Is the United States becoming protectionist? It's unclear if Russian investigative agencies have conducted, or intend to conduct, any such investigation. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. The clip of the brutal murder in Syria, apparently filmed in the summer of 2017, resurfaced this week in the wake of an investigation by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. Yevgeny Prigozhin is the man behind a mercenary force fighting for Russia in Ukraine. But Medvedev said he wasn't afraid. At worst, officials and experts have said, it could plunge both countries into bloody conflict. Russia Forced Me to Flee. Gruesome Soundtrack Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. They would face asset freezes and a travel ban. The lawsuit marks the first known attempt to bring to account anyone linked to the highly secretive network of covert operators financed and managed by close inner-circle associates of President Vladimir Putin. In the video, the men urge each other on to greater violence, telling one to cut harder while beheading the victim. Before setting it alight and watching it burn as they pose for the camera, they scrawl a Russian phrase praising the country's airborne forces on its chest. Prigozhin, who is under western sanctions for his role in Wagner, on Sunday voiced his approval for the killing, calling Nuzhin a traitor. Bouta was born in August 1986 in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor in a village not far from where one of his alleged assailants, Vlaidslav Apostol, was killed only months after beating Bouta with a sledgehammer. Others remained in their trucks, using a combination of thermal screens and joysticks to control and fire the heavy machine guns affixed on their roofs. Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was indicted in the United States for attempted interference in the 2016 presidential election, is widely regarded as the driving force behind the mercenary group. It wasnt until November 2019, when further videos emerged, that journalists were able to identify the perpetrators as well as the victim. Commandos Unfolded in Syria, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/24/world/middleeast/american-commandos-russian-mercenaries-syria.html. Mali's ruling junta last year forced French troops out of the country soon after committing a coup and welcomed in Wagner forces. But researchers from groups such as Bellingcat and the Conflict Intelligence Team, as well as Russian journalists most notably from, An analysis of Russian social media groups for followers of the Wagner Group as well as the friend networks of individuals who shared details of Boutas murder online revealed a burgeoning online movement of Russian ultranationalists with an abiding interest in mercenary culture who claimed to have served in Russian military units,. Keep up with the world without stopping yours. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. According to Jesr, the man was captured by Russian forces after a desertion attempt from the Syrian Army. In the American air operations center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and at the Pentagon, confounded military officers and intelligence analysts watched the scene unfold. On March 27, 2017, Bouta traveled across the border from Lebanon into Syria at the Beirut-Damascus crossing with a group of young men from his village. There is now little doubt that Putin failed in his initial goals: Kyiv is still Show morestanding, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. Russia. WebHistria Fundao. At the outpost, American soldiers watched a column of tanks and other armored vehicles turn and drive toward them around 10 p.m., emerging from a neighborhood of houses where they had tried to gather undetected. If Putin had hoped to weaken NATO, the very opposite has happened, with Finland and Sweden on the cusp of joining the transatlantic military alliance. Yevgeny Prigozhin (left) serves food to Vladimir Putin in 2011. Click + to receive email alerts for new stories written by Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the United States Central Command has refined the amount of equipment, logistics, coordination and tactics required to mix weapons fired from both the air and ground. Two years after the United States clashed with some sort of Wagner Group contingent in Deir Ezzor, the United States government still doesnt know anything about the organizational structure of these military contingents, Rondeaux said. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. New Report Exposes Brutal Methods of Russias Wagner Group, Click + to receive email alerts for new stories written by, The perpetrators, who have not yet been charged, were, Close to Russian government but nominally independent, private military contractors give the Kremlin a degree of plausible deniability and have complicated efforts by Western policymakers to formulate a response. They are the Swiss Army knives of modern Russian warfare and serve as force multipliers, arms merchants, trainers of local military and security personnel, and political consultants, according to a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The private Russian military force, which has close ties to President Vladimir Putin and has been used in war zones across the world, is expanding its presence in Ukraine. Delivered Monday-Friday. Stay updated on the topics you care about with email alerts. But Wagners work, which has reportedly been rewarded with oil concessions in Syria, has largely taken place in the shadows, and the video is a rare, shocking look at the groups actions in Syria. For the next three hours, American officials said, scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles. Stroytransgaz, or STG, the company headed by Kremlin-insider Timchenko, is one of the largest such investors, and in February it secured a $22 million production sharing agreement with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, according to The Syria Report, an online journal that tracks economic developments in the country. Its not clear how the videos ended up online or why the perpetrators chose to document the killing. Ilya Nuzhin, Yevgenys son, confirmed to the Guardian on Monday that the man in the video was his father but declined to give further comments, citing security concerns. A member of the group can be overheard discussing whether they should cover their faces before one says theres no point, as the video is not going to go anywhere., Amy Mackinnon is a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. The brief filed on Friday in connection with Boutas case contends that the Russian government holds effective control over the Russian private military contingent that killed Bouta during operations at the al-Shaer gas plant. Initially, Russian officials said only four Russian citizens but perhaps dozens more were killed; a Syrian officer said around 100 Syrian soldiers had died. Vagner and other Russian private military companies have helped advance Moscow's influence efforts in regions beyond the Middle East, targeting countries that are often rich with natural resources and vulnerable to political influence from the outside. Footage of the summary killing of Yevgeny Nuzhin was posted over the weekend by the Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone. It has since been hailing Russia as contributing to an end to post-colonial French influence in the country. An image uploaded to social media shortly before the article was published shows four men posing before a decapitated body in what appears to be the same spot shown in the videos. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Bangui, Central African Republic, in 2019. relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts. In leaked documents, he wrote that he joined Wagner in 2016 to protect the interests of the Russian Federation abroad. They cant say that this is just a political issue or propaganda because we are bringing this case in Russian courts, under Russian law. The contractors train at a GRU compound in Molkino, a village in southwestern Russia, and the SBU has identified over 25 Russian officers who instruct Wagner contractors in skills ranging from artillery to combat engineering. Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. environment on the planet from our adversaries, Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of United States Special Operations Command, said recently, referring to electronic warfare. Unless you have been on the battlefield in Syria, Libya or the Central African Republic, you most likely have never heard of the Wagner Group, a private military force with close links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. The mercenaries earn of a share of the production proceeds from the oil fields they reclaim, officials said. American warplanes arrived in waves, including Reaper drones, F-22 stealth fighter jets, F-15E Strike Fighters, B-52 bombers, AC-130 gunships and AH-64 Apache helicopters. Bouta is believed to have been killed in the spring of 2017, and a video of his death first emerged online in June 2017. The Defense Ministry denied any Russian uniformed personnel were killed. 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. By then, some of the American warplanes had returned to base, low on either fuel or ammunition. Bracing for an attack, the Green Berets prepared to launch the reaction force. He has reported for The New York Times in Moscowand has written for The Guardian, Politico, The New Republic, and Foreign Policy. are assisting Somali soldiers fighting Al Shabab, and by a health care system that utterly failed him, The case has irritated U.S. relations with a crucial military ally, four Russian citizens but perhaps dozens more. .. On the tenth anniversary of the Syrian revolution last year, a complaint against the Russian private military company (PMC) Wagner was filed in But Russian military officials said they had no control over the fighters assembling near the river even though American surveillance equipment monitoring radio transmissions had revealed the ground force was speaking in Russian. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. A recent investigative report on the Wagner Group's activities in Africa surmised that it "has rapidly become the most influential form of Russian engagement in Africa today," politically, economically and militarily. International Federation for Human Rights. In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. A organizao teria sido fundada por volta de 2014, na Rssia, seu lder atual o ex-oficial do exrcito russo Dmitriy "Wagner" Valeryevich Utkin. Four days before the newspaper report, the Syrian news site Jesr Press published what it claimed was the victim's name: a 33-year-old from Deir al-Zor who had left the country when civil war broke out but reportedly returned in 2017 to join government forces propping up the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. Delivered Monday-Saturday. Amy Mackinnon In the interviews, he also criticised the Russian leadership and expressed his desire to join the Ukrainian forces and fight against Moscow. Mercenaries are illegal under Russian law. What will another year of war look like? Its mercenaries have also fought in Ukraine and the Central African Republic, and are said to be active in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique. One of the individuals sanctioned on Saturday came under an EU sanctions regime for Mali specifically. In the video, Nuzhin was shown lying down with his head taped to a brick wall as an unidentified man in combat clothing hits him with a sledgehammer. 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. The United States troops on the ground, now roughly 40 in all, braced their defenses as the mercenaries left their vehicles and headed toward the outpost on foot. Alexander Malkevich, whose employees were detained in Libya, is part of Moscows efforts to create a concert of chaos around the globe. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The video, which appears to have been taken in 2017, showed several men in military-style clothing beating a prisoner with a sledgehammer, then beheading him, amputating his arms with a sappers trowel and setting his body on fire using gasoline or another accelerant. In addition to their involvement in Syria, Libya, Central African Republic and Ukraine, Wagner operatives have also fought in Sudan, Mali and Mozambique, exerting Russian influence by proxy, doing the bidding of authoritarian leaders and, at times, seizing oil and gas fields or securing other material interests. Indeed, this is a repeat of what happened 20 years ago, when enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions committed during the armed conflict in the Northern Caucasus were likewise not investigated.. Were going to Moscow, to their territory, to their courts, and to their jurisdiction, Darwish said. Visitors wearing military camouflage at the Wagner Centre office building in St Petersburg. video Russia's notorious Wagner group admits to recruiting Zambian inmate who died fighting in Ukraine Prigozhin above all is a sharp-eyed opportunist. At this point, members of the group Bouta was traveling with notified Boutas brother-in-law, who was in Lebanon at the time, that the Syrian military had taken Bouta into custody. For its part, Washington has made a series of policy choices over the last few years that can be summed Show moreup as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. Who Is Vagner? In September, Prigozhin, known as Putins chef because his catering business hosted dinners attended by the Russian president, admitted to founding Wagner, a link he has previously repeatedly denied. Wagner is estimated to have as many as 2,500 men in Syria. A half-hour later, the Russian mercenaries and Syrian forces struck. Is Weiss correct? Wagner has been reported as operating in a number of nations hit by conflict. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. The small team of American troops was not harmed. EvroPolis really, perhaps more than any other single entirety in the Prigozhin-associated network, captures the full suite of services that the Prigozhin networks have access to, said Margolin. Theres a trend or pattern around what happens when Wagner is involved in an armed conflict, Dr. MacLeod said. The demonstrations come as President Kais Saied depicts opponents and foreigners as threats to national security. Elements of these networks have been identified by researchers and journalists through their overlapping ownership structures, personnel, and supply chains. Then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo told Congress that a "a couple hundred Russians" were killed in the attack. The researchers social network analysis also revealed substantial cross-affiliation with Rusich, a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has operated in eastern Ukraine. accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. Almost a year later, the court found that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which had the power to open Subscribers can send in questions in advance. Weekly update on developments in India and its neighbors. The group's exact African footprint is disputed, but it's growing. A BBC Russian investigation in 2018 highlighted the deaths of Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria. Lost in the desert, he appears to have sought refuge in al-Shaer gas field, where he was later tortured and killed. Unconfirmed reports said Nuzhin had been part of a recent Russian-Ukrainian prisoner exchange, news that has led to concerns among human rights groups. Advertisement. Questioned about the clip and Novaya Gazeta's report, the Kremlin denied any knowledge of the men depicted. Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. Tonight, his family announced they had received news of his death under torture in Sednaya Prison. The shaky cell phone footage taken at al-Shaer gas plant near Palmyra, Syria, shows a Syrian man, who was known to friends and family as Hamdi Bouta, lying on the ground, surrounded by Russian-speaking men in military fatigues. That person has not been identified. By one estimate from Harvard University, more than 130,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or severely wounded, in addition to the deaths of more than 7,000 Ukrainian civilians. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? On his way back to Syria in 2017, he was arrested and drafted into the Syrian military. Apostols family have reportedly confirmed that he worked as a private security contractor in Syria, and that he was one of several hundred Russians killed in a U.S. airstrike in the northeastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. The group sketched out activities like this as a standard mixture for Wagner, providing both military fighters, military and political and economic advice, and also securing business in the countries, often extracting raw materials, for businesses with ties to Wagner or Russia or both. In total the bloc targeted 11 individuals and seven entities it said was linked to the once-secretive private military and economic arm of Russian foreign policy controlled by a historically close ally of Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin. At some point in late March or early April, he escaped on foot from the T4 air base in Homs. WebAmerican intelligence officials say that the Wagner Group, known by the nickname of the retired Russian officer who leads it, is in Syria to seize oil and gas fields and protect them Diplomacy, To Save France, Macron Is Dividing Europe, The United States Has Never Recovered From the Falklands War. "I'm at risk. They beat his extremities with a sledgehammer before decapitating him, setting his body on fire and posing for photographs with his remains. The Russian high command in Syria assured us it was not their people, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told senators in testimony last month. The barrage of artillery was too dangerous to drive through until airstrikes silenced the enemys howitzers and tanks. Roughly 20 miles away, at a base known as a mission support site, a team of Green Berets and a platoon of infantry Marines stared at their computer screens, watching drone feeds and passing information to the Americans at the gas plant about the gathering fighters. U.S. officials warned that the group was recruiting Syrians skilled in urban combat to fight in Ukraine. You may opt out at any time. The clip purportedly showing a brutal murder in Syria resurfaced this week after apparently being filmed in 2017. It was unclear, however, whether that case would move forward after federal prosecutors working under the Trump administration dropped charges against Prigozhins St. Petersburg-based firm Concord Consulting and Management in connection with the case. Wagner forces have appeared in Ukraine, presumably to fight alongside Russian troops in Mr. Putins war. At the plant, the commandos were pinned down by enemy artillery and burning through ammunition. The Kremlin said on Thursday it had no knowledge of the incident. Russian who filmed prisoner being tortured to death worked for firm with links to Kremlin. For the first 15 minutes, American military officials called their Russian counterparts and urged them to stop the attack. Family members of a former Russian prison inmate, who defected to Ukraine after being recruited by the Kremlin-linked private military group Wagner, have The mercenary, who was been identified as Stanislav D by the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, is a former police officer from the Stavropol region in southern Russia. Between 200 to 300 fighters were killed in the battle, including scores of Russian mercenaries, to be working in the region to seize control of a nearby gas plant on behalf of EvroPolis. More ways to stay updated on global news: By submitting your email, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to receive email correspondence from us. Russia and the US have both been on repeated diplomatic missions to Africa since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, trying to win allies and explain their positions as the fighting has serious knock-on impacts for food and fuel prices for some of the poorest parts of the world. The Conoco outpost was hit with a mixture of tank fire, large artillery and mortar rounds, the documents show. The reports revelations have chilling implications, as Russian mercenaries motivated by both money and far-right ideology are increasingly operating unchecked in some of the worlds most fragile countries. Youre on the list! Anyone can read what you share. Investigative paper wants atrocities of alleged Russian mercenaries in Syria probed after graphic VIDEO At a vote at the UN General Assembly this week, Mali and Eritrea went from abstaining in comparablepast votes to joiningwith just five countries typically voting against motions criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine Syria, North Korea, Nicaragua, Belarus, and Russia itself. The men, who appear to be drunk in the video, sought to hide their identities by covering their faces. The fighters were reportedly wounded in a United States airstrike near the city. Online messages sent to him and his wife by the Guardian were not immediately returned on Thursday. And how might that be impacting the world? In a phone interview with The Daily Beast on Saturday, Darwish said that the case against the six Wagner Group paramilitaries is being lodged under articles in the Russian criminal code that call for the prosecution of anyone implicated in torture, grievous bodily injury, and murder. Snippets of the video had been posted online since 2017 but the full footage was uploaded last week to a closed VKontakte group for members of Wagner. The case is being lodged jointly by lawyers and advocates associated with Darwishs organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow, and the International Federation for Human Rights in Paris. A report published earlier this month by the Washington-based New America Foundation and Arizona State University said that Moscow's reliance on private military companies had brought benefit to the Kremlin, including a cheaper, quicker, and more clandestine way of expanding Russia's influence. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Nuzhin, 55, had been serving a 24-year prison sentence for a murder he committed in 1999 when he was freed in July and conscripted into Wagner, a notorious military group run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a powerful Russian businessman and a close ally of Vladimir Putin. 'There's no one to help': Russian mercenary industry's toll on families, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Thousands of Russian contractors fought in Syria alongside a 2015 military intervention by Putin that helped turn the tide in the countrys civil war and saved the government of Bashar al-Assad. "In exchange for access to natural resources principally diamonds and gold Wagner has provided President Faustin Archange-Touadera with military and political support, which has proven pivotal in sustaining his embattled presidency against an onslaught of rebel groups. Governments are almost endlessly prone to throwing good money after bad. Novaya Gazeta called on Russian law enforcement to investigate the case. Theyre testing us every day., How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. Known colloquially as the Wagner Group, the contingent has been linked to a network of Russian firms that U.S. and European authorities say are financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a key player in Putins inner circle known as Putins chef. Although the Wagner Group has been implicated in several violations of international law, including skirting a UN arms embargo in Libya, the Moscow legal filing on Boutas case marks the first time that any official complaint has been brought in court against the private security contingent in connection with an alleged war crime. And at a minimum, squaring off in crowded battlefields has added to heightened tensions between Russia and the United States as they each seek to exert influence in the Middle East. Although on Western radars for some time, the group and the extent of its activities has come more clearly to light sinceRussia's invasion of Ukraine with Moscow no longer flatly denying the organization's existence, and Prigozhin having come forward and confirmed suspicions of his leadership role in the group. A video of a second apparent execution using a sledgehammer was posted by a Wagner-linked blogger on Monday. A monthly digest of the top articles read by FP subscribers. The video published by Novaya Gazeta appears to be just one instalment of a series of clips that record the same incident at the hands of Russian-speaking fighters, including the victim's torture, mutilation, and, ultimately, decapitation. We now bring you another report, this time from Syria, where the horrific torture and murder of a Syrian man in 2017 allegedly at the hands of Russian Theywere Wagner commanders said to be linked to Russia's capture of the town of Soledar in Ukraine in January. In a legal criminal complaint announced Monday on behalf of the victim, Muhammad Hamdi Bouta Taha al-Abdullah, attorneys representing the victims brother allege that six Russian citizens who worked on a contract to secure a Russian-Syrian operated gas plant were behind the 2017 killing. The documents reveal that the company. U.N. investigators and rights groups say Wagner troops have targeted civilians, conducted mass executions and looted private property in conflict zones. The researchers social network analysis also revealed substantial cross-affiliation with Rusich, a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has operated in eastern Ukraine. It wasnt until November 2019, when further videos emerged, that journalists were able to identify the perpetrators as well as the victim. They are the Swiss Army knives of modern Russian warfare and serve as force multipliers, arms merchants, trainers of local military and security personnel, and political consultants, according to a recent. But the Russian government has preferred to keep Wagners actions obscured, even hiding preparations for funerals when members of the private military company have been killed abroad. Russian authorities ignored requests by the media and rights activists to investigate the killing. Family members had confirmed his death to local press, saying he had returned to Syria from Lebanon in 2017 when he was summoned to fight but later deserted. A disturbing clip of an execution in Syria has prompted a Russian newspaper to investigate links between the torturers and the shadowy Wagner Group. But later they appear to let their guard down, as one says: Hide your faces well, whatever, this video wont go up anywhere anyway.. Our whole family was in tears watching the video he was murdered like an animal, Nuzhin said. But, as in many other developing countries, Syrias nationalized energy sector is highly reliant on external backing from foreign firms for capital-intensive upstream investment in exploration and development. While mercenary groups are outlawed within Russia, they have served as the tip of the spear of the Kremlins proxy wars abroad. This has absolutely no relation to Russian soldiers, no matter what is being published about it, said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Vladimir Putin. When that failed, American troops fired warning shots at a group of vehicles and a howitzer. The prospect of Russian military forces and American troops colliding has long been feared as the Cold War adversaries take opposing sides in Syrias seven-year civil war. The air was filled with dust and shrapnel. The Wagner Group has achieved near-mythical status in the Russian and international press in recent years for its role in Russias interference efforts abroad, but there is no evidence that a single registered entity called Wagner exists, said Jack Margolin, a senior analyst with the nonprofit Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), which provided analytical support for the report. Hes a graduate of Harvards Davis Center and a recipient of New York University's Reporting Award and the Fulbright Alistair Cooke Journalism Award. $162 million from oil and gas fields in central Syria in 2017 alone. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any connections to Russian private military security contractors operating in Syria. 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