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on several continents for torture, rape, and extrajudicial killings. The fi rst thing to understand about
the Wagner Group is that there most likely is no Wagner Group, says nation- al security and intelligence expert Amy Mackinnon, writing in Foreign Policy magazine. “As far as researchers can tell, there
The Aftermath: UKRAINE WAR
Putin’s Private Killing Machine
Ruthless band of Nazi-worshipping mercenaries does Russia’s dirty work around the world.
A BY JOHN GIZZI
s up to 190,000 russian troops swept into Ukraine this year, intelligence experts were keeping a wary
eye out for signs of a much smaller but deadlier group of assassins lurking amid the ruins of Kyiv and other cities. According to reports in several West-
ern newspapers, at least 400 merce- naries belonging to the shadowy force known as the Wagner Group had also slipped into the country. Its mission, several Kremlin-watch-
ers insist, was to take out high-profi le Ukrainians who are on Russian Presi- dent Vladimir Putin’s much-rumored
“hit list” — anti-Russian business leaders, celebrities, sports stars, and Ukraine’s heroic President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As of mid-March, Zelenskyy was said
to have survived at least 12 assassina- tion attempts — at least two of which were allegedly orchestrated by the Wag- ner Group, according to Yahoo News and The Times of London. The Wagner Group is not a formal
entity. The guns-for-hire group does not exist on paper. It is not organized along corporate or military lines and maintains an aura of mystery among its estimated 6,000 operatives. Wagner has established a reputation
Kremlin’s Next Targets? I
BY MARISA HERMAN
f Russian President Vladimir Putin wants
to fulfill his long-standing goal of reuniting “historical” Russia to establish it as a great world power, military analysts
16 NEWSMAX | MAY 2022
is no single registered business called Wagner. Rather, the name has come to describe a network of businesses and groups of mercenaries that have been linked by overlaps in ownership and logistics networks.” According to the U.S. Treasury, the
group is involved “in a wide range of activities, including working to sup- press pro-democracy protests, spread- ing disinformation, mining for gold and diamonds, and engaging in paramili- tary activity,” reports ForeignPolicy. com.
The man behind it could have
stepped out of the pages of a Tom Clan- cy thriller. Yevgeny Prigozhin was a thief and
a con man who served time in Rus- sian prisons. In middle age, however, he went “legitimate,” opening a restaurant in St. Petersburg which was frequented by Putin, then the city’s vice mayor. When Putin became president of
Russia in 2012, Prigozhin went along as the Kremlin caterer. These days, his business empire
includes culinary services for the Rus- sian military, police force, schools, and hospitals — all subsidized by Russian taxpayers to the tune of an estimated $3 billion.
Prigozhin is considered one of the premier bank-rollers of the Wagner
fear Ukraine won’t be his last invasion. Experts say he has his eye
on several strategic locations and former Soviet satellites.
Moldova The country borders
Ukraine to the north, east, and south and would be an “easy target” for Putin because of its weak military and non-NATO membership status. Russia also already
partially occupies part of the country via the unrecognized breakaway state Transnistria.
Georgia Alexis Mrachek, a Russia
expert with The Heritage Foundation, points out that Russia has controlled 20% of Georgia territory since the Russo- Georgian War took place in 2008.
Gotland island Before invading Ukraine, the
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