Wagner, the bloodthirsty Russian mercenaries inspired by Nazism now in the US crosshairs: who are they really? Prigozhin ironically: “We criminals? Then we are colleagues…”

He was thought to have 5,000 fighters in Ukraine, but it turns out he has at least ten times as many, mostly ex-convicts, with whom he is trying to turn the conflict in Ukraine around, without abandoning open fronts in the Middle East and Africa .
The Wagner Group, accused of atrocious war crimes, so much so that the US State Department intends to brand it a “transnational criminal organization”, is increasingly emerging from the mists of mystery that enveloped it from its origins and confirming the privileged lever that the Kremlin uses it to extend its geopolitical, military and even economic influence in the world. Even mixing war and business, as became evident when the oligarch Yevgheni Prigozhin, also known as “Putin’s chef” and his close ally, patron and commander of the militia, took over Bakhmut’s front in Donbass, where these days there is fierce fighting, because the region also offers economically strategic mines of salt and gypsum.
Founded, according to a survey carried out by the BBC, in 2013 by Dmitri Utkin – a former officer of the military espionage service and of the special bodies in the wars in Chechnya who would have chosen the name of Wagner for his passion for the great German musician shared with Adolf Hitler – the private militia made its debut in the covert operation in Donbass and Crimea in 2014, shortly after the Maidan revolution and the fall of the pro-Russian government in Kiev. Nicknamed ‘little green men’ because they lacked insignia and camouflage badges, his men did the bulk of the military work, in support of the local pro-Russian militias. Since then, Wagner’s militiamen have become the hidden arm of Russian imperialism, extending operations in strategic theaters such as Syria, in support of the troops in Damascus; Libya, alongside General Haftar; in Mali, where they fight jihadist formations and ‘guard’ gold mines, such as those of diamonds in the Central African Republic, in Venezuela and even in Madagascar and Sri Lanka, for a total – according to an analysis by ISPI – of 27 points different from the globe. In Africa, Wagner’s mercenaries are accused of murder, torture and rape of civilians, which have earned sanctions by the EU. Andrey Medvedev, a former militia commander who escaped to Norway a few days ago after deserting, intends to spill the beans on the “summary executions” committed in the Ukrainian theater, for which Wagner recruited thousands of prisoners in exchange for freedom and wages up to five times higher than those of regular Russian soldiers. German intelligence attributes the early war massacres at Bucha to Wagner. As private militias are officially banned by law in Russia and “not officially part of the Russian state,” Wagner mercenaries “are hard to criminalize for abuse, cost less to maintain, and are seen as more expendable than Russian soldiers” and ” they are therefore used for dangerous front-line missions or as a force multiplier in pursuing Russian interests on several fronts. But the Ukrainian war has brought Wagner to the attention of the world, with the result that it becomes increasingly difficult for the Kremlin to carry out covert or false flag actions and thus hide its existence and proximity. The militias are prohibited as mentioned, but Wagner has recently opened an office in St. Petersburg. And Prigozhin, after eight years in denial, admitted last September that he was its commander. The fate of the tsar and his trusted ‘chef’ are now publicly intertwined. “We criminals? Finally, now Wagner and the Americans are colleagues”, sarcastically commented the oligarch, who had the gall to write an open letter to US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby asking him to list what crimes his men allegedly committed in the Ukraine.