'There's no one to help': Russian mercenary industry's toll on families

[Rogue Valley]

'There's no one to help': Russian mercenary industry's toll on families

As Russia seeks to increase influence abroad, woman who lost ex-husband in Syria tells of fight for compensation.

8/26/19
When Olga Markelova’s ex-husband Dmitri was killed fighting in Syria in 2017, she expected the Russian government to help provide at least for their daughter, his only child. After all, Dmitri had served in the army for a decade in hotspots such as Chechnya. Before his death he had signed on with a private military company – his friends told her it was called Wagner – to fight in Ukraine and later Syria. For Olga it was just another military job. Two years later she is still fighting for compensation. The latest twist came when she was told by officials this year that her husband was not a soldier at all but an employee of a regional subsidiary of an energy company. Markelova said she knew this was not the case. “I know that he was fighting and he was in this private military company,” she said. “I was there in Krasnodar, I saw the base in Molkino, I saw him in a military uniform. He never hid from us that he was fighting abroad.” Markelova’s story shines a light on how Russia’s unregulated mercenary industry, a growing element of Russian power projection abroad, can affect families. Death notices can come by text message and bodies can take weeks to be returned home. “He has one child and there is no one here to help,” Markelova said. “He fought for them. They’ve all forgotten about her.”

Now, as the Russian government seeks to increase its influence in Africa, driven in part by western sanctions imposed in 2014 over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, Russian mercenary outfits are expanding on the African continent too. Central to many of these operations is Wagner, which first emerged on the battlefields of Ukraine. Since then it has grown from a simple paramilitary outfit to providing military training, political consultancy, and intelligence and online influence operations. Wagner’s footprint has been largest in the Central African Republic (CAR). In July 2018 three journalists who were investigating Wagner’s activities in CAR were shot and killed by unknown gunmen. Their families declined to speak for this article as the investigation is ongoing. Wagner’s core asset has always been its willingness to send paid mercenaries to places where the Russian government can not openly go. Some operations have ended in disaster. Hundreds of mercenaries, some tied to Wagner, were reportedly killed in clashes with US forces during a doomed attempt to seize an oil refinery in Syria in February 2018. Wagner promises its recruits it will provide compensation in the event of their death and usually it does, according to former fighters and media reports. Families are generally given about £60,000, sometimes on the same day as the funeral, and are told not to speak to the media. Markelova and her husband divorced while he was still fighting abroad. When he was killed, compensation was delivered to his mother. They ceased speaking when Markelova went public demanding that Vladimir Putin step in to protect the families of private military contractors. “She wants me to stay quiet,” Markelova said. “But I want to see someone act for us.”

Even though mercenary organizations are a violation of the Russian constitution, numerous private military contractors (PMC's) openly exist in Russia and place employment ads in newspapers and social media. Russian PMC's have been used extensively in Chechnya and Ukraine. In Russia they are known as "kontrakniki" (contract soldiers). They are usually veterans now deemed too old for the Russian military, and virtually all are alcoholics. Their cruelty and sadism is legendary. Wagner Group is owned by Yevgeny Prighozin, the same Putin crony oligarch that owns the 24/7 Russian Internet troll factory. His mercenaries are used whenever and wherever the Kremlin desires plausible deniability. You can find Wagner PMC's in eastern Ukraine, Chechnya, Syria, Venezuela, and CAR. Wagner Group mercenaries train at and are billeted at a Russian military GRU Spetznaz base in southwestern Russia. Their deaths are always papered over (died in a training accident) and their families must sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to receive the death benefit compensation payment. Burials are usually performed in the dead of night at the local cemetery. No one says anything.