PMC (“Private Military Company”) Wagner, more commonly known as The Wagner Group, is a paramilitary organisation based in Russia. Founded in 2014, Yevgeny Prigozhin a Russian oligarch and a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin, took over the company shortly after its founding. The Wagner Group first came to prominence during the Donbas conflict in Ukraine from 2014 to 2015.

The Wagner Group’s activities vary greatly, ranging from political influence operations and a private military force to mining companies dotted around the world in 5 continents. This covert network of mercenaries operates above the law in Russia and serves as the de facto private Russian army in a country where private military contractors are officially forbidden. With an estimated 15,000 military contractors in over twenty countries, the group is also known to have recruited over 40,000 Russian convicts for its war effort in Ukraine.

Russia first utilised Wagner Group mercenaries in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and fighting in the Donbas region of Ukraine. At this point, Wagner forces were an extremely secretive unit of elite soldiers comprising of only 250 men. This is a world apart from the current conflicts in which Wagner participates, where they are openly declaring their victories on the Russian-based Telegram chat messaging system. From this point onwards it became apparent that Wagner’s chief mission was to divert attention from activities that the Russian government does not want the world to know about. This is done via contracting hardened military veterans at the command levels and rank-and-file citizens with elite military backgrounds. These mercenaries are typically paid $1,100 a month, but convicts are known to have also been recruited for the frontline as cannon fodder. These criminals are enticed by Wagner with the  promise of a presidential pardon in exchange for 6 months of survival in a perilous and likely fatal military service.

The Wagner Group playbook today typically commences by targeting fragile countries, suffering with insurgency or civil wars, but of some strategic value to Russia. They then spearhead military incursions in these countries by teaching client states militaries’ how to combat insurgency. This is the case in Mali, with Wagner being paid $10 million a month for its activities by the Malian government. Mali is a textbook example of a struggling country, with three coups in the past decade of which two have led to the Russian backed president Goïta remaining in power. France previously backed Mali until it withdrew its troops in 2021, at which the point the Malian government of the time contacted The Wagner Group to help prop it up. Later, in December 2021, Wagner started to build access roads next to the airport in order to facilitate their deployment before building their military base in close proximity to the airport.

Though it could be asked what benefit the Wagner Group and by extension the Russian Government receive once they help a client state. Wagner appears to be especially focused on the extraction of natural resources in the countries they offer their services to.  This is especially true of their adventures in Africa, which is rich in fossil fuels and rare earths. In addition to providing military support, Wagner loans in exchange for which it, and therefore, the Russian Government receives natural resources such as oil, gold and even uranium, usually at significant discounts to market prices. These assets are highly liquid and subsequently sold off easily into cash by the Wagner group via their money laundering companies and other criminal activities. This was the case in Sudan when in early 2017 President Omar al-Bashir felt power slipping from his grasp. He met with Putin, presenting Sudan as Russia’s ‘Key to Africa’. Soon after their meeting, videos started to surface of Wagner troops training the Sudanese army and Wagner forces started to be spotted on the ground with their insignias proudly displayed. The Wagner Group proceeded to build gold mines around the country under controlled-companies such as M Invest, which operates most of their mines in Sudan. Despite being sanctioned by the US government in July 2020, M Invest still generated sales of over $2.6 million dollars that year.

These Russian-sponsored activities span the whole of the African continent, from Namibia to Algeria, with some estimates reporting that their mining projects on the continent amount to more than $500 million in revenues annually. This is just another repeat of the previous colonial exploitation of Africa, ‘The gem of the world’. The rich get richer and poor only get poorer, with Wagner’s exploits earning Prigozhin over $250 million a year, making him a billionaire despite the US sanctioning his economic activity. One of the most profitable companies that Prigozhin owns is Evro Polis, a company that was contracted by the Syrian government to protect Syrian oil fields. Evro Polis protected these oil fields in exchange for a 25% share in oil and gas production from the fields. It was then granted concessions by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in return for Wagner mercenaries liberating several oil fields that had been controlled by ISIS, moving on to the operation of these oil fields in addition to protecting them. In 2021 it generated sales of over $134 million and over $90 million in net profits, a return of 180 percent on shareholders’ equity. 

In Ukraine, although Wagner’s main objective is to aid the Russian government’s ‘de-Nazification’ of the country, by sending over 10,000 military contractors and 40,000 convicts, it is clear that behind that façade it seeks to exploit Ukraine’s rich natural resources. Ukraine has extremely varied mineral resources in high concentrations. It is also known to have over 500,000 tonnes of lithium as well as vast quantities of rare earth metals which are necessary for making electronics, specifically circuit boards. This is unequivocally important for Russia due to the sanctions limiting their ability to buy these from other countries such as Taiwan, the world’s biggest exporter of semiconductors. Without these circuit boards Russia is unable to build key military equipment such as drones which have proven to be some of the most important military tools in the war so far. An example of this strategy being employed is when Wagner forces took control of the mining town of Soledar in the Donetsk oblast region of Ukraine, known for having rich reserves of rare earth metals. Wagner is likely to repeat this strategy of focusing on value sources of minerals and fossil fuels.

The symphony of politics and profits that the Wagner Group engages in contributes to the further destabilisation of conflict-affected regions where their operations often exacerbate existing tensions. This only prolongs conflicts and leaves these countries vulnerable and unable to protect their natural resources which are then easily exploited by Wagner. 

The question that may be in your mind is: “What does the future of the Wagner Group hold?” It is apparent that it will not disappear any time soon, with Wagner opening new headquarters and a technology centre in Saint Petersburg alongside recently been declared a legal entity in Russia. Thus, it is necessary that Western governments take the necessary steps to limit the group’s footprint and implement measures in order to weaken its grasp over Africa. This has led the US to debate whether it should label Wagner as an international terrorist organisation. Regarding Prigozhin, necessary steps must be taken to mitigate the risk of his increasing power in a shrinking inner circle of Putin. This will require a united effort by the most important Western governments against this military warlord and his gang of shadowy mercenaries.

Photo Source: Wikipedia