What Is Russia's Vagner Paramilitary Group And What Was It Doing In Belarus Ahead Of Vote?

[Rogue Valley]

What Is Russia's Vagner Paramilitary Group And What Was It Doing In Belarus Ahead Of Vote?

Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin takes his orders from Vladimir Putin.

7/30/20
Belarusian media identified the men, aged between 22 and 55, as employees of the Vagner (Wagner Group) private security firm. The passports and other documents shown on Belarusian television seemed to confirm this, said Russian analyst Ruslan Leviyev, the founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team project, which has extensively researched the activities of Russian mercenaries abroad. "The majority of them have long been known to us," Leviyev said. "Their names are available on the Internet as people who have fought for the Vagner Group. Some of them fought before joining Vagner in the Donbas region [in eastern Ukraine]. Then they joined Vagner and were in Syria, some of them in Libya. And now they are traveling on some other business." Vagner is one of the best-known of several Russian private paramilitary companies that have come into being over the past decade. The company is widely believed to be controlled by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime associate of Vladimir Putin who once served as the Russian president's chef. Prigozhin has previously denied any links to the group, though various investigations have linked him to its activities. 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.

Vagner's operations have always been held in close secrecy, in part because mercenary activity is illegal under Russian law and in part because the group is widely believed to operate in close cooperation with Russian military intelligence. Vagner fighters have been documented in Ukraine, Syria, the Central African Republic, Sudan, and Libya. Leviyev said the most likely explanation for why the Vagner mercenaries were in Belarus was that the firm is using Minsk as a transit point because Russia's commercial air traffic has been dramatically curtailed because of the global coronavirus pandemic. Belarusian media showed that the fighters had passports for foreign travel, which would not be required for Russians whose final destination was Belarus. In addition, they were carrying Sudanese currency and Sudanese SIM cards. Karbalevich resolutely rejects speculation that Lukashenka will use the incident as a pretext for declaring a state of emergency or postponing the August 9 election.

Contrary to my initial suppositions, these are not the Wagner mercenaries who work closely with Russian military intelligence (GRU). This group is composed of trigger-pullers who fight either with, or in the place of, the Russian military. Mercenaries such as these are known in Russia as kontrakniki (contract soldiers). These Wagner kontrakniki are almost always Russian military veterans, alcoholics, and sadists. I bet the CIA is interested in why they are supposedly headed to Turkey. Does Erdogan know? I'd wager he does know. They will probably cross over into Syria from the Turkish side. Purpose unknown. A supposed NATO nation working hand-in-glove with Moscow.