Private Military Companies (PMCs) Subject Bibliography No. 1: Wagner Group (Africa Corps)

The Wagner Group is a recent iteration of Russia’s historical use of proxy forces abroad. In 2013, the Syrian government contracted Slavonic Corps, a front organization and sub-contractor for the Russian private security company Moran Security Group to secure selected oilfields in eastern Syria. Although its first and only mission was considered both a test and a failure, the concept of Slavonic Corps gave rise to the Wagner Group, which emerged soon after. The leadership of Wagner Group included Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dimitry Utkin; Prigozhin was a successful convict-turned-businessman with close ties to President Putin while Utkin was a former member of the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) and commander of a Spetsnaz unit. The unique and timely characteristics of these leaders, as well as Wagner’s direct ties to the Russian state, were key to the organization’s success. Operating mostly in the grey zone, the Wagner Group fulfilled Russian strategic objectives and sought to secure funding by both licit and illicit means. Russian offerings to state leaders via Wagner Group ranged from single issue solutions to “regime survival packages” in exchange for resource extraction, business enterprise contracts, and other forms of payment.