PMC Wagner: A Loophole in Warfare?

What if your country had a private army, including 40,000 convicts, operating worldwide? So is the case of a private military company called Wagner. Based out of Russia, led by a wealthy entrepreneur, Yevgeny Prigozhin, with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

In 1981, Prigozhin was imprisoned for 12 years on the charges of robbery and assault, after which he started a restaurant business catering for the Kremlin. He earned the nickname ‘Putin’s chef’, to which Putin himself denies all claims. While Prigozhin supplied supplies for the Crimea annexation, later on, he made his army consisting of 10,000 contractors and 40,000 convicts under the name ‘PMC Wagner’. With the pre-existing close ties with Putin, the Kremlin had little to no issues deploying Wagner in the Donbas region of Ukraine. 

Through active military assistance, the Wagner group was deployed to carry out Russian foreign policy and increase its influence in Africa. The question arises: Why use a private army when Russia has its army? Simply due to the plausible deniability of Russian influence. In this way, Russia could carry out its objectives efficiently while denying its influence. 

What is Russia getting in for intervening with African countries? Even though Wagner has been accused of numerous crimes and interference, Moscow still aims to carry out some of its foreign policies through such a private military. In turn, to help and intervene in African affairs, Russia has demanded natural resources, or they’re looking to expand their influence to challenge the West's influence. 

Similarly, in Syria, Wagner has helped the corrupted Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad. Why did Wagner take this side? Simply because Bashar allotted them a quarter of the profits produced by the oil and gas fields. Russia, in this case, acquired profits and oil and gas fields. It's a win-win for Moscow. 

Since 2012, Russia has used such a private military to boost its national interests without state participation. Ever since the annexation of Crimea, private militaries like Wagner have been spreading like a virus across continents, including - Ukraine, Libya, Mali, Sudan, Venezuela, Central Africa Republic, Madagascar, Mozambique, Yemen, and Syria. 

While Wagner is composed primarily of convicts, this group has also been accused of wrongdoings in their deployed countries.

Wagner mercenaries killed and tortured civilians near Kyiv, Ukraine, in April 2022. They massacred civilians in Bucha in March 2022 and numerous other war crimes that one can’t even point out. 

Alleged human rights violations and exacerbated regional insecurity in the case of Wagner’s involvement with Libya. At the same time, they were fighting with the Libyan National Army in 2019, where Wagner was further accused of committing extrajudicial killings and planting landmines in civilian areas. The United Nations is also present operating in this region, but the Wagner group’s workings threaten the UN’s ability to protect Libyan civilians. 

A few examples of real human rights violations from Wagner are in 2017, a video was posted online which included a group of armed people torturing a Syrian man, beating him to death with a sledgehammer and burning his body; any investigation by media or rights activists was rejected by Russian authorities.  

In November 2022, a Wagner contractor who allegedly fled to the Ukrainian side was recaptured and beaten to death. Despite a demand for an investigation and public outrage, the Kremlin turned a blind eye. 

With Ukraine, Wagner was fighting with the Russian army side by side until a mutiny arose between Prigozhin and the Russian government on the basis of the Kremlin not supplying them with the needed supplies, which included arms and ammunition. 

Prigozhin raised his voice quite frequently against the public profiles of top-ranked Russian military officers, calling them incompetent. He was recently asked about a comparison between him, an influential individual in the Kremlin, along with Grigory Rasputin, a mystic who gained fatal influence over Russia’s last czar, who claimed to cure the car’s son who had haemophilia. Prigozhin snapped and said, “I don’t stop blood, but I spill blood of the enemies of our Motherland”. 

23 August 2023, Prigozhin and nine other passengers died in a private plane crash flying between Moscow and St Petersburg. Was this staged? Or was it a genuine accident? One could never know. Wagner was left without a leader. UK defence sources told the BBC that Russia’s FSB intelligence agency was likely responsible for this. 

Would this affect their operation in Ukraine? It is said that troops in Ukraine have taken a step back and are stationed either in Belarus or back in the Ministry of Defence. Hence, Wagner's influence in Ukraine should remain minimal. 

What about their influence in Africa? It's very hard to say. Wagner has been a very influential tool in carrying out Russian foreign policy; it is not yet clear as to how it will progress, if at all, after the death of their leader. Written By: Aditya Akash Trigunayat

Picture Credits: Blas Bulnes Beniscelli