Why Wagner?

[Tranquillus in Exile]

Officially the Wagner group doesn’t exist; or if it does, it has no connection with the Russian government.

The group was set up by the GRU (Russian military intelligence) in 2014 and clandestinely equipped by the Russian Ministry of Defense to support the takeover of Crimea and breakaway activities in Ukraine.

Its first commander, GRU colonel Dmitry Utkin, is said to have named the group after Hitler’s favorite composer because of his obsession with Nazism. The group has vastly expanded over the years. Its structure can be characterized as rank and file ex-convict cannon fodder run by neo-Nazis, tasked with “denazifying” Ukraine and other paramilitary interventions around the world, none of which are the responsibility of the Russian government. It looks set to run longer than the Ring of the Nibelung, but without the catchy tunes.

From the beginning, the armed conflict that broke out in Donbass in spring of 2014 drew in far-right radicals on both sides. The following article shows that Russia’s use of right-wing radicals had greater military and political repercussions than the involvement of Ukrainian far-right groups.

https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/rnv95_uk_likhachev_far-right_radicals_final.pdf

 

[IBDaMann]

Officially the Wagner group doesn’t exist; or if it does, it has no connection with the Russian government.

Wagner exists and is a mercenary contractor.

Why Wagner? Wagner is not Russian military and Wagner is not incompetent like the Russian military. Unfortunately for Russia, Wagner is not stupid either.

Wagner has Russia's blessing to operate freely in Ukraine. Wagner was paid for land that it captured in Ukraine. Wagner outsmarted Russia by taking some land where Ukraine forces were weak, getting paid for taking the land, but then suddenly becoming "incompetent" and were "driven back", rallied, retook the same land, got paid, became "incompetent" and were once again driven back, found new strength and retook the same land, got paid, got "driven back," found the inner strength to give it one more go and retook the same land, got paid, and are currently in the process of being driven back. Guess what. Russia has discontinued that structuring of the contract.

The main reason for using Wagner is that Russia has huge numbers of people on military contract (similar to people being in the national guard) that they simply cannot use because the contracts stipulate that they cannot be sent to fight outside Russia; they can only be used to defend Russia from within Russia. So Putin's plan was to have Wagner assail Ukraine in conjunction with regular Russian troops, hold sham elections in the occupied lands of Ukraine, "declare" the results of those elections as "Ukraine districts have voted to become part of Russia" and then have standing to send the Russian contract military to fight in the Ukraine which is now being declared as part of Russia, and ordering them to defend "Russia" from the invading Ukranians.

 

[BidenPresident]

Officially the Wagner group doesn’t exist; or if it does, it has no connection with the Russian government.

The group was set up by the GRU (Russian military intelligence) in 2014 and clandestinely equipped by the Russian Ministry of Defense to support the takeover of Crimea and breakaway activities in Ukraine.

Its first commander, GRU colonel Dmitry Utkin, is said to have named the group after Hitler’s favorite composer because of his obsession with Nazism. The group has vastly expanded over the years. Its structure can be characterized as rank and file ex-convict cannon fodder run by neo-Nazis, tasked with “denazifying” Ukraine and other paramilitary interventions around the world, none of which are the responsibility of the Russian government. It looks set to run longer than the Ring of the Nibelung, but without the catchy tunes.

From the beginning, the armed conflict that broke out in Donbass in spring of 2014 drew in far-right radicals on both sides. The following article shows that Russia’s use of right-wing radicals had greater military and political repercussions than the involvement of Ukrainian far-right groups.

https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/rnv95_uk_likhachev_far-right_radicals_final.pdf

The US used Blackwater soldiers to fight in Iraq. Maybe half of the soldiers in Iraq were private fighters.

 

[Hawkeye10]

Officially the Wagner group doesn’t exist; or if it does, it has no connection with the Russian government.

The group was set up by the GRU (Russian military intelligence) in 2014 and clandestinely equipped by the Russian Ministry of Defense to support the takeover of Crimea and breakaway activities in Ukraine.

Its first commander, GRU colonel Dmitry Utkin, is said to have named the group after Hitler’s favorite composer because of his obsession with Nazism. The group has vastly expanded over the years. Its structure can be characterized as rank and file ex-convict cannon fodder run by neo-Nazis, tasked with “denazifying” Ukraine and other paramilitary interventions around the world, none of which are the responsibility of the Russian government. It looks set to run longer than the Ring of the Nibelung, but without the catchy tunes.

From the beginning, the armed conflict that broke out in Donbass in spring of 2014 drew in far-right radicals on both sides. The following article shows that Russia’s use of right-wing radicals had greater military and political repercussions than the involvement of Ukrainian far-right groups.

https://www.ifri.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/rnv95_uk_likhachev_far-right_radicals_final.pdf

Claims.....This is a guy who runs a victim group, National Minority Rights Monitoring Group, a western project, so naturally everything he says tends to be slanted against Russia. I doubt very much that Russia or China give his claims any credibility.

 

[Hawkeye10]

It gets even better......national minority rights monitoring group is a Ukrainian organization....they dont just work in Ukraine....of course its leader says that Russia is the bigger problem.

 

[Nordberg]

I saw the head of Wagner interviewed on TV and he said his men are being slaughtered. How much do you pay to get a soldier to fight in a war they have no side in? One that is very dangerous.