Lhorror of war, for money. Among the dozens of civilian victims of Russian forces in Boutcha, on the outskirts of kyiv, several were allegedly executed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, according to the German daily Der Spiegel. In the village of Moura, in central Mali, in early April, the same private security company, linked to the Kremlin, is singled out after the death of several hundred civilians.
The exact role of the Wagner Group is less obvious the first time it appears in The world, on September 29, 2016, described as “Putin’s ‘ghost’ soldiers in Syria”. The article, by Isabelle Mandraud, relays the tweet from a site linked to the Russian Ministry of Defense and describes soldiers in uniform “surrounded by children and distributing bags of living”. Moscow correspondent reports Russian media stories about a “military group” involved in the annexation of Crimea in 2014, now present in Syria.
Three journalists murdered
Without a response from the Russian Ministry of Defense, which denies the existence of the group, the article mentions a quote from Vladimir Putin on the issue of private security companies, in 2012: ““It is a real tool”, affirmed the head of government, “for the implementation of national interests without the direct participation of the State.” » The proof, with the elimination of warlords from Donbass, in February 2017, where the Wagner Group is, this time, clearly, implicated. “All Luhansk knows, it’s an open secret as you say in French”, says a former military official quoted by Isabelle Mandraud.
When they try to find out more about the role of this private military unit in the Central African Republic, three Russian journalists are murdered in troubled conditions, report Gaël Grilhot, Benoît Vitkine and Cyril Bensimon in 2018. Again, “Wagner’s arrival in Africa is an open secret” for the three journalists, but “the exact nature of his activities remains mysterious”. The company, whose number of employees and structure remain unknown, is hired to ensure the security of Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and the training of part of the regular army. As compensation, the Wagner Group would also own a local mining company, points out the survey.
On December 17, 2018, Christophe Châtelot, Isabelle Mandraud and Marie Bourreau dissect the Kremlin’s African strategy. And, for the first time, The world names the man who would be at the head of the company of mercenaries: Evgueni Prigojine. Nine years in prison, the nickname “Putin’s cook”, a troll factory on social networks involved in supporting Donald Trump, in 2016, draw a first profile of this man. Benoît Vitkine devotes a long portrait to him in October 2019.
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