Russian has used private military companies over the years to defend internal and external interests. The Wagner group is one of the forces that is not recognised in Russia, but neither rejected. These private military companies are forbidden by law in Russia, but there are data showing that they acted hand in hand with ordinary military.
In an annual conference of President Putin, he stated that the Wagner Group can operate anywhere in the world as long as it does not violate the laws of the Russian Federation. The authors of the study “Russia’s use of semi-state security forces: the case of the Wagner Group” claim that Putin seemed to admit that the Wagner Group exists and even support it.
According to the study, private military companies could be one of the key elements that Putin uses in the information war. The authors assert that the Wagner Group was intentionally created by Russian security services as part of its war strategy.
At the same time, analysts suggest that it is in Putin’s interest that semi-state security forces be declared illegal. Keeping them permanently out of balance is a mechanism for their control, and from the moment they operate illegally they can be threatened with imprisonment at any time, which contributes to ensuring their loyalty.
The Wagner group is not the only private military company, but it stands out due to their involvement in so many significant events for Russian diplomacy and war: Nigeria and Iraq, then Ukraine and Syria, and now in Sudan and the Central African Republic.
The company is founded by Dmitri Utkin, a former GRU (Russian Army Information Service) officer, born in 1970. The mercenary army first came to public attention during the 2014 conflict in Ukraine, after which Russia annexed Crimea. It was then revealed that the Wagner Group’s mercenaries fought side by side with the Kremlin-backed separatist forces.
At this moment, the Wagner paramilitary company is financed by businessman Evgheni Prigisin, Vladimir Putin’s so-called “cook” and one who would be behind the “trolley factory” in St. Petersburg, suspected of influencing elections in US.
Source:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1060586X.2019.1591142?scroll=top&needAccess=true