Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. In Syria, A Mutilated Corpse, Video Evidence, And New Scrutiny A organizao teria sido fundada por volta de 2014, na Rssia, seu lder atual o ex-oficial do exrcito russo Dmitriy "Wagner" Valeryevich Utkin. 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. They inspected their weapons and ensured the trucks were loaded with anti-tank missiles, thermal optics and food and water. 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. That person has not been identified. In another part of the video that originally surfaced in 2017, the four men laugh to a soundtrack of Russian rock music as they use a sledgehammer to crush the hand of a man shown pinned to the ground wearing bloodied civilian clothes in what appears to be an industrial zone. Wagner would have not been able to commit this medieval execution without the approval of the Russian security services, Osechkin said. Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his comrades, betrayed consciously, he said. Opponents of the dark money paramilitary outfit hope an attack through the courtswhich they expect to take all the way to European Court of Human Rightswill expose the scale of the abuses carried out by the shadowy forces used to conceal the Kremlins off-the-books military adventures all over the world. Back at the mission support site, the Green Berets and Marines were preparing a small reaction force roughly 16 troops in four mine-resistant vehicles in case they were needed at the Conoco plant. 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. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any connections to Russian private military security contractors operating in Syria. The mercenaries loosely coordinate with the Russian military in Syria, although Wagners leaders have reportedly received awards in the Kremlin, and its mercenaries are trained at the Russian Defense Ministrys bases. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was in Pretoria on Monday for talks with one of Moscow's most important allies in Africa. 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. The documents obtained by The Times estimated 200 to 300 of the pro-regime force were killed. 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. 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. International Federation for Human Rights. 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. The companies hit by sanctions included gold and diamond mining operations in the CAR and Sudan. A few of the commandos, including Air Force combat controllers, worked the radios to direct the next fleet of bombers flying toward the battlefield. The newspaper has not released the mans full last name in order to protect his family from potential reprisals. 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. Syrias government controls oil, gas, and mineral production and export, and Syrias General Petroleum Company sets strategy for exploration and development and supervises national subsidiaries, including the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) and Syrian Gas Company (SGC). The newspaper ties the men to Vagner, a shadowy Russian mercenary group widely believed to be spearheading the expansion of Russian influence across Africa and the Middle East. to the research by Frontline Forensics, which was published by New America. After more than a year of government stonewalling and dodging allegations about the case, advocates for the victim say, Russian authorities will now be forced to go on record no matter what. Rather than being a single organization, Wagner is an opaque network of titular companies and private military contractors that simultaneously further the Kremlins interests abroad while lining the pockets of those involved by gaining access to lucrative energy and natural resources mining contracts in the countries in which they operate. 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. 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,. The Kremlin said on Thursday it had no knowledge of the incident. Syrian authorities arrested Bouta as he crossed the border and turned him over to members of the Syrian military. Its a really adaptable network, which makes it hard to target, but also hard to talk about, said Margolin of C4ADS. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? United States F-22 stealth fighter jets above Syria, where the prospect of Russian military forces and American troops colliding has long been feared as the Cold War adversaries take opposing sides in the countrys seven-year civil war. Amy Mackinnon A BBC Russian investigation in 2018 highlighted the deaths of Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria. After his brief stint in the Syrian Arab Army, Bouta went to work in the construction industry, working primarily as a bricklayer. Its not clear how the videos ended up online or why the perpetrators chose to document the killing. What will another year of war look like? 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. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. It has since been hailing Russia as contributing to an end to post-colonial French influence in the country. 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. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria about 40 by the end of the firefight were harmed. Late last November, videos of a gruesome killing went viral on Russian social networks. Ahrar Houran, which he helped to found, confirmed the news. WASHINGTON The artillery barrage was so intense that the American commandos dived into foxholes for protection, emerging covered in flying dirt and debris to fire back at a column of tanks advancing under the heavy shelling. Asked whether the Kremlin is aware of accusations of potential war crimes allegedly committed by some of the Russian mercenary groups fighting in Syria, Peskov answered: "This is not a question for the presidential administration." 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. A Russian-speaking man who filmed the torture and killing of a prisoner in Syria has been identified as a member of Wagner, a Russian private military company 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. Their shadowy existence allows Russia to downplay its battlefield casualties and distance itself from atrocities committed by Wagner fighters, observers say. The Wagner Group is a mercenary firm that has been heavily involved in the fighting in Ukraine. Commanders briefed pilots and ground crews. 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 Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. Their structure allows them to have plausible deniability and to create distance between the Russian state and the group, she said. Is Weiss correct? Elements of these networks have been identified by researchers and journalists through their overlapping ownership structures, personnel, and supply chains. A U.S. military convoy drives on a Syrian highway on September 29, 2017. The Defense Ministry denied any Russian uniformed personnel were killed. "The Wagner Group's activities are a threat for the people in the countries where they operate and the European Union,"EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. 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 the civil war began, he traveled to Lebanon to find construction work after the situation in Syria deteriorated and large parts of Deir Ezzor came under ISIS control, according to an account of Boutas final days given to lawyers by his family. 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. It was not immediately clear who was behind the video, or how Nuzhin would have ended up back in Russia. WebIts also the call sign of the groups unconfirmed leader, Dmitry Utkin, a former Russian military intelligence lieutenant, Wagner fan and suspected neo-Nazi. The outcome of the battle, and much of its mechanics, suggest that the Russian mercenaries and their Syrian allies were in the wrong part of the world to try a simple, massed assault on an American military position. Mercenaries are illegal under Russian law. The day began with little hint of the battle that was about to unfold. 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. 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. Aircraft across the region were placed on alert, military officials said. Flashes from tank muzzles, antiaircraft weapons and machine guns lit up the air. In the video, the men urge each other on to greater violence, telling one to cut harder while beheading the victim. Investigative paper wants atrocities of alleged Russian mercenaries in Syria probed after graphic VIDEO A handful of Marines ran ammunition to machine guns and Javelin missile launchers scattered along the berms and wedged among the trucks. Russian trucks heading to Deir al-Zour, an oil-rich Syrian province that borders Iraq, last year. But researchers from groups such as Bellingcat and the Conflict Intelligence Team, as well as Russian journalists most notably from Novaya Gazeta and Fontanka, have been able to use fragments of publicly available information to build a clearer picture of who is fighting for Russias private military contractors abroad. The men responsible for murdering Bouta are believed to have worked for EvroPolis, a company that exemplifies the way organizations within the network have blended business and warfare. There is a dynamic evolution in the fusion of Russian ultranationalist groups and Russian paramilitaries going on that nobody is really paying attention to or seeing yet, said Candace Rondeaux, a professor of practice in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University and the author of the report. The details of the Feb. 7 firefight were gleaned from interviews and documents newly obtained by The New York Times. 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. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. At 3 p.m. the Syrian force began edging toward the Conoco plant. Anyone can read what you share. 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. Syrian fighters who support the government of President Bashar al-Assad at a hospital in the eastern city of Deir-al Zour in February. When that failed, American troops fired warning shots at a group of vehicles and a howitzer. Under a 2019 U.S. law known as the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, anyone connected to war crimes in Syria under Assads regime could be subject to sanctions. Three Wagner Group mercenaries are alleged by Ukrainian prosecutors to have killed and tortured civilians near Kyiv in April 2022, alongside regular Russian troops. Want to read more on this topic or region? Mr. Utkin is said to have chosen Wagner to honor the composer, who was a favorite of Hitlers. 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. 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. The conflict is prolonged, involves heavy weaponry, civilians are impacted in a substantial way, human rights violations and war crimes increase substantially, and theres no access to justice for victims., https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/world/europe/wagner-group-russia-ukraine.html. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. While it is not clear whether U.S authorities would pursue further sanctions against Prigozhin, Timchenko, or any of the other entities implicated in reporting and legal filings on Boutas case the facts certainly suggest that American investigators in Washington will be tracking its outcome closely. WebHistria Fundao. Between 200 to 300 fighters were killed in the battle, including scores of Russian mercenaries believed to be working in the region to seize control of a nearby gas plant on behalf of EvroPolis. A team of about 30 Delta Force soldiers and Rangers from the Joint Special Operations Command were working alongside Kurdish and Arab forces at a small dusty outpost next to a Conoco gas plant, near the city of Deir al-Zour. It included some Syrian government soldiers and militias, but American military and intelligence officials have said a majority were private Russian paramilitary mercenaries and most likely a part of the Wagner Group, a company often used by the Kremlin to carry out objectives that officials do not want to be connected to the Russian government. It sheds new light on the networks operations and reveals how the killing became a rallying point for Russian ultranationalists online. Despite the Kremlins denial of any ties to Wagner, Mr. Utkin has been photographed next to Mr. Putin. $162 million from oil and gas fields in central Syria in 2017 alone. "I'm convinced this has nothing to do with the Russian military operation in Syria," Peskov told reporters. It was quickly seized upon by open source investigators, who first identified the location of the video as the Shaer gas station near Homs and then pored over the video for clues to the mens identities. Evening roundup with our editors favorite stories of the day. 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. Weekly update on whats driving U.S. national security policy. Boutas slaying is symptomatic of the accountability vacuum in which the Wagner Group operates. 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. But beyond the goals of one leader in Moscow, it is also clear that Ukraine has suffered horrors of a historic nature. Its officers serving in Syria are reported to earn up to 300,000 roubles (3,800; $5,300) a month. Russian Paramilitaries Accused of Torture and Beheading in Landmark Legal Case Against Wagner Group IN THE DOCK The Kremlin-backed Wagner Group will be on Tuesday explores the circumstances of Boutas death using company records and social media analysis. The Novaya Gazeta report added more clarity to an incident that prompted anger and confusion when evidence of it first surfaced. Almost a year later, the court found that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which had the power to open The Guardian checked the results independently using the facial recognition software FindClone and found the same results. But, a federal arrest warrant issued for Prigozhin in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 16 would seem to indicate renewed interest at the Department of Justice in seeing Prigozhin brought to account. Diplomacy, To Save France, Macron Is Dividing Europe, The United States Has Never Recovered From the Falklands War. The researchers social network analysis also revealed substantial cross-affiliation with Rusich, a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has operated in eastern Ukraine. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. The private Russian military force, which has close ties to President Vladimir Putin and has been used in war zones across the world, They provide the Pentagons first public on-the-ground accounting of one of the single bloodiest battles the American military has faced in Syria since deploying to fight the Islamic State. There have also been widespread reports of Wagner recruiting foreign convicts in prisons across Russia, including citizens from the five central Asian nations. He said Russia seemed to be turning to them to bolster its troops in the east of Ukraine because the group already had experience fighting in the Donbas region for the past eight years. With Putins help, Assad has constrained the capacity of the United Nations to deliver health supplies in opposition-controlled territory, which faces rising risk of the coronavirus. Former President Obasanjo warns: Danger looming ahead., Report: A Russian-speaking man who filmed the torture and killing of a prisoner in Syria has been identified as a member of Wagner, a Russian private military company with ties to the Kremlin that has aggressively expanded into the Middle East and Africa in recent years. 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. But he denied that Russia's armed forces had any connection to the incident. Alexander Malkevich, whose employees were detained in Libya, is part of Moscows efforts to create a concert of chaos around the globe. which was captured on video at the The Wagner Group: Russia's Blackwater TRT World 2.02M subscribers Subscribe 3.9K 321K views 2 years ago From Ukraine to Syria to the Central African Contacted by Novaya Gazeta, relatives and friends of the Russian man, named as Stanislav D., either did not respond or denied any affiliation with him. As the videos of Boutas torture and beheading were circulated, they became a rallying point for the social networks that have coalesced around Russias mercenary activity abroad. It was dark, according to the documents, and the roads were littered with felled power lines and shell craters. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. In an interview with the Russian human rights group Gulagu.net late on Sunday, Ilya Nuzhin said his family learned of their fathers death through Telegram, which left them horrified. The group is not registered as a legal entity anywhere in the world. You may opt out at any time. Is it? Commanders of the rival militaries had long steered clear of the other by speaking through often-used deconfliction telephone lines. Advertisement. The fighters were reportedly wounded in a United States airstrike near the city. A video of a second apparent execution using a sledgehammer was posted by a Wagner-linked blogger on Monday. U.S. forces clashed with pro-Syrian government forces, the majority of which are believed to have been Russian mercenaries, in Syrias Deir Ezzor province in 2018. 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. According to one Russian human rights group, Wagner has recruited more than 20,000 prisoners to fight in Ukraine so far. A new report by Frontline Forensics, a joint initiative of Arizona State University and the New America think tank, published on Tuesday explores the circumstances of Boutas death using company records and social media analysis. Is it? The visit comes as South Africa prepares for joint naval drills with Russia and China next month. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Bangui, Central African Republic, in 2019. relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts. Russia If for some reason the case does not go forward in Moscow, Darwish said, it is likely that he, Novikov and others will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Wagner's presence in CAR soon led to the departure of a French-led international peacekeeping force in the country, as was the case even more abruptly last year in Mali. 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