Private military companies in Syria. Reference "MK": what is the plant CONOCO. - He went to work after Donbass

Correspondent On the eve.RU managed to find a man who served in one of the most secret military units in Russia - the private military company "Wagner". The major defeat and death of the fifth company of PMCs on the banks of the Euphrates near the city of Hisham in Syria forced Russian mercenaries to speak out loud about betraying people for the sake of the interests and ambitions of the command and investors, and politicians - about the legalization of PMCs and the urgent adoption of a corresponding law. Who are they, the "soldiers of fortune" of the 21st century, what are these people ready for? Do they do it for the money or are they driven by something else, read in our exclusive interview.

Our hero agrees to talk to us not immediately, asks for time to "think", but still gives the go-ahead for a dialogue through one of the Internet messengers and on the condition that we keep his name and details of his biography incognito. It is understandable: the terms of the contract imply deathly silence even after dismissal from the unit. The only thing that can be added to the portrait is that our interlocutor, before a business trip to Syria, had previously gone through the war in the Donbass as a volunteer, however, like many of those who today serve with Wagner.

Tell me how people get into the Wagner group. Who are these "soldiers of fortune" anyway?

It was quite difficult to get into the Wagner group up to a certain point. In 2017, the selection conditions were softened, and people with combat experience and those who went through a hot spot in the Donbass began to be recruited. It was enough to pass the standards - running 3 km in 12.5 minutes and 15-20 pull-ups. In addition, a drug test is required (with a positive result, the person was denied a device). And a security check. Only then the long-awaited device.

Money. For how much can a person risk his life in the desert on someone else's, in fact, war?

With regards to money, the answer is very simple - this is an amount from 150 to 240 thousand rubles. per month depending on position. Plus, we were also paid bonuses from 30% to 100% of the salary, depending on the combat missions performed. But most often with bonuses there was a scam. We didn't see them. That's what guys are risking.

There are rumors that, despite all the promotion of PMCs, the weapons, to put it mildly, are not very good in the group.

Yes that's right. The armament was motley: from old DR-46 machine guns to Mosin rifles and ending with quite normal weapons - PKM machine guns, AK-74 Kalashnikov assault rifles. From time to time, such exotics as AS "Val", PKP "Pecheneg" were also encountered. The snipers had more modern weapons: "Steyr Mannlicher" are Austrian sniper rifles.

But mostly the predominance of the old Soviet weapons, which, however, is not inferior to the modern one in terms of reliability.

From the stories of the old employees of the Wagner group, when they participated in the hostilities in Ukraine, everything was fine with weapons. All were armed with new weapons. Even during the first trips to Syria in the fall of 2015, the tank company of the Wagner group had T-90 and T-72B3 tanks on its account.

After the first trip, it all disappeared without a trace. And the quality of weapons began to deteriorate. KORD machine guns were replaced by DShKs, T-72 and T-90 tanks were suddenly replaced by T-62 tanks. Artillery guns D-30 was diluted with old Soviet M-30. Etc.

What are the tasks for the personnel?

The tasks for the Wagner group as a whole were very diverse. From assault operations and frontal attacks, and to the defense of strongholds, when there were small lulls on the front line.

How do you interact with the Syrian units? Their attitude towards PMCs from Russia?

Interaction with the Syrian troops was almost minimal, their units in those situations that I know about were mostly on the hook. Most of the Syrian troops turned back after hearing the first explosions and shots. I also note that, judging by my experience, all the work for the Syrian army was done by: Wagner, hunters for ISIS * (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) - ISIS-hunters, Iranian Hezbollah special forces, and in some places units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard "were, and some units of the Syrian army can be noted (which can be counted on the fingers). And all this was supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces, and plus the forces also worked special operations MTR ... The Syrian army was more than incompetent.

PMC commanders with Vladimir Putin

By the way, who are ISIS-hunters and how are they connected with PMCs?

The ISIS* hunters are not affiliated with PMCs, I know that they were trained by Wagner instructors as a unit for cleaning up and identifying persons who were associated with ISIS*.

Gen. How is food organized? What are the difficulties in everyday life?

What were the difficulties in everyday life? And it happened, there was not enough water, it happened, every drop counted: only 4.5 liters per day, given that you were in the desert. After the battles near Deir ez-Zor, the norm was increased to 9 liters. Meals were in the form of army dry rations (quite fresh at that). And when there was not enough, they could go to the store to buy. Buy potatoes, watermelon and all those delights that were missing on the front line. For "cigarette expenses", by the way, each was allocated $150 a month - that's about 80,000 liras in local money.

Why did you go there? What prompted you?

Why did I go there? It's simple: make money and fix financial situation. Which is what I did. From the pros - I bought what I wanted, from the minuses - I spoiled my health a little. Now there is a concussion.

How did they get there?

All flights were regular charters.

Was it scary there? How fighting differ in character between Syria and the Donbass?

Yes, of course, it's scary ... only fools and psychos are not afraid.

The first two weeks the roof went. Then I got used to it and began to read books in between fights, which the guys had, it became easier.

If we compare the war in Ukraine and in Syria, then these two conflicts cannot be compared. In the event of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, it will be a combined arms battle using tanks, artillery and, possibly, aviation (by the Armed Forces of Ukraine). In Syria, one can practically talk about the same thing, but on a reduced scale, except that ISIS * did not have aviation, artillery in sufficient quantities, and there were no armored vehicles either. However, it was replaced by "jihad-mobiles" with a variety of weapons. And the climatic conditions are incomparable.

Don't you think that you are "cannon fodder" there?

This thought sometimes comes to mind that we were cannon fodder there, because every attack on the enemy in the forehead turned into losses, every third fighter was a load of "200" (killed - ed.) and "300" (wounded, - ed.).

Such a big loss?

The losses are heavy, given the recent disaster with the "5th" (the same 5th Wagner company, which was defeated on February 7, 2018 from the strike of the coalition forces led by the United States - ed.).

What do you think about "5"?

What I think... I think if you followed all the news, it would become clear that the goal was to "squeeze" oil refineries and oil fields from the Kurds. So they were destroyed because of the ambitions of the command and investors who planned to start extracting oil there.

It's a pity guys. You won't get them back. My friends were there too...

Why didn't Russia cover up the guys? And could she?

Why weren't ours covered? Everything is quite simple here: the Wagner group is not part of the RF Armed Forces, but the RF Ministry of Defense, as far as I can tell, is subordinate. It's easier for us to disown the guys than to intercede. The phenomenon of "IHTAMNET" on the face. And they are.

Tell me about a memorable fight.

Sorry, of course, I will not say anything about combat. Where he participated, in which detachment he was, all this will remain under a veil of secrecy. I don't want problems. I can only say one thing, "Wagner" is cannon fodder, and losses are not particularly considered there when performing tasks.

What are the guarantees that you will not be tried in Russia for mercenarism?

There are no guarantees that all former employees of the "Wagner Group" will not be imprisoned for mercenarism. But for now, I live in peace.

What are the terms of the contract?

The terms of the contract were written separately. As mentioned above, the salary amount is 240 thousand rubles. per month. Plus, in the event of death, compensation in the amount of 5 million rubles was paid. relatives.

By the way, how many of you were in Syria?

In general, there are 1,800 fighters in the state, and there are also "catalogues" - these are attendants in the form of cooks, loaders, and so on. They get much less, but they also take risks, respectively. But, you see, a salary of 100 thousand rubles. For a chef, it's very good.

Why did you quit? Don't you want to come back?

There are many reasons for dismissal, but I won't talk about the main ones. After recent events, the desire to return there has repulsed. There are no guarantees that such a catastrophe, which happened to the "five", will not happen again.

Hot heads, those who want to go to fight there, what do you say?

And to hotheads I will say one thing: this is your life and your choice. Nobody is forcing you to go there. If you have chosen - then go, if you earn money and return home safe - good. If you die, rest in peace to you. Nobody will judge you for this. Simple and subjective.

After the main part of the interview, our hero will add a few more nuances. In particular, he does not have photographs from the Syrian "sands" as a keepsake, since before sending the command seized all phones and gadgets with cameras and people were there without communication. "If you get caught with a phone, you get fined for the entire month's salary, so your best gadgets are a compass and wrist watch" - said our counterpart.

*ISIS is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

________________________________

Interviewed by Alexander the Syrian

Subscribe to us

On February 7, in Syria, in the province of Deir ez-Zor, a battle took place, as a result of which fighters of the Russian "Wagner Private Military Company" were killed. We have collected the latest data on what happened.

The battle became known on Friday, February 9, when the American television channel CBS, citing sources in the Pentagon, reported that Russian mercenaries who were trying to seize an oil field near the village of Hisham came under an airstrike by an international coalition under the command of the United States in Syria. On the same day about the heavy losses of "PMC Wagner" informed Igor Strelkov (Girkin), who in 2014 commanded pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass. He did not provide any evidence and did not name sources. Audio recordings were circulated on social networks, which spoke of more than two hundred dead, but no confirmation of the authenticity of the recording or the authenticity of the information was given.

Critics of the messages about mass death Wagner PMC fighters point to fake videos of an alleged strike on a convoy that have appeared and to the fact that Igor Strelkov is critical of the participation of people who fought on the side of pro-Russian separatists in the Syrian campaign.

Number of dead

There is no official data on the losses of the Wagner PMC, all information is based either on reports from relatives and friends of the killed fighters, or on media information citing, as a rule, unnamed sources.

On Monday, the names of the five dead were released:

Alexey Ladygin from Ryazan,

Vladimir Loginov from Kaliningrad,

Stanislav Matveev from the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk region,

Igor Kosoturov, Asbest,

Kirill Ananiev.

About the first four wrote investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT). The latter was called "Mediazona".

Alexey Shikhov from Nizhny Novgorod (previously participated in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine),

Vladimir, call sign "Apostle", member of the patriotic organization "Rus Triune",

Ruslan Gavrilov, Kedrovoe village, Sverdlovsk region.

Znak spoke with Matveev’s widow, according to her, the news of the death of Kosoturov and Matveev was received by relatives on February 9 from people with whom they fought in the so-called “LPR” in 2015-2016. As the woman said, her husband and at least 9 other people from Asbest and the village of Kedrovoe left for Rostov[-on-Don] in September, where “exercises” were held until October, and from there they went to Syria. (There is a base in the Rostov-on-Don area where Wagner PMC fighters train.)

The co-chairman of the Other Russia party Alexander Averin told Mediazone about the death of Kirill Ananiev. Ananiev, a former National Bolshevik, also fought in eastern Ukraine on the side of pro-Russian separatists before Syria.

• Novaya Gazeta reports, citing sources in Syria, that 13 Russians were killed, and "a dozen more were injured."
• The already mentioned Znak publication cites the words of Oleg Surnin, ataman of the village of Svyato-Nikolskaya, about the losses of the Wagner PMC (the conversation with whom took place at the office of the local branch of the Afghan Veterans Union): “On the first day when this all happened, there was information about 30 dead. As of the day before yesterday, there was information about 217."
• Bloomberg on Tuesday evening released the casualty figures, citing an unnamed US official and three Russians "informed about what happened." Two Russian sources claim that at least 200 “contract soldiers” who fought on the side of the Assad regime died in the battle, most of them Russians. The American spokesman speaks of about 100 dead and 200-300 wounded, but cannot say how many of them are from Russia.
• Russian Defense Ministry: "There are no Russian servicemen in this area of ​​the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor." Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin does not have data on Russians who may be in Syria, except for the military personnel of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

In Deiz ez-Zor, the Euphrates divides the positions of the warring parties. Pro-Assad forces are on the west bank, the opposition is on the east. On the evening of February 7, a detachment of pro-Assad forces, which included Wagner PMC fighters, tried to attack positions on the other side of the river.

David Ignatius, international columnist and columnist Washington Post, located on last week in Syria, cited on the blog a story by Hasan, one of the commanders of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who witnessed the February 7 battle. Hasan claims that intelligence was received that day about an impending attack by pro-Assad forces on the headquarters of his forces, where American advisers were also located. And at 9:30 pm, about half an hour before the attack, he called a Russian liaison officer in Deir ez-Zor in the hope of preventing it. "We said there was some kind of movement going on and that we didn't want to strike. [The Russians] didn't accept our offer and said nothing was happening," Hassan told reporters through an interpreter.

The US military took similar steps, Ignatius notes, referring to a Pentagon statement: "Coalition forces were in contact with the Russian side before, during and after the attack. Russian officials assured that they were not involved in a clash with coalition forces in the area."

The attack began around 10 pm, Hasan said, under the cover of tanks and shelling. Among the attackers, he said, were Russians, presumably mercenaries. The attackers were hit by an airstrike, killing, according to the Pentagon, more than 100 people. Hassan believes that there were Russians among them. According to him, during the airstrike, the Russian communications officer contacted him again, asking for a pause in order to pick up the dead and wounded.

"TVNZ", referring to an unnamed source in Wagner PMC, confirms that the battle on the night of February 7-8 was: "Believing that the Kurdish formations occupied a large oil plant on the left bank of the Euphrates without serious grounds, the PMC command decided to try to recapture it "The calculation was that, having seen impressive forces, the Kurds would not resist and retreat. However, the American officers who were on the positions of the SDF had a different opinion. US representatives contacted the Russian side several times. And they confirmed that they were not fighting in this area. After that, the Americans were not shy."

The newspaper cites a direct speech by a "source in the PMC": "They just rolled us out. First artillery, then helicopters ... Of course, there were not 600 or 200 dead. But the American statistics are very close to reality. Surely they saw that we were preparing for assault on their bridgehead on the left bank ... As a result, the 5th assault detachment was killed almost completely, burned along with equipment. "

• Although Bloomberg calls the incident "perhaps the deadliest clash between citizens of two states - former enemies in cold war since its end, "the American representative stressed that there was no question of the possibility of a direct clash between the US and Russian military.
• According to many reports, the target of the attack by pro-Assad forces, including Wagner PMCs, was an oil facility controlled by the Syrian opposition. The Fontanka.ru publication last year claimed that a quarter of the gas and oil produced in the territory reclaimed for Bashar al-Assad could go to a firm associated with those close to the Kremlin Russian entrepreneur Evgeny Prigogine. At the same time, it was alleged that the businessman was connected with Wagner PMC. Prigogine denied this.

In the compartment of the Quiet Don branded train, which departed in early November 2017 from Rostov-on-Don to Moscow, they washed a strange-looking medal. In this award, symbols of eras hostile to each other were clearly visible - the Prussian Iron Cross, the Soviet five-pointed star and the White Guard Order of the Ice Campaign. three men different ages, about 20, 35 and 45 years old, then did not fall into drunken courage; the awards imperceptibly disappeared somewhere so quickly that I did not have time to ask about the origin of the strange medal. However, the path was not short, and little by little, at first from fragments of phrases, then, when common tastes and memories were found, a whole picture began to take shape from frank conversations.

The three men were returning from a six-month business trip to Syria. We went under a contract concluded with the well-known private military company (PMC) "Wagner", although the document, of course, does not contain either this pseudonym call sign or the name of its owner - Dmitry Utkin, who, by the way, in the same November headed Evgeny's restaurant holding Prigozhin, also known as the "Chief Chef of the Kremlin". They flatly refused to give the official name of the organization that hired them, saying only that this name is constantly changing. The legal address is located in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on Ilyinsky Highway, near the military town of Pavshino. The term of the contract is from three to six months. The contract is signed on the basis of the PMC in Molkino. The future fighter reads a multi-page document, signs, and he remains in the company's office. It is strictly forbidden to communicate with representatives of the media, so in this collective interview they appear as Sergey Ts., Gennady F. and Stepan M. These men were among those who put an end to the long war in the ancient lands of Syria.

December 6, 2017 information Agency Interfax will officially report with reference to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation that "Syria has been completely liberated from terrorists, all ISIS gangs have been destroyed, more than a thousand settlements have been liberated and the main communications have been released." But only in these victorious reports not a word is said about the contribution that ordinary soldiers of private military companies made to the victory.

PLACE OF COLLECTION: MOLKINO BASE

Near the farm Molkino Krasnodar Territory the 10th separate brigade is located special purpose GRU (military unit 51532). The base of PMC "Wagner" closely adjoins it. Soldiers came here from all over the country. First, they had to pass a medical commission and various admission tests.

There was a medical board, but the selection was rather visual: arms and legs in place - and forward, - says Sergey. - They took everyone in a row, because PMCs suffered heavy losses in Syria. It was also required to run 3 km, wring out 40-50 times (this was rated as “good” and “excellent”). Many did not pass these standards, but were enrolled.

A much more serious test was considered a lie detector. Each candidate passes a polygraph. For example, out of eight people in the group in which Gennady was, only two successfully passed the lie detector, including himself. On what others were cut off, what kind of lie the PMC psychologists were looking for, Gennady still does not imagine. But, in his opinion, this selection definitely did not concern the criminal past of the candidates.

The personnel accepted under the contract were distributed among the "brigades". These were not army brigades in their traditional form, the PMC brigades consisted of only 300 to 400 people, depending on the tasks they faced.

FLIGHT ROSTOV-ON-DON - DAMASK

They departed from Rostov-on-Don International Airport on April 25, 2017, as usual charter flight. They did not put a visa in the passport, the border guards stamped only the departure mark (and upon return - another arrival mark). The Syrian border service does not appear in the documents at all. In total, one and a half hundred PMC fighters flew in the Boeing, in a day or two the second half of the “brigade” arrived in the same way. They flew to Damascus in civilian clothes, changed clothes already at the Syrian base, that is, in the middle of the desert. military uniform brought with them, each dressed in his own way. The desert uniform of the British special forces SAS is considered the most comfortable, the best in strength and color, then comes the uniform of the American special forces. So in appearance Russian fighters did not differ from the detachment of the Anglo-Saxon special forces. The Syrian uniform, according to the unanimous opinion of the interlocutors, is of very poor quality.

OIL FIELDS OF ASH-SHAIR

PMC fighters did not pass control at the Damascus airport, they immediately sat on the buses - and forward. Where?

They never tell the rank and file - where, how much to go and what he will do, - says Stepan. - We were brought to the area of ​​the oil fields of Ash-Shair, where we stayed for three months and only after three months did they learn the name of this place. 40 kilometers northwest of Palmyra.

Landed right in the mountain desert. Some did not have tents, in particular Sergei, and for the first month and a half he lived "in the fresh air", although in highlands At that time it was raining and cold. Only later were state-owned tents issued. In total, three brigades of PMCs were assembled in that place, that is, about a thousand people. What did you do?

The mountains guarded, - says Gennady. - On the opposite mountain range sat ISIS spirits. They were bombarded all the time by aircraft. Armored vehicles were transported past us every day - tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, about 60 units in total. Apparently, there was a preparation for the offensive.

At the end of August, the offensive began, and the fighters went through the mountains to the city of Akerbat. They descended into the valley, one by one they took the adjacent villages.

"STORMS" AND STORM OF AKERBAT

The strike force of a PMC brigade in Syria is usually called “assaults” among themselves (with an emphasis on the last syllable). In addition to "assaults", there is also a platoon of heavy weapons, at its disposal are mortars, ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles), heavy machine guns, AGS (automatic grenade launchers). Fire Support Squad. An armored group with an indefinite amount of equipment - from one infantry fighting vehicle to several armored personnel carriers and tanks, whoever is lucky. The combat strength of the brigade is about 200 people, those who have at least some combat experience. The remaining 100-150 are the so-called staff guys, servants, personal drivers commanders. The brigades are commanded by retired special forces officers (not a single regular officer), there are practically no army officers.

For example, the Syrian chief turned to the commander of our brigade, - says Gennady, and offered several tanks for nothing, since the Arabs did not have crews for them.

The “assault” is the first to go on the attack, followed by a platoon of heavy weapons - mortars, heavy machine guns, anti-tank guided missiles, etc. The enemy set traps, made it possible to take several suburban villages almost without hindrance, and just before the city of Akerbat, the brigade came across an iron defense, where dozens died. There were specific battles here, for each house. Documents of ISIS members were found (they were handed over to special officers of PMCs), notebooks with prayers in Russian came across, there were many Uzbek names in the lists.

Akerbat was taken only by Russian brigades of PMCs, - says Sergey, the other two nod their heads in agreement. - The Syrians came up at the final stage to film for the TV news. We even hid so as not to get into the frame when the Syrians posed with a heroic air.

OFFICIAL SUMMARY ON THE CAPTURE OF AKERBAT

So, the fighters of the Wagner PMC claim that they captured Akerbat on their own, the Syrian government troops did not take part in the assault. The official version claims exactly the opposite, the role of PMCs is not marked by a single word. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, “On September 2, 2017, units of the 4th tank division Syrian government troops, in cooperation with units of the 5th Volunteer Assault Corps and detachments of the military Mukhabarat, with the active support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, liberated the strategically important city of Akerbat, where the “last major center of resistance” of the terrorists of the IS organization banned in Russia (“Islamic State” is an international terrorist organization) was located. organization banned in the Russian Federation).

The government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in those days reported the commander of the Russian military group in Syria, Colonel-General Sergei Surovikin, who, in particular, noted that “to support the offensive of the Syrian army in the Akerbat area, Russian aviation launched 329 bombing and missile strikes, as a result of which 27 militant armored vehicles, 48 ​​pickup trucks with large-caliber weapons and more than 1,000 militants were destroyed. The general also said that ISIS in Akerbat used an unprecedented number of suicide bombers. According to him, “from 15 to 25 militants with martyrs' belts and four to five jihad-mobiles were destroyed daily. But the general kept silent about the fact that this work of destruction was done by the guys from the Wagner PMC.

PERFUME

Almost all ISIS members wear a martyr's belt, - says Stepan. - Such a beautiful thing, neat, light weight. Plastic box, filled with a transparent gel, in which there are many, many metal balls. Because of this, we did not take a single spirit prisoner. One night, the ISIS foolishly stuck in our village. Most, of course, we immediately killed, and a few were driven around the village for some time. One spirit, apparently seriously wounded, called for help for a long time, and then an explosion rumbled. An adjacent wall collapsed from the explosion. It turns out that he was twenty meters away from us. In the morning they cleaned, pits and cellars were thrown with grenades.

The tactics of the spirits are simple: when there is a night skirmish, two or three martyrs get close and explode, - added Gennady. - This happened once or twice a week: an igilovets approached the wall of our shelter and exploded. Quite a few died from such night sorties: eight in one battle, fifteen in another, ten in a third.

All local residents had left the village by that time. In general, they did not encounter civilians, - Sergei assured.

DAIR EZ-ZOR: SYRIAN STALINGRAD

They took Akerbat and the PMC fighters were told: it's time to go home. They were already changing into civilian clothes, and suddenly an order: by cars to fully equipped. We drove through the desert for about seven hours, drove three hundred kilometers to the east and found ourselves not far from the city of Deir ez-Zor. There were two Russian brigades of PMCs that had already crossed the Euphrates on pontoons when the operation to unblock Deir ez-Zor was underway. We were given the task of freeing the adjacent island from the ISIS. For about two months they carried out this task, the main losses were suffered in this place, mainly undermined by mines.

The RIA Novosti reports then said: “On September 5, the forward detachments of the Syrian army broke through the three-year blockade of Deir ez-Zor and went on the offensive on the eastern outskirts of the city. Having broken through the encirclement of the air force base, and after knocking out the terrorists from strategic heights in the southwest, government troops reached west bank the Euphrates River and crossed it, thereby pushing out terrorist groups in the direction of the Iraqi border and creating a ring around the residential areas of Deir ez-Zor captured by the terrorist group "Islamic State."

Military expert Viktor Baranets commented on the lifting of the blockade from Deir ez-Zor: “The city of Deir ez-Zor is of strategic importance for the further actions of terrorists in Syria. If it is taken, it will be a strategic defeat for the militants, and it will be about the same for them as in 1945 for Nazi Germany. Deir ez-Zor has the same meaning for ISIS. The defeat in Deir ez-Zor will mean that the terrorists will no longer provide active combat resistance. It will be for them not only a military, but also a moral defeat, and in front of the whole world.

What is the blockade of Deir ez-Zor - this must be understood again in an oriental way, - Sergey said. - All those three years that the blockade lasted, cars with food and consumer goods passed unhindered. Nobody suffered from hunger. They even joked that the Syrians say: we fought here for three years, we fought, the Russians came - and the war began.

And lawlessness began, - Gennady laughed.

In the meantime, according to Sergey, while the spirits held the defense in Ash-Shair, the Kurds sent here by the Americans captured the oil fields. At the end of September, the ISIS retreated in flank directions, and again the Russian PMC brigades had to return to "squeeze out the oil fields."

At the top, apparently, they agreed, and the Kurds moved a little, - says Sergey. - Judging by the inscriptions on oil rigs, some of them belonged to Europeans, some to Canadians. Canadians have lost the most.

At the end of October, the term of the business trip of the fighters of the Wagner PMC ended. In those days, ISIS cut one of the two main roads connecting the east and west of Syria. They drove along a longer one - about 800 kilometers. There were no adventures.

LOSSES

During the six months of the trip, the casualties of one brigade amounted to about 40 dead (“two hundredths”) and about 100 wounded (“three hundredths”). The other brigade was more “lucky”: their losses amounted to about 20 killed and 70 wounded. And in the third brigade, in the first two weeks alone, they lost about 50 killed. Most died during the lifting of the blockade of Deir ez-Zor. Thus perished a tenth personnel, the fifth part is the wounded.

MILITARY EQUIPMENT

The losses would have been much less, - says Sergey, - if the supply of the PMC group had not been so bad, simply bad. Broken armored cars, lost five trucks in three days, there was nothing even to transport personnel. And the losses from this are high ... and that's it - we got up! Collapse. No one is going anywhere, God forbid to take out the wounded. And experience says that it is high time to transfer fighters to armored vehicles designed for no more than 10 people. Although a year ago the equipment was decent - both weapons and equipment.

It's just a beautiful television picture: tanks are moving in a row across the desert, infantry fighting vehicles are following them, helicopters are circling above them, - says Stepan. - In fact, there was very little technology. Our “armada” moved partly on foot, and partly in KamAZ and Urals. If an ATGM hits a truck, then the losses are, of course, huge. And this saving of our military plushies turned into huge losses. Some of the leaders responsible for the military supply of the brigades, apparently, reported to the top how much was saved. And now, for three brigades, that is, one and a half thousand people, only five night sights were issued!

And what about the spirits? - says Stepan. - For example, 30-40 people usually sit in positions, and so they are given two or three night sights. When the spirits go on a night attack, five “assaults” see them with sin in half, the rest do not see a damn thing. Fathers-commanders say: you shoot at flashes. And for this you need to stick your head out of hiding. And get into night sight an Igilovite, who definitely won’t play the fool, will immediately shoot - and you won’t have time to notice the flashes. So it turns out: the spirits see everything, and most of the “assaults” are blind. And so the losses are huge.

So how should it be? - says Sergei. - As in special forces: each fighter has a night sight and one of the three has a thermal imaging sight. And so - to slaughter to lead people. But the PMC bosses may have a lot of money, but to buy new technology is not going to. With my own eyes I saw a unit armed with three-rulers, revolvers, Degtyarev machine guns, even Maxim machine guns really were. And for the first time I had a three-ruler. Bulletproof vests from the time of the capture of Kabul. The tanks are all "prize", that is, captured from the Arabs, some resemble a colander. When he was indignant with his superiors, he heard: “Darling, why are you in a fairy tale? Whatever you give, fight with it."

MILITARY TRAINING

My interlocutors divided the forces that fought on the side of Assad into three categories according to their fighting qualities. The lowest place is occupied by the Syrians, the middle place is occupied by the Fatimids (as the militants from Afghanistan were called in PMCs) and the Palestinians, the top one is by the Russians.

Once a detachment of the Fatimids captured a bridgehead, then redeployed, and government troops took their place, immediately raising their flag, - Sergey said. - And our experienced fighter, who visited Syria five times, predicted: if the Syrian flag appears over the positions in the evening, then the ISIS flag will be here in the morning. We took it as a joke. And in the morning we woke up from a frantic clatter: 300-400 Syrian soldiers fled shouting: “The ISIS tank has arrived!” And indeed: a black banner has already been raised over the positions of government troops.

Russians are unsurpassed fighters, especially in defense, says Stepan. - No one withstood our attacks, no one. For six months, not a single enemy withstood the attacks of the "assaults". Neither in Akerbat nor in the Deir ez-Zor area.

And even the Fatimids are equipped normally, - said Gennady. - I myself saw how they drove “jihads” on their motorcycles through the desert (this is the name of the Igilov pickup truck with weapons; it differs from the “shahidka” - the same car, but stuffed with explosives). They filled up this "jihad" as if there was nothing to do. But is it possible to fight like that with our equipment ?! Our birders go on foot, together with the infantry, there are three of them: one drags the installation, two - one rocket each (each of them weighs 25 kilograms). ISIS also has three pilots, but they are on two motorcycles. On one motorcycle - installation and two people, on the other - the third with two rockets. Shmalnuli - and a minute later disappeared.

I personally saw how the Dukhov ATGM knocked out three vehicles within 10 minutes - an armored personnel carrier and two trucks, - says Sergey.

The level of training of the Syrian troops is not only zero, but, one might say, minus, - Gennady picked up. - For example, out of 60 armored vehicles brought, as already mentioned, to the combat area, about 20 ended up in the hands of the ISIS spirits who were in Akerbat. In general, tanks in Syria are a challenge prize. There is even a joke on this topic: Russia supplies tanks to the Syrians, the Syrians hand them over to ISIS, the Russians come, take the tanks from the ISIS and receive a bonus for this. We hand it over to the Syrians again - and everything starts all over again, the tank circulates around Syria until it is burned.

Personally, I saw how the Syrian special forces went into reconnaissance, Sergei recalls. - We walked about seven kilometers and began to yell on the radio that they had run out of water, several people were hit (and these are the indigenous people of Syria). And they returned without completing the task. The Russians even had to bear the sun-struck Arabs on their backs. I agree with Gennady: zero level of preparation.

All of Syria is about two Moscow regions, most of it is desert, concludes Stepan. - Enough to free a few enclaves and the valley - and that's it! And let the spirits of the steppe hares ride through the desert as much as they like. Work - for a month or two, but no one needs it. Generals earn money in the war, tanks and weapons are decommissioned, ISIS trades with everyone almost officially.

PERSONNEL OF PMC "WAGNER"

Despite the fact that many PMC fighters served in the army and special forces, I will not be mistaken if I say that 90% do not understand where they are going, - says Sergey. - The desire to earn money knocks off the brain completely. Therefore, having got into a real trouble, they declare that they came here not to die, but to earn. These are called "five hundred", that is, deserters and refuseniks. They are immediately sent to rigging teams, that is, to loaders of shells, etc.

And in life, those who came to Syria are mostly losers, - says Gennady. - As a rule, former cops, convicts and military men. About 40% of the personnel served time for serious crimes - murders, robberies, etc. PMC fighters even greet each other like this: “Hi, losers!” It is noticeable that for many months before a business trip, or even years, they thumped without drying out. In Syria, it is forbidden to drink, the heads are a little enlightened, they give a vow to tie for the rest of their lives. They return to Russia with a million in their pockets and break into such a peak, a month later they crawl to the base without pants.

EARNINGS OF THE "GENTLEMEN OF LUCK"

A year or two ago, according to Sergey, the fighters of the PMC "Wagner" earned 310-350 thousand rubles a month (240 thousand - salary plus 3 thousand a day - combat). In the spring of this year, they had 300 thousand each (with a salary of 220 thousand), and those who arrived in the autumn earned an average of 200-210 thousand (the salary dropped to 150 thousand).

What is causing the drop in earnings? Stepan asked. - I think with the fact that they steal everything, they steal everything. At some point, people lose their heads and begin to steal without a twinge of conscience. We suspect that the top pays are still decent, but a little lower they come up with various restrictions that are associated with the salary. For example, there is a clause in the contract that says that a business trip starting from the fourth month is considered a long one and an additional thousand rubles are paid for each day. When someone reminded the boss about this point, he received the following answer in a greatly softened form: “Are you crazy? You get so much already!”

What about insurance? - I ask. - How much is paid in case of death?

You see, - says Sergey, - according to some rumors, three and a half million, according to others - five million. Personally, I did not see anything about this in my contract. Although I could have looked: the contract is multi-page, and besides, the principle of time trouble works. It says that you agree that you may not be taken out as a corpse. Also, according to rumors, 50 thousand are paid for a minor injury, up to 300 thousand plus treatment for a more severe one. They say that the treatment is good - in the military hospitals of Rostov-on-Don, Kislovodsk, St. Petersburg, Moscow, etc. Good conditions, highly qualified doctors. But there is one principle: no disabilities.

I am ambivalent about these private military companies,” adds Stepan. - On the one hand, they deceive, and it's a shame. On the other hand, if you look at the situation as if from the outside, the PMC withdraws from civil life unnecessary elements (literally, the fighter spoke about his comrades, and therefore about himself. - A.Ch.).

As it turned out later, Sergey brought one and a half million rubles from Syria. I gave out debts, bought a night sight, binoculars, warm clothes, and other equipment for little things. I was running out of money, just to get from Moscow to Krasnodar.

What kind of work is left in Syria? Protect oil fields, factories. Throwing attacks will no longer be.

Reportedly Ilya Rozhdestvensky, Anton Baev and Polina Rusyaeva in an article on the website RBC "Ghosts of War: How the Russian Private Army Appeared in Syria", the so-called "Wagner group" is actively involved in the Syrian conflict. Its use cost up to 10.3 billion rubles. Our blog provides the text of the investigation.

(c) warfiles.ru

PMCs all over the world are a huge business: “private traders” often replace the armed forces. In Russia they are illegal. But in Syria, a prototype of Russian PMCs - the “Wagner group” was tested, and the authorities are again thinking about legalizing

The military unit on the Molkino farm in the Krasnodar Territory is a sensitive facility. The 10th separate special forces brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Ministry of Defense is stationed here, Gazeta.ru wrote. A few dozen meters from the federal highway "Don" - the first checkpoint on the way to the base. Further, the road forks: to the left - the town belonging to the unit, to the right - the training ground, the guard at the checkpoint explains to the RBC journalist. Behind the landfill is another checkpoint with guards armed with AK-74s. Behind this checkpoint is a camp of a private military company (PMC), according to one of the employees of the military unit.

On archival satellite images Google Earth service shows that in August 2014 there was no camp yet. It began to function around the middle of 2015, two interlocutors of RBC who worked in this camp and are familiar with its device say. These are two dozen tents under the flag of the USSR, surrounded by a small fence with barbed wire, one of them describes the base. On the territory there are several residential barracks, a sentry tower, a dog handler's station, a training complex and a parking lot for vehicles, an employee of a private military company who has been there describes the base.

This structure does not have an official name, the name of its leader and revenue are not disclosed, and the very existence of the company, perhaps the largest on the market, is not advertised - formally, the activities of PMCs in our country are illegal. RBC magazine figured out what the so-called Wagner PMC is, from what sources and how it is financed, and why the business of private military companies may appear in Russia.

Mercenaries and "private traders"

military man by Russian laws can only work for the state. Mercenary is prohibited: for participation in armed conflicts on the territory of another country, the Criminal Code provides for up to seven years in prison (Article 359), for recruiting, training, financing a mercenary, “as well as using him in an armed conflict or hostilities” - up to 15 years . There are no other laws regulating the sphere of PMCs in Russia.

The situation is different in the world: the principles of operation of private military and security companies are fixed in the “Montreux Document” adopted in the fall of 2008. It was signed by 17 countries, including the US, UK, China, France and Germany (Russia is not among them). The document allows people who are not members of the public service, provide services for the armed protection of facilities, maintenance of combat complexes, training of military personnel, etc.

In a UN report published in 2011, the organization's analysts estimated the annual volume of the private military services market at $20 billion to $100 billion, the non-profit organization War on Want in 2016 at $100–400 billion. The figures are very approximate: for example, the US commission on military contracts, to which the UN refers in its report on the rise in human rights violations by mercenaries, in 2011 noted that at the end of the financial year, the cost of contracts with private military companies in Iraq and Afghanistan alone will exceed $ 206 billion. in the world - G4S Plc - in 2015 amounted to $ 10.5 billion: in Russia this is comparable only with the same indicator for Bashneft and a third more than for Norilsk Nickel.

The use of "private traders" is typical for Western countries, where the aversion to large losses is more high, explains CEO Center for Strategic Assessments and Forecasts Sergey Grinyaev. Large casualties among the personnel of the armed forces may influence the decision to end the operation and withdraw troops, as was the case with the special forces participating in the peacekeeping operation UN in Somalia, expert says. In 1993, during the urban battle in Mogadishu, the Americans lost 18 people, about 80 soldiers were wounded, one was captured. This accelerated the withdrawal of the US contingent from the country. Such situations can be avoided if we are talking not about the regular army, but about private military companies, Grinyaev is sure.

Reducing losses through the use of PMC fighters is a common practice used, for example, in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2008, the number of employees of private companies in these countries has exceeded the number of US military personnel, and since at least 2010, “private workers” have accounted for the main percentage of those killed and wounded, according to the Private Security Monitor project of the University of Denver (USA).

Difficulties of legalization

The latest attempt to legalize PMCs in Russia was made in March 2016, when deputies from " Just Russia» Gennady Nosovko and Oleg Mikheev submitted a draft law on private military security organizations to the State Duma. The document called the goals of such activities “participation in ensuring national security through the performance and provision of military security work and services”, protection of Russia’s interests outside the country, promotion of Russian PMCs to world markets, etc. At the same time, according to the bill, such companies were supposed to be prohibited from “directly participating in armed conflicts ... on the territory of any state.”

licensing of PMCs was supposed to be done by the Ministry of Defense, to monitor the implementation of the law - by the FSB and the Prosecutor General's Office.

The government opposed the adoption of the law, noting in its response that the bill contradicts part 5 of article 13 of the Constitution: “The creation and activities of public associations whose goals or actions are aimed at ... undermining the security of the state, creating armed formations are prohibited.” The deputies were also not supported by their colleagues on the profile committee, who pointed out that the duties of such companies are not delimited from the functions of private security companies (PSCs), departmental security and national guard troops.

The final decision on the document was not made - its consideration was postponed until autumn, but the authors of the bill themselves decided to withdraw it. The spring document is already the third attempt by Nosovko to legalize PMCs in Russia, while the biography of the deputy himself has nothing to do with the Armed Forces: except that in 2014 he was awarded a medal Ministry of Defense "For Strengthening the Combat Commonwealth". The deputy hopes that he will be able to finalize the document and submit it again in the fall. In a conversation with RBC magazine, Nosovko said that when discussing the bill at round tables with the participation of relevant departments, the security forces generally supported the initiative, but asked to correct various shortcomings. "There is no sharp denial, but, for example, representatives of the GRU and the FSB say that now it is not worth heating up the situation and opening Pandora's box," Nosovko said.

The authorities do not intend to abandon the idea of ​​legalizing PMCs, says an FSB officer familiar with the situation, and confirms the interlocutor in the Ministry of Defense: the issue is being worked out, they say. Despite the absence of a law, there are private military companies in Russia. They perform the same work as their foreign counterparts: from escorting ships passing through the Gulf of Aden near the coast of Somalia, where pirates operate, to guarding facilities in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The Russian PMC market is extremely small in size, explains Boris Chikin, co-owner of the private military company Moran Security Group (MSG). There are no real military companies in Russia, insists Oleg Krinitsyn, owner of another large PMC, RSB-Group. Domestic firms conduct their main activities abroad. For example, employees of another large PMC - "Center Antiterror" - in the 2000s carried out orders in Iraq, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and other countries.

To facilitate work abroad, Russian PMCs register subsidiaries in offshore companies. In particular, the main founder of MSG with a 50% share is Neova Holdings Ltd (British Virgin Islands). The owners of Russian PMCs do not disclose the financial side of their business, there are no reports of firms in the SPARK-Interfax database and foreign registries.

"Special Tasks"

Russian troops did not participate in a full-scale ground operation in Syria, but in March 2016, the commander of the Russian group in the country, General Alexander Dvornikov, said that certain tasks were carried out by fighters on the ground. “I will not hide the fact that units of our special operations forces [highly mobile troops of the Ministry of Defense] are also operating in Syria,” Dvornikov said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. According to him, the military carried out additional reconnaissance of objects for air strikes, was engaged in guiding aircraft to targets in remote areas and solved "other special tasks."

"Special tasks" in Syria were performed by Sergei Chupov, who died in this country in February 2016, his acquaintance told RBC. According to him, Chupov served in internal troops ah MIA, but retired in the early 2000s. This information was confirmed to RBC by another acquaintance of Chupov. The representative of the Ministry of Defense did not comment on the information about the deceased. The military prosecutor's office of the Southern District, in response to a request from RBC, said that Chupov was not on the lists Russian group in Syria. RBC's interlocutor, who knew the soldier closely, claims that the veteran of the internal troops, who went through both Chechen campaigns, was in Syria as an employee of a private military company known as the "Wagner group".

“Wagner” is the call sign of the head of the detachment, in fact his name is Dmitry Utkin, and he used to serve in the Pskov brigade of the GRU, four interlocutors of RBC who are personally acquainted with Wagner say. In 2013, Utkin, who by that time had left the ranks of the Armed Forces, left for the Middle East as part of a group of fighters recruited by the Slavic Corps company. This is a subsidiary of Slavonic Corps Limited registered in Hong Kong, Kommersant wrote. The company was entered in the register of legal entities in 2012, and Russian citizen Anton Andreev is listed as its director.

The leaders of the Slavic Corps, Evgeny Sidorov and Vadim Gusev, former managers of the Moran Security Group, promised employees when they were hired that they would guard the oil pipeline and warehouse in Deir ez-Zor, a city in eastern Syria, Kommersant noted and a source told RBC in MSG. Instead of ensuring the security of energy facilities, 267 "corps" fighters were ordered to support the rebels for about locality As-Sukhna in the province of Homs, the interlocutor of RBC notes. Without the necessary equipment and with outdated weapons, they were ambushed by militants of the Islamic State (the organization is banned in Russia). In October 2013, the fighters of the Slavic Corps left Syria.

In January 2015, Sidorov and Gusev were convicted in Russia under the same article 359 of the Criminal Code and received three years in prison. Other participants in the events were not held accountable.

"The Wagner Group"

For the first time, Fontanka wrote about the “Wagner Group” and its participation in the Syrian war in October 2015: citing anonymous sources, the publication claimed that former employees of the “Slavic Corps” were later seen among “polite people” in Crimea during the events of February- March 2014, and a little over a year later - in the south-east of Ukraine, already as an independent detachment. At the end of 2015, The Wall Street Journal wrote about the participation of the “Wagner group” in the battles on the side of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, also citing anonymous sources. In the same article, WSJ journalists spoke about the deaths in the Middle East of nine people from the Wagner Group. The Russian Ministry of Defense called this information "stuffing".

The base in Molkino was equipped shortly after the completion of the active phase of the “Lugansk” operation - in mid-2015, recalls one of the officers who worked in the “Wagner group”. In this camp, the fighters are trained before going to Syria, an FSB officer and one of the fighters who served under the command of Wagner explain to RBC.

The issue of creating full-fledged PMCs in Russia was discussed many times, but a breakthrough in this sense occurred after the Crimean events of 2014, in which the GRU units performed well, said an RBC interlocutor close to this organization. It is the GRU that secretly oversees the “Wagner group,” an officer of the Ministry of Defense and an FSB officer confirmed to RBC, adding that this detachment arose after “the situation in the world worsened.”

In the Middle East, the "Wagner Group" appeared shortly before Russia began officially deploying its bases in the fall of 2015, a Defense Ministry officer says and a source familiar with the operation confirms. In total, almost 2.5 thousand people were located near Latakia and Aleppo, not only the GRU, but also the FSB officers led the operation, he adds.

Officially, no one announced the recruitment to the Wagner squad, but the rumor quickly spread through groups on social networks, whose users were actively interested in “how to get into the Wagner PMC”. There was no shortage of applicants: in 2016, from 1,000 to 1,600 PMC employees were in Syria at the same time, depending on the tension in the situation, says a source familiar with the operation. The Ministry of Defense did not respond to RBC’s request, indeed “citizens who are not serving in the Russian Armed Forces” are fighting in Syria, and is it true that these fighters are being trained at a base in the Krasnodar Territory.

Money to the soldiers of the “Wagner group” was paid in cash, they were not officially registered anywhere, and the purchase of weapons and equipment is classified, an officer of the Ministry of Defense explains to RBC and two interlocutors familiar with the operation confirm. According to them, the state and "high-ranking businessmen" took over the expenses. RBC interlocutors refuse to give their names even in an informal conversation with the voice recorders turned off.

Fontanka wrote in the summer of 2016 about the connection of one of the entrepreneurs with the “Wagner group”: the publication claimed that over the past two years, “Wagner” moved around Russia, accompanied by people working for the St. Petersburg restaurateur Evgeny Prigozhin. Surrounded by the commander of the Fontanka PMC, she found the head of the security service of one of Prigozhin's companies, Yevgeny Gulyaev, and his subordinates.

Prigozhin-owned Concord M is one of the main food suppliers for the Administration of the President of Russia, and the Concord food plant serves Moscow schools. Prigozhin's firms are practically monopolists in the capital's school food market, as well as one of the largest service providers for the Ministry of Defense: the companies import food and clean up military units.

For private investors, financing PMCs is a way to prove their loyalty, explains the interlocutor in the Ministry of Defense. For example, for closer cooperation with the military department. RBC magazine found no evidence that Prigozhin's firms provided financial support PMC. At the same time, if in 2014 the volume of services provided by companies related to the businessman to the Ministry of Defense and its structures amounted to 575 million rubles, then in 2015 the volume of such contracts reached 68.6 billion rubles, follows from SPARK-Marketing data.

These contracts make up the lion's share of all government contracts that 14 companies received (the connection of most of these firms with Prigozhin can be traced through SPARK-Interfax; the rest of the structures are managed by people who worked with the restaurateur at different times, Fontanka wrote). In 2015, the total volume of tenders they won amounted to 72.2 billion rubles.

Hybrid financing

The cost of maintaining PMCs numbering several thousand people is quite difficult to calculate. The "Wagner Group" does not pay for the rent of buildings and land, two interlocutors of RBC, who are familiar with the organization of the camp, say. The state and private divisions of the camp in the Krasnodar Territory are located, according to Rosreestr, on a single plot of about 250 square meters. km. There is no information about who owns the land in the database, but several neighboring plots are registered with the territorial forestry department of the Ministry of Defense.

The military department is engaged in the equipment of the range. As follows from the documents on the public procurement portal, in the spring of 2015, the Ministry of Defense held a corresponding auction in the amount of 294 million rubles, the winner was Garrison JSC, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense. The base in Molkino was also re-equipped: 41.7 million rubles were spent on the landfill.

The maintenance of the base itself, as well as other military units, is also on the balance sheet of Sergei Shoigu's ministry. Tenders for garbage collection and linen transportation, sanitary services, territory cleaning, heat supply are carried out in packages for several tens or hundreds of military units at once, grouped on a territorial basis. On average, in 2015-2016, the military department spent 14.7 million rubles per military unit. excluding classified contracts, follows from the procurement documentation of six auctions, which mentions a base in the Krasnodar Territory.

In 2015-2016, the Ministry of Defense allocated an average of about 410 thousand rubles for the removal of waste from one part of the Southern Military District: the Megaline company became the winner of the tender. Until the end of 2015, the co-owners of the company were Concord Management and Consulting and Lakhta, which each owned 50%. Until mid-2011, Yevgeny Prigozhin owned a 14% stake in the first company, and until September 2013 he controlled 80% of Lakhta.

In 2015–2016, sanitary services for one military unit of the district cost an average of 1.9 million rubles, technical operation of heat supply facilities - 1.6 million rubles. The winners of tenders for these services were Ecobalt and Teplosintez, respectively (the latter, according to Fontanka, is managed by Megaline employees). The most costly item of expenditure for the maintenance of the camp is cleaning. In 2015, the Ministry of Defense allocated an average of 10.8 million rubles for cleaning one part of the Southern District. Contracts for cleaning in Molkino were concluded with the firm "Agat" (the company is registered in Lyubertsy, the connection with Prigozhin and his entourage could not be traced).

In contrast to the maintenance of bases, contracts for the supply of food in parts are not posted on the public procurement portal - this information falls under military secrets, since it allows you to determine the number of fighters. In July, an announcement appeared on the Avito.ru website hiring workers for a military canteen in Molkino. The employer is the company "Restaurantservice Plus". A similar vacancy was posted on one of the Krasnodar portals back in May. By phone, indicated in one of the announcements, a man named Aleksey answered the RBC correspondent, who confirmed that RestaurantService Plus was looking for workers in the canteen of the military unit. The phone number of this company matches the numbers of two firms associated with Prigozhin, Megaline and Concord Management and Consulting.

Whether the Krasnodar PMC camp is provided from the same state orders as the GRU camp at the same base is not clear. The interlocutor of RBC, who is familiar with the structure of the unit, claims that the camps are similar in number and size, therefore average cost service is applicable to the base of the "Wagner group". Most of all, at auctions that mention the military unit in Molkino, firms related to Prigozhin, Megaline and Teplosintez, could earn money: in 2015-2016 these companies signed state contracts for 1.9 billion rubles, follows from purchasing documentation.

When asked if the restaurateur's companies were connected with the financing of the "Wagner group", a high-ranking federal official only smiled and replied: "You must understand - Prigozhin feeds very tasty food." Restaurantservice Plus, Ecobalt, Megaline, Teplosintez, Agat and Concord Management did not respond to RBC's request.

Issue price

If contracts for the maintenance of the base go through electronic platforms, then it is almost impossible to trace the costs of the salaries of PMC fighters - salaries are paid mainly in cash, say the fighters from the "Wagner group". Part of the money is transferred to instant issuance cards, which do not indicate the name of the owner, and they themselves are issued to outsiders individuals, clarifies one of them and confirms the officer of the Ministry of Defense. Nameless cards are issued by a number of Russian banks, including Sberbank and Raiffeisenbank, according to their official websites.

Talking about salaries, RBC's interlocutors cite similar figures. According to a driver working at a base in the Krasnodar Territory, civilians receive about 60,000 rubles. per month. RBC source familiar with the details military operation, indicates that a PMC fighter can count on 80 thousand rubles. monthly, being based in Russia, and up to 500 thousand rubles. plus a bonus - in the war zone in Syria. The salary of a PMC employee in Syria rarely exceeded 250-300 thousand rubles. per month, an officer of the Ministry of Defense clarifies in a conversation with RBC. With minimum threshold at 80 thousand rubles. he agrees, and estimates the average salary for an ordinary soldier at 150,000 rubles. plus combat and compensation. With the maximum number of the "Wagner group" of 2.5 thousand people, their salary from August 2015 to August 2016 could range from 2.4 billion (with 80 thousand rubles per month) to 7.5 billion rubles. (with monthly payments of 250 thousand rubles).

The cost of equipment for each fighter can reach up to $ 1,000, moving and living will cost the same amount per month, says Chikin from MSG. Thus, the cost of the presence of 2.5 thousand people in Syria, excluding salaries, can reach $2.5 million per month, or about 170 million rubles. (with an average annual dollar exchange rate of 67.89 rubles, according to the Central Bank).

The maximum spending on food during the Syrian campaign could be 800 rubles. per person per day, estimated Alexander Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis. From this estimate it follows that food for 2.5 thousand fighters could cost up to 2 million rubles.

It is PMCs who bear the main losses on the Russian side in Syria, RBC interlocutors who are familiar with the details of the operation say. Their data on the number of deaths vary. An employee of the Ministry of Defense insists that a total of 27 “private traders” died in the Middle East, one of the former PMC officers says at least 100 deaths. “From there, every third “two hundredth”, every second “three hundredth,” says an employee of the base in Molkino (“cargo-200” and “cargo-300” are symbols for transporting the body of a dead and wounded soldier, respectively).

RBC contacted the family of one of the dead PMC fighters, but the relatives refused to communicate. Later, several records appeared on the social networks of his relatives and friends, in which the actions of RBC correspondents were called a “provocation” and an attempt to tarnish the memory of the murdered. An officer from the "Wagner Group" claims that non-disclosure of working conditions in PMCs is a condition for families to receive compensation.

The standard compensation for the relatives of a dead soldier is up to 5 million rubles, says a source familiar with the structure of the PMC (the same amount is received by relatives of Russian military personnel who died during the hostilities). But getting them is not always easy, insists an acquaintance of a “private trader” who died in Syria: often families have to literally knock out funds. The officer of the Ministry of Defense clarifies that for a deceased relative, families receive 1 million rubles, for wounded soldiers they pay up to 500 thousand rubles.

Taking into account salaries, supplying the base, accommodation and meals, the annual maintenance of the "Wagner group" can cost from 5.1 billion to 10.3 billion rubles. One-time expenses for equipment - 170 million rubles, compensation to the families of those who died during minimum estimate losses - from 27 million rubles.

Foreign PMCs and security companies do not disclose the structure of expenses - it is impossible to “pull out” from their reporting either the amount of training costs, or the salary of a fighter, or the cost of maintaining a group. In the mid-2000s in Iraq, employees of one of the most famous military companies Academi (formerly called Blackwater) received from $ 600 to $ 1,075 a day, the Washington Post wrote. According to the publication, the general of the US Army at the same time received a little less than $500 a day. Veterans marines The United States, which trained soldiers in Iraq, could earn up to $1,000, the Associated Press reported. CNN estimated the salary of mercenaries a little more modest - at $ 750: that's how much the fighters were due at the beginning of the war in Iraq.

Later, the monthly salary of “private traders” working in the Middle East could rise to about £10,000 (about $16,000 at the average annual rate), the Guardian pointed out. “In 2009, there was a period of about three months when we lost people every two or three days,” the British army veteran, who was serving on a contract in Afghanistan at that time, quotes the publication as saying. The cumulative losses of PMCs operating in the Middle East amounted to dozens of dead and hundreds and thousands of wounded: for example, in 2011, 39 fighters were killed and 5,206 people were injured.

"Syrian Express"

The fighters get to Syria on their own, there is no centralized dispatch, one of the mercenaries explains. But the goods for the "Wagner Group" are delivered by sea - on the ships of the "Syrian Express". This name first appeared in the media in 2012: this is the name of the ships that supply the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including military goods.

The composition of the "express" can be divided into three parts: ships of the Navy, ships that previously operated civilian voyages and then became part of the navy, and chartered dry cargo ships belonging to various companies around the world, says Mikhail Voitenko, founder of the Maritime Bulletin website. It monitors the movement of ships with the help of automatic information system(AIS), which allows you to identify ships and determine the parameters of movement, including the course.

“The military bases are supplied with the help of an auxiliary fleet. If there are not enough ships, then the Ministry of Defense hires ordinary commercial ships, but they cannot carry military cargo,” explains an interlocutor familiar with the organization of sea freight. Among the ships that have joined the ranks of the Navy since the spring of 2015 is the dry cargo ship Kazan-60, which, as Reuters wrote, is part of the "express". Recently, it has changed owners many times: at the end of 2014, under the name of Georgy Agafonov, the ship was sold by the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company to the Turkish company 2E Denizcilik SAN. VE TIC.A.S.

The Turks resold it to the British company Cubbert Business L.P., then, as stated in a letter from 2E Denizcilik to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (a copy is at the disposal of RBC), the ASP company “located in Russia” became the owner. Among the firms associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin, there is a legal entity of the same name, the winner of several auctions for cleaning objects of the Ministry of Defense and a participant in one of the tenders for maintaining the base in Molkino. In October 2015, the ship became part of Black Sea Fleet(Black Sea Fleet) of the Russian Navy under the name "Kazan-60". The command of the Black Sea Fleet did not answer RBC's question about how the fleet received the vessel.

In total, at least 15 civilian ships were involved in the “Syrian Express”: all of them followed the Novorossiysk-Tartus route in the fall of 2015, Voitenko notes, citing AIS data. Most of the vessels are registered to firms located in Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Ukraine. Several companies are located in Russia, follows from the data of marinetraffic.com and fleetphoto.ru services.

Voitenko estimates the freight of one civilian ship at $4,000 per day, of which $2,000 is its maintenance, $1,500 is the cost of fuel and fees. Based on this estimate, the lease of only civilian ships from the "express" for 305 days (September 30 - July 31) could amount to $ 18.3 million, or a little more than 1.2 billion rubles.

Delicate Interests

In early March 2016, with the support of Russian aviation, Assad's army launched an operation to liberate Palmyra: the city was recaptured after 20 days of fighting. “All the disparate ISIS bandit groups that escaped from the encirclement were destroyed by Russian aircraft, which did not allow them to leave in the direction of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor,” said Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy, head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff.

PMC fighters played a big role in the liberation of the areas of the historical part of Palmyra, says a former officer of the group. “First, the Wagner guys work, then the Russian ground units come in, then the Arabs and the cameras,” he says. According to him, the Wagner detachment is mainly used for offensives in difficult areas. This allows to reduce losses among the regular forces in Syria, says the source in one of the PMCs.

The Wagner Group is not entirely correct to call a private military company, another representative of this market is sure. “The detachment does not set itself the task of making money, this is not a business,” he clarifies. In the case of the Wagner Group, the interests of the state, which needed forces to solve delicate tasks in Syria, coincided with the desire of a group of former military personnel to earn money by performing tasks in the interests of the country, explains RBC's interlocutor, close to the leadership of the FSB.

“The benefit from PMCs is the ability to use them abroad, when the use of regular armed forces is not very appropriate,” said Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis. He actually repeats the statement of Vladimir Putin. “This [PMC] is really a tool for realizing national interests without the direct participation of the state,” Putin, who at that time held the post of head of government, said in the spring of 2012.

In the same vein, in the fall of 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is responsible for the military-industrial complex, spoke: “We are thinking about whether our money will flow to finance foreign private security military companies, or we will consider the feasibility of creating such companies within Russia itself and take a step in this direction".

PMCs are also an opportunity for large businesses to use armed guards that will ensure the security of facilities abroad, such as oil pipelines or factories, said Grinyaev from the Center for Strategic Assessments and Forecasts. For the protection of its facilities, including in Iraq, LUKOIL in 2004, for example, created the agency LUKOM-A, and the security of Rosneft facilities is provided by a subsidiary of the company RN-Guard.

“For the state, the use of private military companies can be financially beneficial only for solving specific problems, but cannot replace the army,” said Vladimir Neyelov, an expert at the Center for Strategic Studies. Among the risks of legalizing PMCs, he names a possible outflow of personnel from among the active military - not only for financial reasons, but also for the sake of career growth.

As for PMC Wagner, due to the appearance in the media of information about its connection with the base in Molkino, the Ministry of Defense is discussing the option of transferring private traders, the FSB officer says. According to him, among options- Tajikistan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia. This is confirmed by the interlocutor in the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, he is sure: they will not disband the PMC - the unit has proven its effectiveness.

With the participation of Elizaveta Surnacheva

http://bmpd.livejournal.com/2085221.html

PMCs all over the world are a huge business: “private traders” often replace the armed forces. In Russia they are illegal. But in Syria, a prototype of Russian PMCs, the Wagner group, was tested, and the authorities are again thinking about legalizing

The military unit on the Molkino farm in the Krasnodar Territory is a sensitive facility. The 10th separate special forces brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Ministry of Defense is stationed here, Gazeta.Ru wrote. A few tens of meters from the federal highway "Don" - the first checkpoint on the way to the base. Further, the road forks: to the left - the town belonging to the unit, to the right - the training ground, the guard at the checkpoint explains to the RBC journalist. Behind the landfill is another checkpoint with guards armed with AK-74s. Behind this checkpoint is a camp of a private military company (PMC), according to one of the employees of the military unit.

Archival satellite images from the Google Earth service show that in August 2014 there was no camp yet. It began to function around the middle of 2015, two interlocutors of RBC who worked in this camp and are familiar with its device say. These are two dozen tents under the flag of the USSR, surrounded by a small fence with barbed wire, one of them describes the base. On the territory there are several residential barracks, a sentry tower, a dog handler's station, a training complex and a parking lot for vehicles, an employee of a private military company who has been there describes the base.

This structure has no official name, the name of its leader and revenue are not disclosed, and the very existence of the company, possibly the largest on the market, is not advertised: formally, the activities of PMCs in our country are illegal. RBC magazine figured out what the so-called Wagner PMC is, from what sources and how it is financed, and why the business of private military companies may appear in Russia.

Mercenaries and "private traders"

A military person, according to Russian laws, can only work for the state. Mercenary activity is prohibited: for participation in armed conflicts on the territory of another country, the Criminal Code provides for up to seven years in prison (Article 359), for recruiting, training, financing a mercenary, “as well as its use in an armed conflict or hostilities” - up to 15 years . There are no other laws regulating the sphere of PMCs in Russia.

The situation is different in the world: the principles of operation of private military and security companies are fixed in the “Montreux Document” adopted in the fall of 2008. It was signed by 17 countries, including the US, UK, China, France and Germany (Russia is not among them). The document allows people who are not in the public service to provide services for the armed protection of facilities, maintenance of combat complexes, training of military personnel, and so on.

For private investors, financing PMCs is a way to prove their loyalty, explains the interlocutor in the Ministry of Defense, for example, for closer cooperation with the military department. RBC magazine found no evidence that Prigozhin's firms provided financial support to PMCs. At the same time, if in 2014 the volume of services provided by companies related to the businessman to the Ministry of Defense and its structures amounted to 575 million rubles, then in 2015 the volume of such contracts reached 68.6 billion rubles, follows from SPARK-Marketing data.

These contracts make up the lion's share of all government contracts that 14 companies received (the connection of most of these firms with Prigogine can be traced through SPARK-Interfax; the rest of the structures are managed by those who worked with the restaurateur at different times, Fontanka wrote). In 2015, the total volume of tenders they won amounted to 72.2 billion rubles.

Hybrid financing

The cost of maintaining PMCs numbering several thousand people is quite difficult to calculate. The Wagner group does not pay for the rent of buildings and the site, two RBC interlocutors who are familiar with the camp's construction say. The state and private divisions of the camp in the Krasnodar Territory are located, according to Rosreestr, on a single plot of about 250 square meters. km. There is no information about who owns the land in the database, but several neighboring plots are registered with the territorial forestry department of the Ministry of Defense.

The military department is engaged in the equipment of the range. As follows from the documents on the public procurement portal, in the spring of 2015, the Ministry of Defense held a corresponding auction in the amount of 294 million rubles, the winner was Garrison JSC, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense. The base in Molkino was also re-equipped: 41.7 million rubles were spent on the landfill.

The maintenance of the base itself, as well as other military units, is also on the balance sheet of the ministry of Sergei Shoigu. Tenders for garbage collection and linen transportation, sanitary services, territory cleaning, heat supply are carried out in packages for several tens or hundreds of military units at once, grouped on a territorial basis. On average, in 2015-2016, the military department spent 14.7 million rubles per military unit. excluding classified contracts, follows from the procurement documentation of six auctions, which mentions a base in the Krasnodar Territory.

In 2015-2016, the Ministry of Defense allocated an average of about 410 thousand rubles for the removal of waste from one part of the Southern Military District: the Megaline company became the winner of the tender. Until the end of 2015, the co-owners of the company were Concord Management and Consulting and Lakhta, which each owned 50%. Until mid-2011, Evgeny Prigozhin was in the first company, and until September 2013 he already controlled 80% of Lakhta.

In 2015-2016, sanitary services for one military unit of the district cost an average of 1.9 million rubles, technical operation of heat supply facilities - 1.6 million rubles. The winners of tenders for these services were Ecobalt and Teplosintez, respectively (the latter, according to Fontanka, is managed by Megaline employees). The most costly item of expenditure for the maintenance of the camp is cleaning. In 2015, the Ministry of Defense allocated an average of 10.8 million rubles for cleaning one part of the Southern District. Contracts for cleaning in Molkino were concluded with the firm "Agat" (the company is registered in Lyubertsy, the connection with Prigozhin and his entourage could not be traced).

Unlike maintenance of bases, contracts for the supply of food in parts are not posted on the public procurement portal - this information falls under military secrets, since it allows you to determine the number of fighters. In July, an announcement appeared on the Avito.ru website hiring workers for a military canteen in Molkino. The employer is the company "Restaurantservice Plus". A similar vacancy was posted on one of the Krasnodar portals back in May. On the phone number indicated in one of the ads, an RBC correspondent was answered by someone named Alexei, who confirmed that RestaurantService Plus was looking for workers in the canteen of the military unit. The phone number of this company matches the numbers of two firms associated with Prigozhin, Megaline and Concord Management and Consulting.

Whether the Krasnodar PMC camp is provided from the same state orders as the GRU camp at the same base is not clear. The interlocutor of RBC, who is familiar with the structure of the unit, claims that the camps are similar in number and size, so the average cost of maintenance is also applicable to the base of the Wagner group. Most of all, at auctions that mention the military unit in Molkino, firms related to Prigozhin, Megaline and Teplosintez, could earn money: these companies signed state contracts for 1.9 billion rubles in 2015-2016, follows from purchasing documentation.

When asked if the restaurateur's companies were connected with the financing of the Wagner group, a high-ranking federal official only smiled and replied: "You must understand that Prigozhin feeds very tasty food." Restaurantservice Plus, Ecobalt, Megaline, Teplosintez, Agat and Concord Management did not respond to RBC's request.

Issue price

If contracts for the maintenance of the base go through electronic platforms, then it is almost impossible to trace the salary costs of PMC fighters: the salary is paid mainly in cash, the fighters from the Wagner group say. Part of the money is transferred to instant issuance cards, which do not indicate the name of the owner, and they themselves are issued to outside individuals, one fighter clarifies and an officer of the Ministry of Defense confirms. Nameless cards are issued by a number of Russian banks, including Sberbank and Raiffeisenbank, according to their official websites.

Talking about salaries, RBC's interlocutors cite similar figures. According to a driver working at a base in the Krasnodar Territory, civilians receive about 60,000 rubles. per month. An RBC source familiar with the details of the military operation indicates that a PMC fighter can count on 80,000 rubles. monthly, being based in Russia, and up to 500 thousand rubles. plus a premium in the combat zone in Syria. The salary of a PMC employee in Syria rarely exceeded 250-300 thousand rubles. per month, an officer of the Ministry of Defense clarifies in a conversation with RBC. With a minimum threshold of 80 thousand rubles. he agrees,
and estimates the average salary for an ordinary soldier at 150 thousand rubles. plus combat and compensation.,> With the maximum number of the Wagner group of 2.5 thousand people, their salary from August 2015 to August 2016 could range from 2.4 billion (with 80 thousand rubles per month) to 7.5 billion rub. (with monthly payments of 250 thousand rubles).

The cost of equipment for each fighter can reach up to $ 1,000, travel and accommodation will cost the same amount per month, according to Chikin from MSG. Thus, the cost of the presence of 2.5 thousand people in Syria, excluding salaries, can reach $2.5 million per month, or about 170 million rubles. (with an average annual dollar exchange rate of 67.89 rubles, according to the Central Bank).

The maximum spending on food during the Syrian campaign could be 800 rubles. per person per day, estimated Alexander Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis. From this estimate it follows that food for 2.5 thousand fighters could cost up to 2 million rubles.

It is PMCs who bear the main losses on the Russian side in Syria, RBC interlocutors who are familiar with the details of the operation say. Their data on the number of deaths vary. An employee of the Ministry of Defense insists that a total of 27 “private traders” died in the Middle East, one of the former PMC officers says at least a hundred deaths. “From there, every third is “two hundredth”, every second is “three hundredth,” says an employee of the base in Molkino (“cargo-200” and “cargo-300” are symbols for transporting the body of a dead and wounded soldier, respectively).

RBC contacted the family of one of the dead PMC fighters, but the relatives refused to communicate. Later, several records appeared on the social networks of his relatives and friends, in which the actions of RBC correspondents were called a “provocation” and an attempt to tarnish the memory of the murdered. An officer from the Wagner group claims that the non-disclosure of working conditions in PMCs is a condition for families to receive compensation.

The standard compensation for the relatives of a dead soldier is up to 5 million rubles, says a source familiar with the structure of the PMC (the same amount is received by relatives of Russian military personnel who died during the hostilities). But getting them is not always easy, insists an acquaintance of a “private trader” who died in Syria: often families have to literally knock out funds. The officer of the Ministry of Defense clarifies that for a deceased relative, families receive 1 million rubles, for wounded soldiers they pay up to 500 thousand rubles.

Taking into account salaries, supplying the base, accommodation and meals, the annual maintenance of the Wagner group can cost from 5.1 billion to 10.3 billion rubles. One-time expenses for equipment - 170 million rubles, compensation to the families of the victims with a minimum estimate of losses - from 27 million rubles.

Foreign PMCs and security companies do not disclose the structure of expenses - it is impossible to “pull out” from their reporting either the amount of training costs, or the salary of a fighter, or the cost of maintaining a group. In the mid-2000s, in Iraq, employees of one of the most famous military companies, Academi (formerly known as Blackwater), received from $600 to 1,075 thousand a day, Washington Post wrote. According to the publication, the general of the US Army at the same time received a little less than $500 a day. US Marine Corps veterans who trained soldiers in Iraq could earn up to $1,000, the Associated Press reported. CNN estimated the salary of mercenaries a little more modestly - at $ 750: that's how much the fighters were due at the beginning of the war in Iraq.

Later, the monthly salary of “private traders” working in the Middle East could rise to about £10,000 (about $16,000 at the average annual rate), the Guardian pointed out. “In 2009, there was a period of about three months when we lost people every two or three days,” the publication quotes the words of a veteran of the British army, who served at that time on a contract in Afghanistan. The cumulative losses of PMCs working in the Middle East amounted to dozens of dead and hundreds and thousands of wounded: for example, in 2011, 39 fighters were killed and 5,206 people were injured.

"Syrian Express"

The fighters get to Syria on their own, there is no centralized dispatch, one of the mercenaries explains. But the goods for the Wagner group are delivered by sea, on the ships of the "Syrian Express". This name first appeared in the media in 2012: this is the name of the ships that supply the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including military goods.

The composition of the "express" can be divided into three parts: ships of the Navy, ships that previously operated civilian voyages and then became part of the military fleet, and chartered dry cargo ships owned by various companies around the world, says Mikhail Voitenko, creator of the Maritime Bulletin website. It monitors the movement of ships using an automatic information system (AIS), which allows you to identify ships and determine the movement parameters, including the course.

“The military bases are supplied with the help of an auxiliary fleet. If there are not enough ships, then the Ministry of Defense hires ordinary commercial ships, but they cannot carry military cargo, ”explains an interlocutor familiar with the organization of sea freight. Among the ships that have joined the ranks of the Navy since the spring of 2015 is the Kazan-60 dry cargo ship, which, as Reuters wrote, is part of the "express". Recently, it has changed owners many times: for example, at the end of 2014, under the name of Georgy Agafonov, the ship was sold by the Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company to the Turkish company 2E Denizcilik SAN. VE TIC.A.S.

The Turks resold it to the British company Cubbert Business L.P., then, as stated in a letter from 2E Denizcilik to the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine (a copy is at the disposal of RBC), the ASP company “located in Russia” became the owner. Among the firms associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin is the winner of several auctions for cleaning objects of the Ministry of Defense and a participant in one of the tenders for maintaining the base in Molkino. In October 2015, the ship became part of the Black Sea Fleet (BSF) of the Russian Navy under the name Kazan-60. The command of the Black Sea Fleet did not answer RBC's question about how the fleet received the vessel.

In total, at least 15 civilian ships were involved in the Syrian Express: in the fall of 2015, they all followed the Novorossiysk-Tartus route, Voitenko notes, citing AIS data. Most of the vessels are registered to firms located in Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Ukraine. Several companies are located in Russia, follows from the data of Marinetraffic.com and Fleetphoto.ru services.

Voitenko estimates the freight of one civilian ship at $4,000 per day, of which $2,000 is its maintenance, and $1,500 is the cost of fuel and fees. Based on this estimate, the lease of only civilian ships from the "express" for 305 days (September 30 - July 31) could amount to $ 18.3 million, or a little more than 1.2 billion rubles.

Delicate Interests

In early March 2016, with the support of Russian aviation, Assad's army launched an operation to liberate Palmyra: the city was recaptured after 20 days of fighting. “All the disparate ISIS gangs that escaped from the encirclement were destroyed by Russian aircraft, which did not allow them to leave in the direction of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor,” said Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy, head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff.

PMC fighters played a big role in the liberation of the areas of the historical part of Palmyra, says a former officer of the group. “First, the Wagner guys work, then the Russian ground units come in, then the Arabs and the cameras,” he says. According to him, the Wagner detachment is used mainly for offensives in difficult areas. This allows to reduce losses among the regular forces in Syria, says the source in one of the PMCs.

On March 6, 2016, with the support of Russian aviation, the army of Bashar al-Assad launched an operation to liberate Palmyra, which had been in the hands of the Islamic State militants since May 2015. The city was recaptured almost 20 days later (Photo: Reuters/Pixstream)

The Wagner Group is not entirely correct to call a private military company, another representative of this market is sure. “The detachment does not set itself the task of making money, this is not a business,” he clarifies. In the case of the Wagner group, the interests of the state, which needed forces to solve delicate tasks in Syria, coincided with the desire of a group of former military personnel to earn money by performing tasks in the interests of the country, explains an interlocutor of RBC, close to the leadership of the FSB.

“The benefit of PMCs is the ability to use them abroad, when the use of regular armed forces is not very appropriate,” said Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis. He actually repeats the statement of Vladimir Putin. “This (PMC. — RBC) is indeed a tool for realizing national interests without the direct participation of the state,” Putin, who at that time held the post of head of government, said in the spring of 2012.

In the same vein, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is responsible for the military-industrial complex, spoke in the same vein in the fall of 2012: “We are thinking about whether our money will flow to finance foreign private security military companies or we will consider the feasibility of creating such companies within Russia itself and take a step in this direction."

PMCs are also an opportunity for large businesses to use armed guards that will ensure the security of facilities abroad, such as oil pipelines or factories, Grinyaev from the Center for Strategic Assessments and Forecasts notes. For the protection of its facilities, including in Iraq, LUKOIL in 2004, for example, created the agency LUKOM-A, and the security of Rosneft facilities is provided by a subsidiary of the company RN-Guard.

“For the state, the use of private military companies can be financially beneficial only for solving specific problems, but cannot replace the army,” said Vladimir Neyelov, an expert at the Center for Strategic Studies. Among the risks of legalizing PMCs, he calls a possible outflow of personnel from among the active military - not only for financial reasons, but also for the sake of career growth.

As for PMC Wagner, due to the appearance in the media of information about its connection with the base in Molkino, the Ministry of Defense is discussing the option of transferring “private traders”, says an FSB officer. According to him, Tajikistan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Abkhazia are among the possible options. This is confirmed by the interlocutor in the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, he is sure that they will not disband the PMC - the unit has proven its effectiveness.

With the participation of Elizaveta Surnacheva