A handful of Marines ran ammunition to machine guns and Javelin missile launchers scattered along the berms and wedged among the trucks. It has since been hailing Russia as contributing to an end to post-colonial French influence in the country. WebHistria Fundao. In another part of the video that originally surfaced in 2017, the four men laugh to a soundtrack of Russian rock music as they use a sledgehammer to crush the hand of a man shown pinned to the ground wearing bloodied civilian clothes in what appears to be an industrial zone. A father of four from Syrias Deir Ezzor governorate, Bouta travelled to Lebanon in 2016 in search of work in the construction industry as large swaths of the region came under Islamic State control. With Putins help, Assad has constrained the capacity of the United Nations to deliver health supplies in opposition-controlled territory, which faces rising risk of the coronavirus. Is the Biden administrations China policy too hawkish? Amy Mackinnon. NPR's Charles Maynes offers a portrait from Prigozhin's home town Saint Petersburg. A report published earlier this month by the Washington-based New America Foundation and Arizona State University said that Moscow's reliance on private military companies had brought benefit to the Kremlin, including a cheaper, quicker, and more clandestine way of expanding Russia's influence. In the past month, the number of Wagner troops in the country has more than tripled to over 1,000. "The Wagner Group's activities are a threat for the people in the countries where they operate and the European Union,"EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Activists argue the struggles for state transparency and national liberation are one and the same. Delivered Thursday. environment on the planet from our adversaries, Gen. Tony Thomas, the head of United States Special Operations Command, said recently, referring to electronic warfare. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. After more than a year of government stonewalling and dodging allegations about the case, advocates for the victim say, Russian authorities will now be forced to go on record no matter what. Boutas slaying is symptomatic of the accountability vacuum in which the Wagner Group operates. The documents obtained by The Times estimated 200 to 300 of the pro-regime force were killed. Late last November, videos of a gruesome killing went viral on Russian social networks. Lawyers and human rights advocates involved in the Moscow case say the complaint marks an important first step toward bringing Russian mercenaries affiliated with the Wagner Group to account for a host of war crimes committed not only in Syria but Libya and the Central African Republic, where several related firms linked to a well-connected Kremlin insider and a one-time Russian intelligence official have reportedly been operating since at least 2017. If for some reason the case does not go forward in Moscow, Darwish said, it is likely that he, Novikov and others will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. Create an FP account to save articles to read later and in the FP mobile app. Governments are almost endlessly prone to throwing good money after bad. Before setting it alight and watching it burn as they pose for the camera, they scrawl a Russian phrase praising the country's airborne forces on its chest. The shaky cell phone footage taken at al-Shaer gas plant near Palmyra, Syria, shows a Syrian man, who was known to friends and family as Hamdi Bouta, lying on the ground, surrounded by Russian-speaking men in military fatigues. In an interview with the Russian human rights group Gulagu.net late on Sunday, Ilya Nuzhin said his family learned of their fathers death through Telegram, which left them horrified. According to Jesr, the man was captured by Russian forces after a desertion attempt from the Syrian Army. Asked whether the Kremlin is aware of accusations of potential war crimes allegedly committed by some of the Russian mercenary groups fighting in Syria, Peskov answered: "This is not a question for the presidential administration." In September, Prigozhin, known as Putins chef because his catering business hosted dinners attended by the Russian president, admitted to founding Wagner, a link he has previously repeatedly denied. On March 27, 2017, Bouta traveled across the border from Lebanon into Syria at the Beirut-Damascus crossing with a group of young men from his village. A Russian-speaking man who filmed the torture and killing of a prisoner in Syria has been identified as a member of Wagner, a Russian private military company But, as in many other developing countries, Syrias nationalized energy sector is highly reliant on external backing from foreign firms for capital-intensive upstream investment in exploration and development. The Wagner Group is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin often referred to as Subscribers can send in questions in advance. Russian government forces in Syria maintain they were not involved in the battle. A CAR radio station,Lengo Sengo, was also sanctioned on charges of spreading disinformation on Wagner's behalf. The outcome of the battle, and much of its mechanics, suggest that the Russian mercenaries and their Syrian allies were in the wrong part of the world to try a simple, massed assault on an American military position. What will another year of war look like? Questions remain about exactly who the Russian mercenaries were, and why they attacked. The legal case in Moscow turns on four separate video clips depicting several Russian-speaking men beating, decapitating, and burning a badly mutilated man at the al-Shaer gas plant, a central node in a multimillion-dollar joint oil and gas deal forged between the Syrian government owned General Petroleum Corporation and Stroytransgaz, a Russian state-run hydrocarbon engineering firm headed by Gennady Timchenko, a longtime Putin associate. Russia and the US have both been on repeated diplomatic missions to Africa since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, trying to win allies and explain their positions as the fighting has serious knock-on impacts for food and fuel prices for some of the poorest parts of the world. Between 200 to 300 fighters were killed in the battle, including scores of Russian mercenaries believed to be working in the region to seize control of a nearby gas plant on behalf of EvroPolis. Afterwards, the men posed for a photograph with the suspended body, across the torso of which they wrote: For the VDV [Russian airborne forces] and an out-of-focus word that appears to say razvedka, a term for military intelligence. None of the Americans at the small outpost in eastern Syria about 40 by the end of the firefight were harmed. It sheds new light on the networks operations and reveals how the killing became a rallying point for Russian ultranationalists online. Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. A new report by Frontline Forensics, a joint initiative of Arizona State University and the New America think tank. Delivered Monday-Saturday. When the civil war began, he traveled to Lebanon to find construction work after the situation in Syria deteriorated and large parts of Deir Ezzor came under ISIS control, according to an account of Boutas final days given to lawyers by his family. The barrage of artillery was too dangerous to drive through until airstrikes silenced the enemys howitzers and tanks. Journalist Ahmed Tayseer al-Issa, spent years documenting the conflict in Daraa and the crimes of the regime. We now bring you another report, this time from Syria, where the horrific torture and murder of a Syrian man in 2017 allegedly at the hands of Russian Their shadowy existence allows Russia to downplay its battlefield casualties and distance itself from atrocities committed by Wagner fighters, observers say. It wasnt until November 2019, when further videos emerged, that journalists were able to identify the perpetrators as well as the victim. Nuzhin betrayed his people, betrayed his comrades, betrayed consciously, he said. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? The United States troops on the ground, now roughly 40 in all, braced their defenses as the mercenaries left their vehicles and headed toward the outpost on foot. Only FP subscribers can submit questions for FP Live interviews. The Novaya Gazeta report added more clarity to an incident that prompted anger and confusion when evidence of it first surfaced. But Medvedev said he wasn't afraid. If Putin had hoped to weaken NATO, the very opposite has happened, with Finland and Sweden on the cusp of joining the transatlantic military alliance. By early evening, more than 500 troops and 27 vehicles including tanks and armored personnel carriers had amassed. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. U.S. forces clashed with pro-Syrian government forces, the majority of which are believed to have been Russian mercenaries, in Syrias Deir Ezzor province in 2018. Mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Bangui, Central African Republic, in 2019. relying on tens of thousands of inexperienced conscripts. Explore the benefits included in your subscription. He has previously denied any links to the group, though various investigations have linked him to its activities. MOSCOW -- The graphic video shows four men in camouflage gear exchanging jokes in unaccented Russian as they pour flammable liquid over a man's mutilated corpse strung up on two wooden beams. United States F-22 stealth fighter jets above Syria, where the prospect of Russian military forces and American troops colliding has long been feared as the Cold War adversaries take opposing sides in the countrys seven-year civil war. The companies hit by sanctions included gold and diamond mining operations in the CAR and Sudan. Despite the Kremlins denial of any ties to Wagner, Mr. Utkin has been photographed next to Mr. Putin. At this point, members of the group Bouta was traveling with notified Boutas brother-in-law, who was in Lebanon at the time, that the Syrian military had taken Bouta into custody. The post didnt provide much commentary, only a link to a graphically violent video shot with a shaky hand on a cell phone that showed several Russian speaking men dressed in desert military uniforms taking turns beating a man who has since been identified as Bouta with a sledgehammer. Hopefully, this will open the door for all the crimes committed by the Wagner Group not only in Syria, said Mazen Darwish, one of several human rights activists pressing for justice in the case and director general of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. U.N. investigators and rights groups say Wagner troops have targeted civilians, conducted mass executions and looted private property in conflict zones. But the Russian government has preferred to keep Wagners actions obscured, even hiding preparations for funerals when members of the private military company have been killed abroad. In the video, Nuzhin was shown lying down with his head taped to a brick wall as an unidentified man in combat clothing hits him with a sledgehammer. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on. According to one Russian human rights group, Wagner has recruited more than 20,000 prisoners to fight in Ukraine so far. The group reportedly took its name from the nom de guerre of its leader, Dmitry Utkin, a retired Russian military officer. The Kremlin-backed Wagner Group will be exposed to legal proceedings for the first time after video emerged of man in Syria being beaten with a sledgehammer and then beheaded. The group is often described as President Vladimir Putin s off-the-books troops. Almost a year later, the court found that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, which had the power to open Russian authorities ignored requests by the media and rights activists to investigate the killing. By signing up, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and to occasionally receive special offers from Foreign Policy. Is the United States becoming protectionist? Two years after the United States clashed with some sort of Wagner Group contingent in Deir Ezzor, the United States government still doesnt know anything about the organizational structure of these military contingents, Rondeaux said. Gruesome Soundtrack But researchers from groups such as Bellingcat and the Conflict Intelligence Team, as well as Russian journalists most notably from Novaya Gazeta and Fontanka, have been able to use fragments of publicly available information to build a clearer picture of who is fighting for Russias private military contractors abroad. Russia Forced Me to Flee. They are the Swiss Army knives of modern Russian warfare and serve as force multipliers, arms merchants, trainers of local military and security personnel, and political consultants, according to a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. WebAmerican intelligence officials say that the Wagner Group, known by the nickname of the retired Russian officer who leads it, is in Syria to seize oil and gas fields and protect them Download the FP mobile app to read anytime, anywhere. The firefight was described by the Pentagon as an act of self-defense against a unit of pro-Syrian government forces. are assisting Somali soldiers fighting Al Shabab, and by a health care system that utterly failed him, The case has irritated U.S. relations with a crucial military ally, four Russian citizens but perhaps dozens more. The lawsuit marks the first known attempt to bring to account anyone linked to the highly secretive network of covert operators financed and managed by close inner-circle associates of President Vladimir Putin. In a legal criminal complaint announced Monday on behalf of the victim, Muhammad Hamdi Bouta Taha al-Abdullah, attorneys representing the victims brother allege that six Russian citizens who worked on a contract to secure a Russian-Syrian operated gas plant were behind the 2017 killing. Anyone can read what you share. Two years after the United States clashed with some sort of Wagner Group contingent in Deir Ezzor, the United States government still doesnt know anything about the organizational structure of these military contingents, Rondeaux said. A recent investigative report on the Wagner Group's activities in Africa surmised that it "has rapidly become the most influential form of Russian engagement in Africa today," politically, economically and militarily. Anyone can read what you share. In the American air operations center at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, and at the Pentagon, confounded military officers and intelligence analysts watched the scene unfold. A Russian-speaking man who filmed the torture and killing of a prisoner in Syria has been identified as a member of Wagner, a Russian private military company with ties to the Kremlin that has aggressively expanded into the Middle East and Africa in recent years. Your guide to the most important world stories of the day. A disturbing clip of an execution in Syria has prompted a Russian newspaper to investigate links between the torturers and the shadowy Wagner Group. The newspaper identifies the man by his first name and the first letter of his surname but withholds his full name amid concerns for his family's safety. What we saw was an astounding number of people who would pass this video around, talk about it, or adopt poses from their video as their profile photo, Rondeaux said. standing, Ukrainians are determined to keep fighting, and the West has so far stayed resolute in its support of Ukraine. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. A similar melding of public and nominally private entities was used in 2016 in a bid to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, with Russian military hackers stealing emails and documents from the Hillary Clinton campaign while the so-called troll factory, allegedly funded by Prigozhin, sought to fuel divisions between American voters. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 'There's no one to help': Russian mercenary industry's toll on families, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The reports revelations have chilling implications, as Russian mercenaries motivated by both money and far-right ideology are increasingly operating unchecked in some of the worlds most fragile countries. Snippets of the video had been posted online since 2017 but the full footage was uploaded last week to a closed VKontakte group for members of Wagner. A half-hour later, the Russian mercenaries and Syrian forces struck. In leaked documents, he wrote that he joined Wagner in 2016 to protect the interests of the Russian Federation abroad. At some point in late March or early April, he escaped on foot from the T4 air base in Homs. $162 million from oil and gas fields in central Syria in 2017 alone. For the next three hours, American officials said, scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a wide-ranging conversation with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on the Biden administrations trade and economic policiesand the impacts they have on the world. This week, Moscow denied reports of Wagner already being operative in Burkina Faso another West African country that recently underwent a coup, fell out with former colonial power France, and is showing no sign of a return to democratic rule. Russian who filmed prisoner being tortured to death worked for firm with links to Kremlin. Tonight, his family announced they had received news of his death under torture in Sednaya Prison. Wagner is estimated to have as many as 2,500 men in Syria. On Monday, Zambias foreign affairs minister said a 23-year-old national from that country, who was serving a jail sentence at a prison on the outskirts of Moscow, ended up fighting in Ukraine, where he was killed. In the days leading up to the attack, and on opposite sides of the Euphrates River, Russia and the United States were backing separate offensives against the Islamic State in Syrias oil-rich Deir al-Zour Province, which borders Iraq. Russian Paramilitaries Accused of Torture and Beheading in Landmark Legal Case Against Wagner Group IN THE DOCK The Kremlin-backed Wagner Group will be Ukraine had a responsibility towards Nuzhin and he should have not been exchanged, given the dangers he faced in Russia.. What can we glean from the current state of play on the battlefield? Family members had confirmed his death to local press, saying he had returned to Syria from Lebanon in 2017 when he was summoned to fight but later deserted. From their outpost, the commandos watched the mercenaries and Syrian fighters return to collect their dead. Their faces are uncovered. The newspaper ties the men to Vagner, a shadowy Russian mercenary group widely believed to be spearheading the expansion of Russian influence across Africa and the Middle East. A team of about 30 Delta Force soldiers and Rangers from the Joint Special Operations Command were working alongside Kurdish and Arab forces at a small dusty outpost next to a Conoco gas plant, near the city of Deir al-Zour. Novikov said that Novaya Gazeta asked the Investigative Committee to open an inquiry into the murder, but the committee ignored the request. Were going to Moscow, to their territory, to their courts, and to their jurisdiction, Darwish said. For the first 15 minutes, American military officials called their Russian counterparts and urged them to stop the attack. It was dark, according to the documents, and the roads were littered with felled power lines and shell craters. At 8:30 p.m., three Russian-made T-72 tanks vehicles weighing nearly 50 tons and armed with 125-millimeter guns moved within a mile of the Conoco plant. At least one Marine exposed himself to incoming fire as he used a missile guidance computer to find targets locations and pass them on to the commandos calling in the airstrikes. The clip of the brutal murder in Syria, apparently filmed in the summer of 2017, resurfaced this week in the wake of an investigation by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. The contractors train at a GRU compound in Molkino, a village in southwestern Russia, and the SBU has identified over 25 Russian officers who instruct Wagner contractors in skills ranging from artillery to combat engineering. up as tough on Beijing, even seeking to contain the rise of the worlds second-biggest economy. Youd better believe its terrifying, Rondeaux said. What will another year of war look like? An image uploaded to social media shortly before the article was published shows four men posing before a decapitated body in what appears to be the same spot shown in the videos. The researchers social network analysis also revealed substantial cross-affiliation with Rusich, a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has operated in eastern Ukraine. Ilya Novikov, one of the Russian attorneys who filed the ground-breaking legal complaint, said in a written statement that he and his co-counsel Petr Zaikin, decided to initiate the case after a demand for Russias Investigative Committee, the countrys top prosecutorial body, apparently fell flat. The Kremlin said on Thursday it had no knowledge of the incident. Prigozhin, who had been charged by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller in early 2018, was slapped with new U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on September 30, in an announcement that also included photographs of three jets and a 122-foot yacht that purportedly belongs to Prigozhin or his companies. EvroPolis really, perhaps more than any other single entirety in the Prigozhin-associated network, captures the full suite of services that the Prigozhin networks have access to, said Margolin. Ukraines economy and infrastructure have been dealt blows that will take decades to recover from. Join FPs Ravi Agrawal for a frank discussion about the Biden administrations China policy and alternatives that it ought to consider. American military officials repeatedly warned about the growing mass of troops. One allied Syrian fighter was wounded. Wagner It was quickly seized upon by open source investigators, who first identified the location of the video as the Shaer gas station near Homs and then pored over the video for clues to the mens identities. A videos posted online last year appeared to show Wagner contractors using a sledgehammer to execute a fighter they accused of surrendering. Its mercenaries have also fought in Ukraine and the Central African Republic, and are said to be active in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique. which was captured on video at the The Defense Ministry denied any Russian uniformed personnel were killed. Delivered Wednesday. In Syria, A Mutilated Corpse, Video Evidence, And New Scrutiny For Russian Mercenaries. Mazen Darwish, one of several human rights activists pressing for justice in Boutas case and director general of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, said that Russian authorities have about 40 days to respond to the initial court filing. "I'm convinced this has nothing to do with the Russian military operation in Syria," Peskov told reporters. to the research by Frontline Forensics, which was published by New America. And how might that be impacting the world? Syrian authorities arrested Bouta as he crossed the border and turned him over to members of the Syrian military. Wagner forces have appeared in Ukraine, presumably to fight alongside Russian troops in Mr. Putins war. Back at the mission support site, the Green Berets and Marines were preparing a small reaction force roughly 16 troops in four mine-resistant vehicles in case they were needed at the Conoco plant. The private Russian military force, which has close ties to President Vladimir Putin and has been used in war zones across the world, is expanding its presence in Ukraine. The open source investigation team Bellingcat also said it had identified the same person. Is it? And at a minimum, squaring off in crowded battlefields has added to heightened tensions between Russia and the United States as they each seek to exert influence in the Middle East. Apostols family have reportedly confirmed that he worked as a private security contractor in Syria, and that he was one of several hundred Russians killed in a U.S. airstrike in the northeastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. Arrested Bouta as he crossed the border and turned him over to members of the regime Utkin a. To Kremlin to open an inquiry into the murder, but the ignored! Scores of strikes pummeled enemy troops, tanks and other vehicles they attacked articles to read later and in battle... 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