The Wagner Group is a Russian private mercenary army fighting on four continents. It is a company run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had various noticeable roles in the past years with a controversial background before getting close to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin – he was famous as Putin’s chef. The Wagner Group came to know in 2014, and most recently its 25.000 fighters shocked the world by threatening Putin’s power from a distance of 200 km to the Russian capital Moscow. There are a lot of controversial theories and debates about such a group that were not too much visible before the mutiny on June 24, 2023.

Wagner Group is a security tool launched by Russia to operate beyond its borders. Since it is unlawful to possess a mercenary army in Russia, Wagner has been registered as a “private military company” and recruits Russian prisoners regardless of “veterans of Russian elite regiments” and “special forces” included in the group.

If we go through the history of Wagner Group, we would probably find some concerns in detail – concerns that grow as much as you dive into details and actions the group carried out. For instance, how was such a particular army built besides its purpose? And where do they get the funds to evolve their capacity and power?

The Launch of The Wagner Group

In March 2014 Russia took over Crimea, a peninsula in Ukraine when President Putin denied any involvement of ordinary Russian troops with the fact that there were shreds of evidence proving Russian troops’ hand in the operation of annexing Crimea. For the reason of shadowing the reality behind Crimea’s takeover, several armed groups, including The Wagner Group, became visible.

Wagner Group was Prigozhin’s project and was given the green light by Putin besides getting advice from GRU military intelligence. The Russian defence ministry gave Pirgozhin some land in Molkino in southern Russia where his companies built bases for Wagner fighters.

In 2015 when Putin decided to protect Syria’s regime by military intervention, Prigozhin's company won the race for supply and food services and got the chance to send Wagner fighters to Syria. That is considered a key moment in raising Wagner Group and operating beyond Russia.

How is the Company Funded?

Wagner offered some other countries in the Middle East and Africa, which endured devastating wars and inner political tensions, security services and intervened in the wars that the countries were not able to handle. For that reason, they managed to enter some countries in those areas to fight for different purposes and against unlikely forces on behalf of dictators and so on. Their reason for that arises as to dominate and operate in a wide range of areas around the world, and it is perhaps to manipulate the natural resources of such areas and utilise them to empower their military forces and enrich Russia in terms of economic and political matters.

Wall Street Journal conducted an investigation and found out; that there are 64 companies linked to Wagner's founder and half of them are leading firms that conceal the process of money flow connected to the Kremlin with the vision that whatever Wagner does is for the sake of the state. 

According to a documentary from WSJ, Concord, which is a catering company of Prigozhin that provided food services for the Russian army and was paid by the state, is behind the very first money flow from the Russian government to invest in The Wagner Group behind the scenes.

The U.S. The Department of the Treasury reports that some entities from Russia, the Central African Republic and the United Arab Emirates have been held responsible, and even sanctioned, for illegal gold dealings that have equipped The Wagner Group with huge financial funds. The report also accuses The Wagners of causing insecurity around the world, which has resulted in sanctions from global powers.

According to an investigation by Financial Times, Wagner used the natural resources of those countries they operated in such as gold, oil and gas which led them to generate 250 million dollars in four years before Ukraine’s invasion. Companies backed by the group, in countries like Syria and Sudan, are the money machine for such huge revenues despite sanctions from the US, UK and EU on the accounts of Wagner-backed companies. 

M Invest is a gold mining company backed by Wagner and sanctioned by the US in 2020, however, it still generated $2.6m the year after, Financial Times says. Evro Polis is another Wagner-backed company that gained $90m in return for freeing some oilfields from ISIS in Syria. These are just a few cases taken out from many Wagner-backed companies that are the core in the course of generating the fund by which the Wagner group is dramatically equipped and has enough necessary military tools and equipment to stand against any army.

Pirgozhin’s Background

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the robber and hotdog seller known as Putin’s chef, was born in St. Petersburg. The story starts during the soviet union era, one March evening in 1980 when Prigozhin With his friends spent their leisure in a cafe in St Petersburg. They came across a woman on the street and a friend had asked her for a cigarette, before the woman offered a cigarette, Pirgozhin attacked her from the back, grabbed and squeezed her neck until she was unconscious. Basically, they robbed the lady and even Prigozhin took her earnings.

Prigozhin and his associates were active robbers in St. Petersburg and were accused of many robbery cases then which resulted in a 13-year sentence in prison for Prigozhin. He spent 10 years imprisoned until 1990, the period of the Soviet Union’s collapse.  Prigozhin returned to St. Petersburg and began selling hotdogs with his sights on higher targets. A businessman who was familiar to him in the 90s says “Prigozhin always knew how to make contacts.” A few years later he got to own some supermarkets and restaurants.

Apparently, his business was a bridge that took Prigozhin to get close to Russian officials particularly Vladimir Putin. By the time Putin obtained power as the Russian President, he used to invite foreign VIP figures to St. Petersburg, where was born in 1952, and took them to the Old Customs House and New Island which was a floating restaurant owned by Prigozhin.

While bringing plates and offering drinks to Putin’s guests, the Russian President noted something as Prigozhin said “Putin saw that I did not mind bringing plates myself.”  And that was the foundation of the historical and controversial relationship between Putin and Prigozhin. Shortly afterwards Prigozhin and his Concord catering company managed to be trusted by the Russian government to organise events as it gained millions of dollars in return plus Pirgozhin himself passed the bridge up to the position of being too much trusted by Vladimir Putin.

Prigozhin’s journey from theft to becoming a reliable figure within Russia is beyond belief, and he manages his tremendous global network from an office in Vasilievsky Island in St Petersburg. Marat Gabidulin, former Wagner commander who kept Prigozhin with daily updates about army circumstances in Syria, stated, “Fear is what Prigozhin ruled through.” Above all, Priozhin through his network is also accused of crimes apart from interfering in foreign affairs and having an impactful personal say in Russian military defence meetings etc.

What Happened on June 24th?

Nevertheless, it has been over a couple of decades since Putin has been directing policy from the Kremlin, and nobody has ever managed to threaten his autocracy as much as Prigozhin’s Wagner Group.

On 24 June 2023, 5000 Wagner fighters seized the city of Rostov-on-Don in Russia and moved directly towards the capital Moscow with removing military leadership in mind. Within Russia, such an operation from Wagner was defined as rebellion while Prigozhin claimed it was due to tensions with the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Prigozhin blamed Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the Chief of Staff of Russia's armed forces, Valery Gerasimov for their attacking Wagner fighters and not being that strategically impactful in the Ukraine invasion. Due to such purposes, Prigozhin ordered his troops to take movements in order to expel both Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov from their military positions.

Wagner fighters reached 200 km near Moscow but halted their development after an arbitration contribution from the President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko. Russian FSB Security Service described Prigozhin’s actions as a “stab in the back” while the head of Wagner had a different definition for the rebellion as he outlined “it was a march of justice”

During the tension, Putin showed up in an emergency TV appearance and described Wagner’s raise up as “an armed mutiny” and said, “Anyone involved in taking up arms against the state’s military will be penalising.”

Alongside that, Lukashenko of Belarus said that “Putin wanted to wipe out Prigozhin” but he could calm him down and became a deal breaker during the most critical situation in Russia – that was likely to turn into a civil war. The President of Belarus was the mediator in sealing an agreement between Wagner fighters and the Russian state; of which Prigozhin would have to cease the mutiny, and Belarus would open doors for Wagner troops to either enter the country or sign a new agreement with the Russian military.

Prigozhin’s Dead Fate and What is Next in Russia?

Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Wagner Group has been an evident part of the invasion with its 50000 fighters involved regardless of its international operations. While the rebellion changed a lot and generated domestic doubts over the Wagner group, also a bold question mark popped up about Putin’s authority.

It was confirmed that Wagner fighters joined Belarus but a lot has happened since as Prigozhin and some of his colleagues were reported dead in a cloudy plane crash accident in Russian sky. According to reports, 10 people were killed who were on board the crashed private jet, including Prigozhin, that was shot down on Wednesday evening.

Putin made it crystal clear before that if there is something he does not forgive, it is betrayal. However, it was unsurprisingly for the world to see Prigozhin dead after looking into previous happenings and the way Putin dominates and guards his totalitarianism.

Prigozhin’s death after the dangers he tried to face Putin tells us enough about how hard Putin controls power in Russia and to what extent he does not think twice about wiping out those who try rebellion against him.

Wagner’s destiny, in the post-Prigozhin era, could also be under a bold question mark with Putin coming out the winner of the game and holding absolute power to decide the mercenary’s future. However, after building trust and dedicating his total efforts close to Vladimir Putin for more than 30 years, Prigozhin’s story was completed and a new chapter is waiting for the world.