Wagner Group

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Wagner Group

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The Wagner Group , officially PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.

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Prigozhin's Wagner Group, known for its involvement in various conflicts, played a crucial role in Russia's military campaigns, with the chief himself becoming increasingly critical of the Russian military campaign and its leadership

Prigozhin's regular video addresses, in which he criticized top Russian military leaders, including Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, escalated tensions and led to the Ministry of Defence's attempt to bring Wagner under its control

The presence of Russian private military contractors associated with the "Wagner" group in Mali has fueled discussions about whether these mercenaries played a role in the coup, although conclusive evidence of their involvement remains elusive

The humiliating defeats suffered by the Russian military in Ukraine allowed the Wagner Group and other irregular forces to gain influence on the battlefield, presenting themselves as capable of achieving military victories

Russian authorities have officially confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group, through genetic testing following a plane crash that resulted in his demise along with nine others

Topics

Russian invasion of Ukraine