. video Russia's notorious Wagner group admits to recruiting Zambian inmate who died fighting in Ukraine Prigozhin above all is a sharp-eyed opportunist. Four days before the newspaper report, the Syrian news site Jesr Press published what it claimed was the victim's name: a 33-year-old from Deir al-Zor who had left the country when civil war broke out but reportedly returned in 2017 to join government forces propping up the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Its a really adaptable network, which makes it hard to target, but also hard to talk about, said Margolin of C4ADS. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript. For the next three hours, American officials said, scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles. A BBC Russian investigation in 2018 highlighted the deaths of Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria. Is the United States becoming protectionist? In Syria, A Mutilated Corpse, Video Evidence, And New Scrutiny For Russian Mercenaries. An hour later, the enemy fighters had started to retreat and the American troops stopped firing. Osechkin said all signs pointed to Wagners involvement in the killing and said he planned to send a request to Russias authorities to launch a criminal case. Elements of these networks have been identified by researchers and journalists through their overlapping ownership structures, personnel, and supply chains. After the first video was anonymously posted in June 2017 three more were posted in November 2019 and began circulating widely on Russian social media platforms. Ukraine had a responsibility towards Nuzhin and he should have not been exchanged, given the dangers he faced in Russia.. Before he was killed, Bouta said Russian speaking soldiers had press ganged him and several others in custody at al-Draij into fighting contingents deployed to Homs to seize and protect oil and gas infrastructure. It sheds new light on the networks operations and reveals how the killing became a rallying point for Russian ultranationalists online. Bouta later got in touch with his brother-in-law directly and told him that members of the Syrian Arab Army had taken him to the al-Draij military camp, a well-known deployment hub for Wagner Group fighters. Thousands of Russian contractors fought in Syria alongside a 2015 military intervention by Putin that helped turn the tide in the countrys civil war and saved the government of Bashar al-Assad. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. The mercenaries earn of a share of the production proceeds from the oil fields they reclaim, officials said. It was the opening salvo in a nearly four-hour assault in February by around 500 pro-Syrian government forces including Russian mercenaries that threatened to inflame already-simmering tensions between Washington and Moscow. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a wide-ranging conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the Biden administrations trade and economic policiesand the impacts they have on the world. Contacted by Novaya Gazeta, relatives and friends of the Russian man, named as Stanislav D., either did not respond or denied any affiliation with him. They beat his extremities with a sledgehammer before decapitating him, setting his body on fire and posing for photographs with his remains. It was quickly seized upon by open source investigators, who first identified the location of the video as the Shaer gas station near Homs and then pored over the video for clues to the mens identities. Russian authorities ignored requests by the media and rights activists to investigate the killing. Theres a trend or pattern around what happens when Wagner is involved in an armed conflict, Dr. MacLeod said. Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. Initially, Russian officials said only four Russian citizens but perhaps dozens more were killed; a Syrian officer said around 100 Syrian soldiers had died. Unless you have been on the battlefield in Syria, Libya or the Central African Republic, you most likely have never heard of the Wagner Group, a private military force with close links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a wide-ranging conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the Biden administrations trade and economic policiesand the impacts they have on the world. Commanders of the rival militaries had long steered clear of the other by speaking through often-used deconfliction telephone lines. Snippets of the video had been posted online since 2017 but the full footage was uploaded last week to a closed VKontakte group for members of Wagner. Boutas slaying is symptomatic of the accountability vacuum in which the Wagner Group operates. Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his comrades, betrayed consciously, he said. The newspaper identifies the man by his first name and the first letter of his surname but withholds his full name amid concerns for his family's safety. It was dark, according to the documents, and the roads were littered with felled power lines and shell craters. A curated selection of our very best long reads. The Novaya Gazeta report added more clarity to an incident that prompted anger and confusion when evidence of it first surfaced. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria about 40 by the end of the firefight were harmed. But the Russian government has preferred to keep Wagners actions obscured, even hiding preparations for funerals when members of the private military company have been killed abroad. The Guardian has previously reported that Prigozhin was personally recruiting soldiers from Russias extensive penitentiary system in an attempt to compensate for acute shortages of personnel on the battlefield. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. At one point in the video, a second severed head can be seen lying on the ground. Its not clear how the videos ended up online or why the perpetrators chose to document the killing. But Russian military officials said they had no control over the fighters assembling near the river even though American surveillance equipment monitoring radio transmissions had revealed the ground force was speaking in Russian. Between 200 to 300 fighters were killed in the battle, including scores of Russian mercenaries believed to be working in the region to seize control of a nearby gas plant on behalf of EvroPolis. The firefight was described by the Pentagon as an act of self-defense against a unit of pro-Syrian government forces. Hopefully, this will open the door for all the crimes committed by the Wagner Group not only in Syria, said Mazen Darwish, one of several human rights activists pressing for justice in the case and director general of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. Anyone can read what you share. The Wagner Group is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin often referred to as Theyre testing us every day., How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. WebPosted by 2 days ago. The companies hit by sanctions included gold and diamond mining operations in the CAR and Sudan. That person has not been identified. Putins Russian Critics AreGrowingEver Louder, The Conversation About Ukraine Is Cracking Apart, The State Departments Lack of Diversity Is Bad for U.S. In September, Prigozhin, known as Putins chef because his catering business hosted dinners attended by the Russian president, admitted to founding Wagner, a link he has previously repeatedly denied. There is now little doubt that Putin failed in his initial goals: Kyiv is still Show morestanding, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. He has previously denied any links to the group, though various investigations have linked him to its activities. MOSCOW -- The graphic video shows four men in camouflage gear exchanging jokes in unaccented Russian as they pour flammable liquid over a man's mutilated corpse strung up on two wooden beams. Is Weiss correct? This style of hybrid warfare has become a cornerstone of Russias efforts to project its interests abroad. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. Apostols family have reportedly confirmed that he worked as a private security contractor in Syria, and that he was one of several hundred Russians killed in a U.S. airstrike in the northeastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. The incident will serve to further blacken the reputation of Wagner, which was founded by a businessman close to Vladimir Putin. Russia and the US have both been on repeated diplomatic missions to Africa since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, trying to win allies and explain their positions as the fighting has serious knock-on impacts for food and fuel prices for some of the poorest parts of the world. The report also revealed that at least one of the Russian-speaking men in the video had fought in the embattled region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine before traveling to Syria to work for a contingent affiliated to the Wagner Group. In April, the French army released imagery from drone cameras that showed Wagner Group soldiers laying out dead bodies in the sand near a French army base in Mali after the French withdrew. In the past month, the number of Wagner troops in the country has more than tripled to over 1,000. Novaya Gazeta called on Russian law enforcement to investigate the case. American intelligence officials say that the Wagner Group, known by the nickname of the retired Russian officer who leads it, is in Syria to seize oil and gas fields and protect them on behalf of the Assad government. We now bring you another report, this time from Syria, where the horrific torture and murder of a Syrian man in 2017 allegedly at the hands of Russian The small team of American troops was not harmed. Russian trucks heading to Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich Syrian province that borders Iraq, last year. According to a report this monthon Wagner by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the CAR is Wagner's biggest African base of operations. It has since been hailing Russia as contributing to an end to post-colonial French influence in the country. Two years after the United States clashed with some sort of Wagner Group contingent in Deir Ezzor, the United States government still doesnt know anything about the organizational structure of these military contingents, Rondeaux said. Representatives for Stroytransgaz and Prigozhins main company Concord Consulting and Management did not respond to requests for comment made before lawyers representing Boutas family went public with details of the Moscow court filing on Monday. environment on the planet from our adversaries, Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of United States Special Operations Command, said recently, referring to electronic warfare. are assisting Somali soldiers fighting Al Shabab, and by a health care system that utterly failed him, The case has irritated U.S. relations with a crucial military ally, four Russian citizens but perhaps dozens more. The U.S. government has said that the organization is financed by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and a close associate of Mr. Putin. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. But later they appear to let their guard down, as one says: Hide your faces well, whatever, this video wont go up anywhere anyway.. Then as now, the Kremlin denied any ties to Vagner, but the incident put major pressure on Russia to explain the presence of private mercenaries. It was not immediately clear who was behind the video, or how Nuzhin would have ended up back in Russia. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The details of the Feb. 7 firefight were gleaned from interviews and documents newly obtained by The New York Times. Increasingly, theyve become more formalized and have started acting more like Western military contractors. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Pretoria on Monday for talks with one of Moscow's most important allies in Africa. These soldiers are likely to be used as cannon fodder to try to limit Russian military losses, he has said. 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