Delivered Thursday. It was not immediately clear who was behind the video, or how Nuzhin would have ended up back in Russia. The documents obtained by The Times estimated 200 to 300 of the pro-regime force were killed. 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. But, as in many other developing countries, Syrias nationalized energy sector is highly reliant on external backing from foreign firms for capital-intensive upstream investment in exploration and development. Family members of a former Russian prison inmate, who defected to Ukraine after being recruited by the Kremlin-linked private military group Wagner, have He said Russia seemed to be turning to them to bolster its troops in the east of Ukraine because the group already had experience fighting in the Donbas region for the past eight years. Wagner Group The brutal torture and beheading in video from Syria, according to the Kremlin, none of Putin's business. This has absolutely no relation to Russian soldiers, no matter what is being published about it, said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin. Aircraft across the region were placed on alert, military officials said. Nuzhin, 55, had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for a murder he committed in 1999 when he was freed in July and conscripted into Wagner, a notorious military group run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a powerful Russian businessman and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Commanders briefed pilots and ground crews. The Wagner Group is a very convenient fiction for a lot of people in Russia who both want to get rich and project power abroad, Rondeaux said. And at a minimum, squaring off in crowded battlefields has added to heightened tensions between Russia and the United States as they each seek to exert influence in the Middle East. These soldiers are likely to be used as cannon fodder to try to limit Russian military losses, he has said. But in recent weeks, according to United States military officials, they have jammed the communications of smaller American drones and gunships such as the type used in the attack. They are the Swiss Army knives of modern Russian warfare and serve as force multipliers, arms merchants, trainers of local military and security personnel, and political consultants, according to a recent. 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. $162 million from oil and gas fields in central Syria in 2017 alone. Initially, Russian officials said only four Russian citizens but perhaps dozens more were killed; a Syrian officer said around 100 Syrian soldiers had died. This has forced us, as human rights defenders, to turn to Russian investigative authorities, Novikov said. Eight of the 11 individuals and all seven entities sanctions were linked to Wagner's largest and longest-runningknown operations in Africa, in the Central African Republic and Sudan. 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. The others retreated under merciless airstrikes from the United States, returning later to retrieve their battlefield dead. WASHINGTON The artillery barrage was so intense that the American commandos dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. 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 The day began with little hint of the battle that was about to unfold. Russia Syrias government controls oil, gas, and mineral production and export, and Syrias General Petroleum Company sets strategy for exploration and development and supervises national subsidiaries, including the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) and Syrian Gas Company (SGC). "I'm at risk. 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. From their outpost, the commandos watched the mercenaries and Syrian fighters return to collect their dead. This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. Online messages sent to him and his wife by the Guardian were not immediately returned on Thursday. Wagner would have not been able to commit this medieval execution without the approval of the Russian security services, Osechkin said. The Wagner Group itself was already placed under EU sanctions in 2021, the US recently labeled it a "transnational criminal organization.". The group is not registered as a legal entity anywhere in the world. Russian government forces in Syria maintain they were not involved in the battle. They are the Swiss Army knives of modern Russian warfare and serve as force multipliers, arms merchants, trainers of local military and security personnel, and political consultants, according to a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The visit comes as South Africa prepares for joint naval drills with Russia and China next month. .. On the tenth anniversary of the Syrian revolution last year, a complaint against the Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner was filed in Russian courts, the first case ever brought against the group. Saturday's additional sanctions were decided "in view of the international dimension and gravity of the group's activities, as well as its destabilizing impact on the countries where it is active,"said a statement from the European Council. Their presence, in the eastern region known as Donbas that is home to Russia-backed separatist groups, raises concerns, given the groups history. Boutas slaying is symptomatic of the accountability vacuum in which the Wagner Group operates. 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. Family members had confirmed his death to local press, saying he had returned to Syria from Lebanon in 2017 when he was summoned to fight but later deserted. Theyre testing us every day., How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. The fighters were reportedly wounded in a United States airstrike near the city. Yevgeny Prigozhin is the man behind a mercenary force fighting for Russia in Ukraine. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Bangui, Central African Republic, in 2019. relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts. The air was filled with dust and shrapnel. A team of about 30 Delta Force soldiers and Rangers from the Joint Special Operations Command were working alongside Kurdish and Arab forces at a small dusty outpost next to a Conoco gas plant, near the city of Deir al-Zour. Activists argue the struggles for state transparency and national liberation are one and the same. They beat his extremities with a sledgehammer before decapitating him, setting his body on fire and posing for photographs with his remains. 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. 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. Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) serves food to Vladimir Putin in 2011. The Wagner Group: Russia's Blackwater TRT World 2.02M subscribers Subscribe 3.9K 321K views 2 years ago From Ukraine to Syria to the Central African Close to Russian government but nominally independent, private military contractors give the Kremlin a degree of plausible deniability and have complicated efforts by Western policymakers to formulate a response. In the days leading up to the attack, and on opposite sides of the Euphrates River, Russia and the United States were backing separate offensives against the Islamic State in Syrias oil-rich Deir al-Zour Province, which borders Iraq. accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. They provide the Pentagons first public on-the-ground accounting of one of the single bloodiest battles the American military has faced in Syria since deploying to fight the Islamic State. It sheds new light on the networks operations and reveals how the killing became a rallying point for Russian ultranationalists online. The sudden hit on Russia's economic ties with the West since invading Ukraine has also prompted the country to step up its diplomatic drive in Africa. Delivered Thursday. But Wagners work, which has reportedly been rewarded with oil concessions in Syria, has largely taken place in the shadows, and the video is a rare, shocking look at the groups actions in Syria. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. "In exchange for access to natural resources principally diamonds and gold Wagner has provided President Faustin Archange-Touadera with military and political support, which has proven pivotal in sustaining his embattled presidency against an onslaught of rebel groups. 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. At worst, officials and experts have said, it could plunge both countries into bloody conflict. International Federation for Human Rights. The group is often described as President Vladimir Putin s off-the-books troops. According to Jesr, the man was captured by Russian forces after a desertion attempt from the Syrian Army. Visitors wearing military camouflage at the Wagner Centre office building in St Petersburg. Download the new FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. Neither Timchenko nor Prigozhin are expressly named in connection with Boutas killing. There have also been widespread reports of Wagner recruiting foreign convicts in prisons across Russia, including citizens from the five central Asian nations. For the next three hours, American officials said, scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles. Asked whether the Kremlin is aware of accusations of potential war crimes allegedly committed by some of the Russian mercenary groups fighting in Syria, Peskov answered: "This is not a question for the presidential administration." Bouta is believed to have been killed in the spring of 2017, and a video of his death first emerged online in June 2017. Essential analysis of the stories shaping geopolitics on the continent. 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. WebAmerican 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 Almost a year later, the court found that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which had the power to open The GRU often directs and supports the group in combat, and the available evidence indicates close coordination in There are many questions and I hope we get to the bottom of this, Vladimir Osechkin, the head of Gulagu.net, a rights group focusing on alleged abuses in the Russian prison system, told the Guardian. When the civil war began, he traveled to Lebanon to find construction work after the situation in Syria deteriorated and large parts of Deir Ezzor came under ISIS control, according to an account of Boutas final days given to lawyers by his family. The newspaper ties the men to Vagner, a shadowy Russian mercenary group widely believed to be spearheading the expansion of Russian influence across Africa and the Middle East. Prigozhin is also believed to have created and funded the Internet Research Agency, an online "troll farm" that U.S. authorities have charged with waging a propaganda-and-influence campaign in a bid to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The group reportedly took its name from the nom de guerre of its leader, Dmitry Utkin, a retired Russian military officer. Russian trucks heading to Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich Syrian province that borders Iraq, last year. At the outpost, American soldiers watched a column of tanks and other armored vehicles turn and drive toward them around 10 p.m., emerging from a neighborhood of houses where they had tried to gather undetected. Youd better believe its terrifying, Rondeaux said. With Russia suffering heavy losses, according to U.S. intelligence, Mr. Putin is sending battle-hardened reinforcements with experience into Ukraine, according to experts, including Jeremy Fleming, the director of Britains electronic surveillance agency. The group's exact African footprint is disputed, but it's growing. Its a really adaptable network, which makes it hard to target, but also hard to talk about, said Margolin of C4ADS. Mazen Darwish, one of several human rights activists pressing for justice in Boutas case and director general of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, said that Russian authorities have about 40 days to respond to the initial court filing. Their shadowy existence allows Russia to downplay its battlefield casualties and distance itself from atrocities committed by Wagner fighters, observers say. In Syria, A Mutilated Corpse, Video Evidence, And New Scrutiny For Russian Mercenaries. 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. A video of a second apparent execution using a sledgehammer was posted by a Wagner-linked blogger on Monday. I Was Moscows Chief Rabbi. Theres a trend or pattern around what happens when Wagner is involved in an armed conflict, Dr. MacLeod said. .. On the tenth anniversary of the Syrian revolution last year, a complaint against the Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner was filed in Bracing for an attack, the Green Berets prepared to launch the reaction force. Anyone can read what you share. Flashes from tank muzzles, antiaircraft weapons and machine guns lit up the air. He said he directed Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for the force, then, to be annihilated.. Russia has played all sides in the conflict to get a seat at the negotiating table. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. Now it wants an end to sanctions. The shaky cell phone footage taken at al-Shaer gas plant near Palmyra, Syria, The clip purportedly showing a brutal murder in Syria resurfaced this week after apparently being filmed in 2017. But researchers from groups such as Bellingcat and the Conflict Intelligence Team, as well as Russian journalists most notably from, An analysis of Russian social media groups for followers of the Wagner Group as well as the friend networks of individuals who shared details of Boutas murder online revealed a burgeoning online movement of Russian ultranationalists with an abiding interest in mercenary culture who claimed to have served in Russian military units,. That person has not been identified. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. An analysis of Russian social media groups for followers of the Wagner Group as well as the friend networks of individuals who shared details of Boutas murder online revealed a burgeoning online movement of Russian ultranationalists with an abiding interest in mercenary culture who claimed to have served in Russian military units, according to the research by Frontline Forensics, which was published by New America. Its mercenaries have also fought in Ukraine and the Central African Republic, and are said to be active in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique. Increasingly, theyve become more formalized and have started acting more like Western military contractors. Is the United States becoming protectionist? Right now in Syria, were in the most aggressive E.W. In another part of the video that originally surfaced in 2017, the four men laugh to a soundtrack of Russian rock music as they use a sledgehammer to crush the hand of a man shown pinned to the ground wearing bloodied civilian clothes in what appears to be an industrial zone. The documents reveal that the company. Amy Mackinnon. 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. 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. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? The post didnt provide much commentary, only a link to a graphically violent video shot with a shaky hand on a cell phone that showed several Russian speaking men dressed in desert military uniforms taking turns beating a man who has since been identified as Bouta with a sledgehammer. A recent investigative report on the Wagner Group's activities in Africa surmised that it "has rapidly become the most influential form of Russian engagement in Africa today," politically, economically and militarily. Our whole family was in tears watching the video he was murdered like an animal, Nuzhin said. Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. "The Wagner Group's activities are a threat for the people in the countries where they operate and the European Union,"EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. After more than a year of government stonewalling and dodging allegations about the case, advocates for the victim say, Russian authorities will now be forced to go on record no matter what. At the plant, the commandos were pinned down by enemy artillery and burning through ammunition. 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 with ties to the Kremlin that has aggressively expanded into the Middle East and Africa in recent years. Russia Forced Me to Flee. Who Is Vagner? 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. Last month, the FBI placed Prigozhin on its Most Wanted list in connection with his alleged role in interfering in American elections in 2016 and 2018, offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to his arrest The U.S. government has also sanctioned Prigozhin for his alleged ties to Russian mercenaries affiliated with the Wagner Group. In Syria, A Mutilated Corpse, Video Evidence, And New Scrutiny video Russia's notorious Wagner group admits to recruiting Zambian inmate who died fighting in Ukraine Prigozhin above all is a sharp-eyed opportunist. So unused to being challenged, the United States has become so filled with anxiety over China that sober responses are becoming nearly impossible. Wagner expanded to Syria in 2015, tasked with bolstering President Bashar al-Assad and seizing oil and gas fields, American officials said. 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