This is Putin’s army of mercenaries

On paper, the Wagner Group does not exist.

Nevertheless, the group’s mercenaries have been an important and controversial part of the battlefield equation for the Kremlin in the war in Ukraine.

Appeared in 2014

More than 20,000 mercenaries are believed to be fighting for the Wagner group and Russia in Ukraine.

They have been used in Russian military operations all over the world for almost a decade.

– The group arose sometime after 2013, but only became known when they came to Ukraine and the war in Crimea in 2014, says Aage Borchgrevink to TV 2.

Borchgrevink sits on the Helsinki Committee, where he leads the work for human rights in Georgia, Chechnya and Russia.

– We are now working to uncover war crimes. After all, we work with local partners on the ground, and then we are constantly in contact and coordinating with the Ukrainian authorities, he says.

Stripped of personal possessions

The Russian government has long denied any connection to Wagner and rarely acknowledges the group’s existence.

For the Russian state, the Wagner group’s secrecy is the whole point; the mercenaries can be deployed anywhere, with little trace of who they are.

When mercenaries are sent into war zones, they are stripped of all personal possessions.

Among other things, they must surrender their passport, ID card, mobile phone, and delete all accounts from social media.

The identification will instead be a so-called “dog tag”, a small metal tag with an ID number.

Promises “unforgettable summer”

Despite the fact that there are few traces of them, the group has become much more visible recently.

As Russia’s state military forces have suffered heavy casualties in Ukraine, Wagner has begun to recruit more openly.

They have done this with the help of large posters, advertisements on social media and promo videos that promise the recruits adventure and glamour.

The videos even show promises of an “unforgettable summer with new friends”.

Now Russia no longer denies that the group exists – now they pay tribute to the private army.

Putin’s chef

Yevgeny Prigozhin is an oligarch who was previously Putin’s head of catering, and was thus nicknamed “Putin’s chef”.

He is part of the Wagner group.

– He has a long history with Putin that goes back to the 90s, says Borchgrevink to TV 2.

– How closely connected would you say the Wagner group is to the Russian authorities?

– I think it is very closely controlled and directed from the Kremlin, he continues.

A video that emerged in mid-September shows him recruiting inmates in a Russian prison, promising convicts their release in exchange for six months of service in Ukraine.

Inmates have later described to the newspaper The Guardian how Prigozhin was specifically looking for those imprisoned for violence and murder.

Prigozhin shocked many by publishing one statement via the catering company his on September 26, 2022, where he said that he was the one who founded the Wagner group in 2014.

– I prepared the weapons, selected the bulletproof vests myself and found specialists. From that moment, on May 1, 2014, a group of patriots was born, which was later called the Wagner Battalion, the statement said.

It was a remarkable shift for a man who just months earlier had sued a dig journalist for suggesting he was involved with Wagner.

Nazi tattoo

It is unclear whether Prigozhin is actually the founder, and how the group even came together.

But the organization seems to have evolved from several private security companies, including The Slavic Corps.

One of the soldiers in the Corps was Dmitry Utkin.

According to Russian journalists, Utkin has been keen on Nazi aesthetics and ideology, and was thus given the nickname “Wagner” after Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer Rudolph Wagner.

In a photo of what is allegedly Utkin, you can see that he has the SS logo tattooed (paramilitary group in Nazi Germany, journ.anm.) on the neck.

In 2014, Utkin fought in Ukraine and became known as the man behind the Wagner group, the official story is to be believed.

But according to one Bellingcat survey from 2020based on public records from the time, it is unlikely that Utkin was anything more than a hired gun to give Wagner a face.

New dynamics after the war

On the other hand, Prigozhin says he was inspired to start the Wagner group in 2014 after seeing pro-Russian protests in eastern Ukraine.

One report from an independent Russian newspaper tells a different story.

According to their sources, the idea of ​​a private military group came from senior officials of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

They are said to have chosen Prigozhin to lead it.

– He has become a well-known person in Russia, and it is a good example that this war creates dynamism in Russian society, and new leaders emerge, including Prigozhin, says Borchgrevink to TV 2.

However Prigozhin’s relationship with Wagner began, he is now officially the group’s face.

Wagner soldier seeks asylum in Norway

On Sunday 15 January, it became known that the Wagner defector Andrej Medvedev had crossed the Norwegian-Russian border illegally.

He says he has been on the run since last year, and has now applied for asylum in Norway.

Now Borchgrevink and the Helsinki Committee will meet Medvedev and hear his story.

– If he wants it, then we would like to listen to it. But he has to find out for himself what is in his interest and such, and then there will probably be more information about this matter also from other Russians who know him, says Borchgrevink.

When asked if he thinks the defector will be extradited to Russia, he thinks that is completely out of the question.

– Norway is bound by both the Refugee Convention and Norwegian law. He will have great reason to fear for his life if he is sent back.

– But he will probably be extradited by Norway to another country, I think so.

Filmed murder

Borchgrevink makes no secret of the fact that the Wagner group is ruthless.

– It is obviously very brutal, and they are not trying to play it down, rather the opposite.

That brutality was reflected when they filmed the murder of Wagner defector Yevgenij Nuzhin, and posted it on social media.

– Prigozhin has boasted about this, he concludes.