Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to the Kremlin, admitted on Monday that he founded the Wagner paramilitary group, a militia involved in numerous conflicts around the world, in 2014, describing it as a “pillar” in defense of Russian interests.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman close to the Kremlin, admitted on Monday that he founded the Wagner paramilitary group, a militia involved in numerous conflicts around the world, in 2014, describing it as a “pillar” in defense of Russian interests.
The man dubbed “Putin’s cook” – because his catering company was serving the Kremlin – admitted that Western powers and the media have long claimed it.
With a documented presence in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic and Mali for eight years, Wagner is seen by his critics as Vladimir Putin’s shadow army, promoting Russian interests by providing trainers and advisers as well as fighters. throughout the planet.
The Russian president denied last October that the group was doing “dirty work” for him and that the militia served the interests of the Russian state.
Prigozhin’s admission came after a video was posted on social media this month. The footage showed him recruiting prisoners from a Russian prison to fight the Wagner group on the Ukrainian front.
“The pillar of our homeland”
Prigozhin said on social media Monday from his company, Concord, that he formed the group to send qualified fighters to Donbass, Ukraine in 2014, when Moscow staged the rise of an armed separatist movement.
“Then on May 1, 2014 a group of patriots was born, called the Wagner Battalion Tactical Group,” the statement said.
“And now a confession (…) these men, heroes, defended the Syrian people, other peoples from Arab, African and Latin American countries, became the pillar of our homeland,” he said.
With his piercing eyes and shaved head, Prigozhin is one of the most problematic figures in the Putin regime, which has been endorsed by the European Union for his role in the Wagner group.
In Russia, the Kremlin’s number one rival sued Alexei Navalny, who is currently in prison. He is also accused of being behind at least one “fake profile factory” involved in efforts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election won by Donald Trump. Prigozhin was approved by the USA.
heroes
He is responsible for Wagner’s finances, but operational controls are in the hands of Dmitri Outkin, according to Russian media. Little is known about this 50-year-old man, who is said to have grown up in Russian military intelligence.
In December 2016, he was greeted at the Kremlin for a ceremony honoring Syria’s “heroes”, where he was photographed with President Vladimir Putin.
Wagner’s operations have been at the center of numerous scandals, diplomatic tensions and alleged abuses, particularly in Syria and the Central African Republic, where hundreds of men are among the military’s “trainers”. Paris calls the relationship between the country’s armed forces and the group a “power grab.”
A crisis between Russia and Belarus also unexpectedly focused on the organization in 2020, when Minsk announced the arrest of 33 “mercenaries” from the group.
These men said they were transiting through Belarus to other camps (Venezuela, Libya, Cuba, Turkey and Syria). Amid the awkward situation, Moscow negotiated its cautious return to Russia.
(with AFP)
source: Noticias
