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Thursday, December 16, 2021
ANBOUND's Observation: Russian Media Reveals Several Facts About Wagner Group
Chan Kung

This well-known photo was taken in the Kremlin on the Heroes of Fatherland Day. From left to right: Andrey Bogatov, Andrey Troshev, Vladimir Putin, Alexander Kuznetsov, Dmitry Utkin (Wagner). Four of them are on the EU Sanctions lists.

The European Union acknowledged that the Wagner Group (also known as PMC Wagner) exists and announced sanctions against eight individuals and three organizations. Of the eight sanctioned individuals, four had had their photo taken with the Russian president. At least two of them have received top honors for their purported heroism.

The EU sanctions are divided into four themes, namely, Ukraine, Libya, Syria, and human rights violations.

A total of three organizations and eight individuals, including Heroes of the Russian Federation, are subject to the EU sanctions.

Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor)

Alexander Kuznetsov (Ratibor) is the commander of the first Wagner assault squadron. The EU accuses him of "threatening peace, security, and stability" in Libya. Before 2008, he was a special force major from the Moscow region of Solnechnogorsk. In 2008 Kuznetsov was imprisoned for an unsuccessful robbery and kidnapping attempt. Released on parole in 2013, he joined Wagner in 2014, fighting in both Ukraine and Syria. For his services in southeastern Ukraine and Syria, he received an unprecedented "official" military award: four medals for valor.

There are three individuals on the Ukraine-related sanctions list. One of them is Wagner, also known as Dmitry Utkin. Utkin is the reserve lieutenant colonel from whose code name — 'Wagner' — the PMC gets its name. He is the former commander of a separate detachment from the Pskov special forces brigade. Utkin received at least four medals for valor from the Russian president and reportedly earned the title of hero in Russia. But, as in the case of Ratibor, there is not enough information to confirm that he has been awarded the hero title.

According to the document, Utkin "was personally present on the battlefield in Ukraine, coordinated and planned the activities of the Wagner group members".

Dmitry Utkin (Wagner)

"Given his commanding position, he is responsible for active actions that undermine and endanger the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine". It is reported that Utkin's business interests are limited to a few grocery stores registered in his spouse's name, which are unlikely to require European loans, so the sanctions will not affect him much.

Denis Kharitonov is a deputy of the Duma of the Astrakhan Region from United Russia, a functionary of the Union of Donbas Volunteers, a Wagner veteran, one of thirty-three "soldiers of fortune" detained by Lukashenko's special services near Minsk in July 2020. It remains unclear as to why the EU included him on the sanctions list, although it could be because Kharitonov is the only Wagner Group member to have built a public career.

Sergei Shcherbakov is also one of thirty-three "soldiers of fortune". Shcherbakov is neither a commander, nor a deputy, nor even a public figure. Judging by documents published by Ukrainian journalists, when Shcherbakov was recruited on behalf of the already defunct PMC "MAR" to "guard the Venezuelan oil fields," he claimed that he had personally shot down Ukrainian pilots in Donbas. The EU charged him with shooting two attack aircraft and one helicopter, though this seems an exaggeration.

There were two personalities of the Russian Federation responsible for the Syria-related issues.

The first is Andrey Troshev. Troshev is a former paratrooper gunner who served in the St. Petersburg police special forces. He finished his service with the rank of police colonel. To his credit, Troshev was awarded the Red Star twice. However, Troshev, who was involved in the 2016 attack on Palmyra, is a retiree. The EU referred to him as Wagner Group's "Chief of Staff", which intelligence now says is credible.

Andrey Troshev

Troshev, despite his high rank, is not a very public figure and, perhaps, is no longer playing a leading role in the Wagner Group. In addition to his actions in Syria, Troshev was remembered for his embarrassment in July 2017, when an ambulance allegedly took him to the hospital in a state of alcoholic coma. After examining Troshev, doctors were surprised to find that he had maps of Syria, documents for the purchase of weapons and equipment, and large sums of money in rubles and U.S. dollars.

A few hours later, the incident was settled, but there are still traces of it in the police reports.

The second person is Andrey Bogatov. Bogatov is a former paratrooper officer and peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia. He worked as an electrician at a factory in his native Stary Oskol after his discharge from the army. In 2014, everything changed, and Bogatov became the head of Wagner's fourth company. After losing an arm, he remained in the Group, commanding a company guarding an oil refinery in Syria.

Andrey Bogatov

Among the famous commanders of the Wagner group, Bogatov is perhaps the most outspoken. He is an indispensable participant in the patriotic activities of Stary Oskol, and a candidate for the legislative election in the State Duma.

Companies sanctioned over Syria-related issues include Euro Polis, Velada, and Mercury.

The most famous of these companies is Euro Polis. The company was incorporated in Krasnogorsk, Moscow, in the summer of 2016, but the company has shown no signs of functioning for six months. On January 16, 2017, Andrey Troshev, Oleg Erokhin, Prigozhin, a businessman who heads Concord's security division, and others became general managers. On January 19, Euro Polis changes its owner: AO Neva, headed by Valery Chekalov, who had been a senior executive at Concord Systems since early October.

In December 2016, the Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Ali Ghanem, visited Moscow, during which Euro Polis struck a stunning deal with the Syrian National Petroleum Corporation under the auspices of the Russian Energy Ministry. Under the agreement, Euro Polis pledged to carry out hostility acts to liberate oil and gas fields from the Islamic State (which Russia has banned). To protect and defend them, Euro Polis will receive 25% more than the cost of carrying out hostility acts, and Euro Polis had managed to pull it off.

Mercury and Velada are two companies that received concessions from the Syrian parliament in December 2019 to develop three blocks of oil and gas fields. A closer look at these companies revealed that Yevgeny Prigozhin, was behind them, as Novaya Gazeta reported.

A separate block of sanctions is devoted to human rights violations in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, and Mozambique.

For the first time, the EU defines the Wagner Group: "The Wagner Group is a Russia-based unincorporated private military entity, which was established in 2014 as a successor organization of the Slavonic Corps. It is headed by Dmitry Utkin and financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin".

Through the setting-up of local entities, and with the support of local governments, the Wagner Group finances and conducts its operations.

The Wagner Group is responsible for serious human rights abuses in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, and Mozambique, which include torture and extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions and killings.

An inaccuracy is noticeable: the Wagner Group has a very indirect relationship to the "Slavonic Corps", which tried to operate in Syria in 2013, and certainly is not its legal successor either in a strictly legal or conceptual sense. Many members of the Slavonic Corps ended up under the command of Wagner (the former company, Slavkorp) in southeastern Ukraine in 2014, but this is a completely different story - with different organizers, other sources of funding, and other goals. This appears to be the sole inaccuracy in the wording.

In addition to the company itself, there are three major human rights violators on the list.

The first one is Dmitry Utkin. As a commander, he is "responsible for the serious human rights violations committed by the group, including torture and extrajudicial executions, summary executions or arbitrary executions and killings".

It should be emphasized that Utkin, according to the EU, was involved in "the torture and murder of a Syrian deserter by four members of the Wagner Group in June 2017 in Homs Governorate, Syria".

As stated in the document, "according to a former member of the Wagner Group, Utkin personally ordered to torture the deserter to death, as well as to film this act".

In July 2017, a Syrian named Hamadi was murdered. In the fall of 2019, Novaya Gazeta reported that the crime was carried out by members of the Wagner Group at the Al-Shaer plant in Syria. One of the murderers was identified as Stanislav Dychko, the second individual on the EU's sanctions list.

Stanislav Dychko. Footage from a Syrian film

The third is Valery Zakharov. Until recently, he was security advisor to the president of the Central African Republic. It is said that he is "a former Federal Security Service (FSB) agent, he is the CAR's president's national security adviser. He is a key figure in the Wagner Group's command structure and keeps close links with the Russian authorities. Given his influential position in CAR and his leading role in the Wagner Group, he is responsible for serious human rights abuses committed by the Wagner Group in CAR, which include extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions and killings. This includes the murder of three Russian journalists in 2018, the security of whom was under the responsibility of Valery Zakharov".

Valery Zakharov

The EU therefore holds Valery Zakharov responsible for the murder of the three Russian citizens Aleksandr Rastorguev, Orkhan Dzhemal, and Kirill Radchenko in July 2018. Although the description is not without mistakes: Zakharov has never served in the FSB, his service was in the operational-search division of the St. Petersburg police and customs, and he is now out of Africa.

Individuals on the list are not allowed to cross the border of the European Union, do business with European companies, and obtain loans. It seems to be a formality, especially since they did not need it anyway. It is more like a manifesto.

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