Vladimir Putin reportedly ordered Yevgeny Prigozhin's demise last year — and he's now trying to do the same to his mercenary group.
Since Prigozhin's plane crashed last August, many have pondered the fate of the Wagner paramilitary organization without its leader. In the hours after Wagner's short-lived mutiny last June, the Kremlin began privately reassuring African and Middle Eastern governments that Russia would take full control of Prigozhin's global empire. Prigozhin crossed Africa in a frantic attempt to protect his global business empire, before his untimely demise. Six months after his death, experts say Wagner's days operating anywhere in the world could be numbered. Sergey Sukhankin, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, said there is no doubt that the Wagner Group has become "marginalized" and "de facto" subordinated to Russia's defense ministry following Prighozhin's death. "The fighters will do what they are told" by the ministry, he told BI. Wagner is shrinking in Ukraine In the months since Prigozhin's death, intelligence reports have offered clues about the Kremlin's efforts to take over his organization, which had been a major player in the war in Ukraine and also operated elsewhere. Former Wagner fighters have been absorbed into Russia's national guard, also known as Rosgvardia, according to a report by the UK government this month. Three former Wagner assault detachments are being integrated into its first Volunteer Corps formation with the likely goal of deploying them to Ukraine and Africa, the UK said. Another update last week said Wagner's plan to establish a new headquarters near a Russian barracks is likely a sign of its subordination. And Russia's efforts aren't stopping there. Russia is taking over Wagner's mercenaries in Africa The military formation has been actively recruiting former Wagner Group mercenaries and soldiers who fought in Ukraine for combat operations in Africa. In a Telegram post last week, it promised an unspecified "high monetary" allowance, payments in foreign currency, service under "competent commanders" with extensive combat experience, and medical care and social benefits. Fighters joining the new group is likely a sign of diminishing allegiance to Prigozhin's paramilitary organization, according to Raphael Parens, a fellow in the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Eurasia Program and an international security researcher specializing in small armed groups. "Wagner fighters likely have little loyalty to the company itself after Prigozhin's demise and would be willing to fight for whichever Kremlin-backed organization that exists in Africa," Parens told BI. "These mercenaries care about the bottom line rather than an ideological alignment with Prigozhin," he said. The Kremlin is likely using the Africa Corps to take over many of the functions of the Wagner Group, Parens added. However, it's unclear how successful Russia's efforts will be: "Prigozhin relied heavily on personal connections and a variety of shell corporations, which may be difficult for a state government to control," he said. Instead of being another attempt by Russia to subordinate Wagner, Sukhankin said its recruitment of Wagner fighters is about "making the best of professional mercenaries familiar with the African environment." Ukraine and Western allies may be trying to stop Russia Alessandro Arduino, the author of "Money for Mayhem: Mercenaries, Private Military Companies, Drones, and the Future of War," said the Wagner Group could either fall under Russia's control or split into smaller, heavily armed groups serving local warlords. "Regardless, in Africa, the perception that Wagner or the new creation Africa Corp is protecting territorial integrity against militant forces is on the rise," he told BI. Last week, in a video obtained by the Kyiv Post, Ukrainian special forces were shown interrogating captured Wagner mercenaries in Sudan. The undated video shows one soldier confessing to being part of a Wagner mercenary outfit sent to Sudan to overthrow the local government, per the outlet. According to Parens, the presence of Ukrainian special forces in Africa highlights that Ukraine is competing with Russia in a new area. "This signals the Ukrainian government's willingness to fight and defeat Russian forces via attrition regardless of their location," he said. Sukhankin suggested that the operation may be part of "some sort of tacit agreement" between Western allies and Ukraine to battle Russian mercenaries in Africa in exchange for certain military backing for Ukraine in its war against Russia. "Ukrainian special services have acquired considerable experience of waging non-linear warfare against the Russian side and especially against the Wagner Group," he said. "This is something the West does not have." In Sukhankin's view, this makes Ukrainians "the best option — both in terms of effectiveness/efficiency and cost-benefit basis — in confronting Russian mercenaries in Africa." The fate of the Wagner Group, it seems, still hangs in the balance.
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Gaston Glock, the reclusive engineer and tycoon who developed one of the world's best-selling handguns, died on Wednesday aged 94. The Austrian won loyal followings among police and military across the world with the weapons that bore his name. Forbes estimated his and his family's fortune at $1.1 billion in 2021. His rise began in the 1980s when the Austrian military was looking for a new, innovative weapon. Up until then, the Glock company had made military knives and consumer goods including curtain rods. But he assembled a team of firearms experts and came up with the Glock 17, a lightweight semi-automatic gun largely made of plastic. The revolutionary design - with a frame made of a high-strength, nylon-based polymer and only the slide made of metal - beat several other companies' blueprints and secured his upstart outfit the contract. Soon the easily assembled weapon became a global hit. "Get yourself a Glock and lose that nickel-plated sissy pistol," Tommy Lee Jones said in the 1998 movie "U.S. Marshals". Many U.S. police officers used them and U.S. rappers worked them into their rhymes, among them Snoop Dogg's "Protocol" and Wu-Tang Clan's "Da Glock". U.S. soldiers found toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hiding with a Glock in a hole in the ground in 2003. They later presented that weapon to U.S. President George W. Bush, according to the New York Times. Gun-control advocates criticised Glock for popularising powerful guns that they said were easy to conceal and could hold more ammunition than other guns. A former U.S. Marine combat veteran armed with what police described as a .45 caliber Glock with a high-capacity magazine killed 12 people in a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, in November 2018. White supremacist Dylann Roof used a Glock pistol to kill nine African-American people during a Bible study session at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June, 2015. Glock himself rarely responded to criticism from activists, shunned public debate and, in 2000, refused to join other weapons manufacturers in signing a voluntary gun control deal with the U.S. government. He made few comments of any kind to the press, but the public got glimpses of a sometimes tempestuous private life through the courts. At the age of 70, in July 1999, he survived an attempt on his life when an investment broker who managed his assets hired a former wrestler to attack him with a rubber hammer, a court heard. Glock had grown suspicious of how the broker was managing his affairs and had flown to Luxembourg to confront him, lawyers said. He suffered seven blows to the head but fended off the assault. The broker, Charles Ewert, and the attacker, Jacques Pecheur, were both jailed.
His 49-year-old marriage with Helga Glock ended in divorce in 2011 and the pair embarked on a lengthy legal battle over alimony. Soon after, he married his second wife, Kathrin, more than 50 years his junior. He owned a lakefront mansion and a state-of-the-art equestrian sport centre in the province of Carinthia, where celebrities showed up for parties. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and two sons. A group of EU nations bordering Belarus has demanded that Minsk expels the Russian Wagner private military company and repatriate illegal migrants allegedly massing in the country at their borders. Speaking on Monday during a joint press conference with his Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian counterparts, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski warned that the countries could shut their borders with Belarus.
“If there is a critical incident, regardless of whether it is at the Polish or Lithuanian border, we will retaliate immediately. All border crossings that have been opened so far will be closed,” Kaminski stated. He branded the Wagner Group an “extremely dangerous” yet “demoralized” force, which he claimed was “capable of anything.” Poland has repeatedly accused Belarus of facilitating illegal migration, alleging that it has deliberately been steering the flow of people from the Middle East and Africa to the EU. “This situation is escalating. For several months, we have been dealing with attempts by migrants to illegally cross [the border],” Kaminski said. According to the Polish border guard, some 19,000 migrants have tried to enter Poland from Belarus thus far this year, compared to 16,000 during all of 2022. The ultimatum to Minsk follows the death of Wagner Group leader Evgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash in Russia last week. Several other senior members of the private military company were also killed in the incident. Thus far, Minsk has not responded to the demands from Poland and the Baltic states. The Wagner Group was re-deployed to Belarus after launching a short-lived insurrection in Russia in late June. The presence of the group in Belarus has fueled the long-standing tensions between Minsk and Warsaw. Poland has claimed that the private military company is active along the border and is waging “hybrid warfare” against it. Minsk has dismissed the allegations, while Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed Warsaw had “gone mad” with speculation surrounding Wagner. Russian authorities have confirmed that a private jet with Wagner Group founder Evgeny Prigozhin listed as a passenger crashed between Moscow and St. Petersburg on Wednesday, killing all on board. What details have been confirmed? The Russian Emergencies Ministry confirmed that the jet plunged to the ground in Tver Region, and that all three crew and seven passengers on board were killed. The ministry said that the jet, an Embraer 135BJ Legacy 600, was traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg at the time of the incident. Rosaviatsiya, the Russian federal air transport agency, said that Prighozhin was on board, along with several high-ranking Wagner commanders. Was the crash caught on camera? Several short clips of the crash have circulated on social media. Videos published by the Mash and Baza Telegram channels appear to show the jet plummeting toward the ground in a seemingly uncontrolled spin, leaving behind a trail of black smoke. It is unclear from the clips which part of the aircraft had caught fire.
After levelling off at 28,000 feet at 6:10pm (15:10 GMT) Flightradar24 says the aircraft continued in level flight at consistent speed until 6:19pm (15:19GMT) at which point the vertical rate decreased dramatically causing the aircraft to descend briefly before climbing to a maximum altitude of 30,100 feet and then dropping to roughly 27,500 feet. Flightradar24 says the plane then climbed once more reaching 29,300 feet and levelling off once again before eventually spiralling into a fall to the ground.
Is Prigozhin definitely dead? Although Rosaviatsiya listed Prigozhin’s name among those aboard, it did not explicitly pronounce the Wagner chief dead. As of late Wednesday evening, Russian officials said that they had recovered eight bodies, though none had been named by that time. All were described as badly burned. Some Russian outlets identified the plane’s tail number as RA-02795, which is believed to belong to Prigozhin. According to flight-tracking site FlightRadar24, a second plane linked to Prigozhin with the tail number RA-02878 departed Moscow shortly after the first, but returned to land after news of the crash broke. None of these reports have been officially confirmed. Who else was on board? In addition to Prigozhin, Rosaviatsiya said Dmitry Utkin – a former Russian special forces operator and alleged co-founder of the PMC – was also traveling on the jet, as was Valery Chekalov, whom the US considers to be the deputy head of Wagner. The remaining passengers listed were Sergey Propustin, Evgeny Makaryan, Alexander Totmin, and Nikolay Matuseev, identified by Russian news outlets as Wagner. Who is Evgeny Prigozhin? A successful businessman in the catering industry and a confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin founded the Wagner Group, a private military company (PMC), in 2014. Although the Wagner Group was founded in 2014 and took part in hostilities in the formerly Ukrainian Donbass region, Prigozhin refused to confirm his role in the company until last year. Wagner troops have operated in multiple African countries and in Syria, where they reportedly clashed with US forces in 2018. With his troops fighting in the months-long battle for the city of Artyomovsk (known as Bakhmut in Ukraine), Prigozhin made regular statements to the media and publicly feuded with the Russian Defense Ministry earlier this year, accusing top officials of mismanaging the conflict and denying him adequate ammunition. How did Wagner’s mutiny play out? Prigozhin claimed in June that Russian forces shelled a Wagner field camp, where the PMC’s troops had been resting and rearming following the capture of Artyomovsk the previous month. The Wagner founder then announced that he would lead his forces in a march on Moscow to remove allegedly corrupt military officials. Putin described the mutiny as a “stab in the back” and promised “decisive actions” to restore order. However, less than a day after it began, the rebellion was defused thanks to mediation by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Prigozhin agreed that the men who took part in the mutiny would be redeployed to Belarus, while those who refused would be incorporated into units under the control of the Russian Defense Ministry. One of the leaders of last week’s coup in Niger has reportedly sought the assistance of Russian defense contractor Wagner Group PMC as the junta nears a deadline to either return the ousted president to power or face a possible military intervention by neighboring states.
General Salifou Moody allegedly made the request during a visit to Mali, where he met with a Wagner representative, the Associated Press reported on Saturday, citing French journalist Wassim Nasr, a senior research fellow at the Soufan Center. The meeting was first reported by France 24, and Nasr said he had confirmed the talks with a French diplomat and three people familiar with the matter in Mali. “They need (Wagner) because they will become their guarantee to hold onto power,” Nasr told AP, claiming that Wagner is considering the request. Neither Wagner nor Russian government officials have commented on the junta’s alleged request for help from the contractor. The Kremlin said on Friday that any interference in Niger from powers outside the region would be unlikely to improve the situation. “We continue to favor a swift return to constitutional normality without endangering human lives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has called the coup a “justified rebellion of the people against Western exploitation.” The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened to send troops into Niger if the coup leaders don’t return President Mohamed Bazoum to power by Sunday. Bazoum has been under house arrest since his ouster and has asked the US “and the entire international community” to restore his government. The militaries of several ECOWAS members, including Nigeria, have agreed on a plan for their intervention in Niger. Wagner has become a major player in the African security landscape, though it’s unclear how its influence on the continent stands after its mutiny against Moscow in June. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that the future of the contracts Wagner signed with various African countries is a matter for those client governments to decide. The firm’s troops have reportedly operated in such countries as Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mozambique and the Central African Republic. Mali and Burkina Faso are among the ECOWAS member states that have sided with the Niger junta following the coup. Bazoum accused the two neighbors of employing “criminal Russian mercenaries.” African Freedom Institute President Franklin Nyamsi warned in an RT interview on Thursday that if ECOWAS carried out its threat to send troops into Niger, it would be seen as a declaration of war on the junta’s allies, including Mali and Burkina Faso. Such a conflict could escalate dramatically as the warring factions seek help from the world’s leading military powers, he said, adding, “We are now at the door of a world African war.” The rise of private military companies (PMCs) has transformed the landscape of modern warfare and security operations. One of the most prominent and influential PMCs is G4S, a global leader in providing security and related services. This essay explores the history and evolution of G4S, highlighting its pivotal role in shaping the PMC industry.
Early Beginnings: G4S traces its roots back to 1901 when Marius Hogrefe established a small Danish company called København Frederiksberg Nattevagt (Copenhagen Frederiksberg Night Watch). The company primarily focused on offering night watchmen services. Over time, the firm expanded its offerings and established a reputation for reliable and professional security services. Expansion and Diversification: In the 20th century, København Frederiksberg Nattevagt underwent significant changes and growth. In 1968, it merged with Falck, a Danish firm specializing in emergency services, to form Falck Group. The new entity expanded its operations globally and became a multinational corporation providing security, ambulance, and other emergency services. Creation of G4S: In 2004, Falck Group's security division merged with Securicor, a British security services company, giving birth to Group 4 Securicor. This merger was a significant milestone in the company's history and marked its entry into the global security market on a larger scale. The name G4S was adopted in 2005 to reflect the combined strength and reach of the two organizations. Global Expansion and Diversification: Under the banner of G4S, the company embarked on an aggressive expansion strategy, acquiring several prominent security firms worldwide. These acquisitions enabled G4S to establish a vast international presence and diversify its services beyond traditional security. The company ventured into areas such as prison management, transportation and logistics security, event management, and technology-enabled security solutions. Role in the PMC Industry: G4S's role in the PMC industry cannot be overstated. The company played a significant part in shaping the evolution of PMCs by professionalizing the sector and setting industry standards. G4S demonstrated that private entities could deliver high-quality security services, often on par with government agencies, thereby challenging traditional notions of state monopoly on security. Controversies and Challenges: G4S's journey has not been without its share of controversies and challenges. One of the most notable incidents occurred during the 2012 London Olympics when G4S failed to fulfill its contractual obligations to provide security personnel, resulting in the British military being deployed to fill the gap. This incident shed light on the potential risks associated with outsourcing critical security functions to private companies. Adapting to Changing Dynamics: In recent years, G4S has adapted to changing global dynamics and emerging security threats. The company has focused on integrating technology into its service offerings, leveraging innovations like AI-powered surveillance systems, biometrics, and data analytics. By embracing technological advancements, G4S has positioned itself as a leader in providing advanced security solutions to meet the evolving needs of clients. The history of G4S reflects the evolution of private military companies and their impact on modern security operations. From its humble beginnings as a night watchmen service to becoming a global industry leader, G4S has reshaped the landscape of security services. Despite facing challenges and controversies, G4S has consistently demonstrated its ability to adapt and innovate, ensuring its relevance in an ever-changing world. As the PMC industry continues to evolve, G4S is likely to play a pivotal role in shaping its future.
Who runs Wagner? Western intelligence agencies have long believed Wagner to be financed by Russian oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s chef” for his lucrative catering contracts with the Kremlin and close ties to the Russian president. Prigozhin is also wanted by the United States for funding the state-backed troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency, which is accused of influencing the 2016 US presidential election in favour of Donald Trump. For years, Prigozhin (who turned a hotdog stand into a food empire after serving serious prison time) vehemently denied the Wagner connection. He sued journalists who made the link, even as he raked in wealth from the group’s deployments overseas in Syria and Africa. Then, in September, Prigozhin finally admitted he owned Wagner, having been filmed touring prisons to offer convicts early release in exchange for six months fighting alongside Wagner in Ukraine. “I cleaned the old weapons myself, sorted out the bulletproof vests myself and found specialists who could help me with this,” Prigozhin said in a statement released by his Concord catering firm. “From that moment, on May 1, 2014, a group of patriots was born, which later came to be called the Wagner Battalion. I am proud that I was able to defend their right to protect the interests of their country.” Experts suspect the Russian state may directly bankroll parts of Wagner too, supplying them with weapons and aircraft and offering training. The French government has accused the Kremlin of “providing material support” to Wagner where it operates in Mali, West Africa, for example. Back home, Wagner’s training base is next door to that of the Russian army, although officially the site is listed as a children’s holiday camp. And there have been cases of Wagner troops evacuated from conflict zones to Russian military hospitals, Currie says, including after that 2018 US air strike on attacking Wagner forces in Syria. “Generally, private military companies would not receive such benefits, specialised military health care, from the state.” In 2021, Russian journalist Ilya Barabanov, along with Nader Ibrahim at the BBC, stumbled upon a discarded Wagner tablet and uncovered a “shopping list” of weapons and equipment the organisation had sent Russian authorities directly. It’s not the only time the group has been careless. In August, a pro-Kremlin war blogger inadvertently revealed the location of Wagner’s main base in eastern Luhansk, Ukraine, when he posted a photo with fighters there. Within days, Ukrainian rockets had reduced it to rubble. Currie recalls seeing the image pop up on open-source intelligence channels, as investigators, both amateur and professional, around the world scrambled to identify its location. “There were clues like a sign on a building we were looking at. Then I woke up the next day and someone had cracked it and the Ukrainians had taken it out.” The casualties for Wagner were reportedly grave. Prigozhin himself had been photographed at the base just before the strike, but he soon resurfaced at a high-profile funeral elsewhere, disproving rumours he’d been killed. Russian outlet Medusa reports that, before the invasion, Prigozhin had somewhat fallen out of favour with the Kremlin, publicly feuding with many of its high-ranking officials and other oligarchs. A large Wagner force was not deployed to Ukraine until the end of the war’s first month, when UK intelligence said more than 1000 mercenaries had joined the fighting. What does Wagner mean for the Ukraine war, and for Putin?
As the first Russian missiles fell on Kyiv, Wagner mercenaries were reportedly already prowling its streets with orders to hunt down Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. (Ukraine’s military later posted photos of dog tags it said belonged to the dead “Wagnerists” whose assassination plots it foiled.) Many months on, Ukraine continues to win back ground, and Russia is increasingly turning to Wagner in tight spots. The private army appears to have been allocated entire sections of the frontline like a normal military unit, according to UK Ministry of Defence intelligence. At times, they are helping command squads. But, while the mercenaries have had greater success against Ukraine’s seasoned fighters of the Donbas (compared to a Russian army beset by low morale and inexperience) the group, and the other rag-tag mix of “volunteers” the Kremlin has deployed to Ukraine, is unlikely to win the war for Russia. Already, Wagner appears to be feeling the pinch of poor co-ordination across the wider Russian military machine. And it is thought to be suffering its heaviest losses of any conflict so far, such is the scale of the fighting. While Currie says there is still strong support for Putin among Wagner channels online, she is seeing frustration too. “We don’t have exact figures of how many Wagner mercenaries died [in the recent strike on their Luhansk base] for example, but it was a lot. Enough to generate frustration. There’s quite a legacy of Wagner mercenaries feeling abandoned to an extent by Russia.” Ex-Wagner fighter Gabidullin, for example, has hit out at the Kremlin for abandoning his team at that US airstrike during the 2018 battle in Syria, and for using Wagner to hide Russian army casualties. Officially, Wagner doesn’t exist. Mercenaries – contractors who fight wars for money rather than as part of an army – aren’t legal in Russia (nor in most countries, including the US and Australia, in light of international bans). But private groups of this kind still operate all around the world, including America’s Blackwater (now known as Academi), whose staff were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians in 2007. Wagner has left its own (much larger) trail of war crimes across the globe, says the chair of the UN working group on mercenaries, Dr Sorcha MacLeod. “Russia is not the only country with a mercenary group,” she says. “We know Turkey has one too, but Wagner, based on what we know about where it’s been and where it operates, seems to be the biggest. It’s really a proxy force of the Russian state.” Wagner is pronounced “Vagner” for Hitler’s favourite composer. It’s also the call sign of the group’s unconfirmed leader, Dmitry Utkin, a former Russian military intelligence lieutenant, Wagner fan and suspected neo-Nazi. Wagner emerged in 2014 as Russia seized Crimea, part of the “little green men” (soldiers in unmarked green uniforms) sent in to take Ukrainian territory. Utkin himself was wounded in the fighting that became the long-running war of the Donbas. Unofficially, Wagner mercenaries are sometimes called “the cleaners” or “the orchestra”, known for “making noise” with brutal onslaughts. In Syria, they’ve backed Bashar al-Assad’s regime and guarded lucrative oil fields; in Libya, they joined the forces of rebel general Khalifa Haftar in 2019 after he attacked the UN-backed government in the capital, Tripoli. And across Africa, they’ve been brought in to help military governments crack down on rebellion and terrorist cells (and seize diamond mines). Now in Ukraine, they’re back fighting in large numbers, reportedly “rented out” as a strike team by Russian army units and increasingly acting as a regular part of the military. Using mercenaries means Russia can distance itself from Wagner atrocities – the group often do the Kremlin’s dirty work, experts say – and it helps quell fears at home of Russian soldiers returning in body bags. “It’s about plausible deniability,” says MacLeod. “Russia says – and has said when we’ve sent them allegation letters [over Wagner] human rights violations – that mercenaries aren’t permitted under Russian law, so they can’t be doing that.” Hired guns are not new – popes and kings have used them – and, historically, they’ve been known for brutality. They do not have the same chain of command and oversight that regular armies do. But, in modern times, Wagner has taken that to a new level, says MacLeod. “There are no ID numbers, or uniforms, no accountability. Locals might recognise them as the white guys, or the Russians, even as Wagner, but usually that’s as far as it goes.” Fighters are made to sign non-disclosure agreements and are hired through a complex web of shell companies. In fact, many experts now understand the group as more of a network of Russian military contractors – code for the Kremlin outsourcing – rather than one single business entity. “Of course, for an organisation like this that operates in the shadows, it suits them for there to be speculation about who they are, their size, where they are,” MacLeod says. “That adds to the mystique.” Still, journalists and international investigators such as MacLeod have pieced together a picture of how Wagner operates.
Who (and how) does Wagner recruit? The group typically recruits in code, says researcher Isabella Currie at La Trobe University, offering spots to “musicians on tour for the Wagner Conservatory” or, more recently, for “a picnic in Ukraine”. Sometimes they will pose with violins or other musical instruments in photos from the battlefield. “It’s a joke and everyone’s in on it,” Currie says. “It’s just that the joke is terrifying.” Recruits tend to be ex-military personnel, in their 30s and 40s, often with criminal histories or hailing from small Russian towns without much work. They have a reputation as elite fighters, more seasoned than the typical Russian soldier. The bar for selection and training, though, has been lowered more and more as they take big losses in Ukraine. All up, Wagner is thought to be about 10,000 fighters strong. Its casualties in combat are not recorded publicly and so, as researcher Dr Joana de Deus Pereira writes, mercenaries can “vanish without a name”. Sometimes bodies of slain soldiers are not recovered, or their families are denied agreed compensation, told their loved one wasn’t a soldier at all but was working for a gas company or some other front. Generally, though, the pay and compensation deal is very attractive to recruits – much more than the salary on offer through the Russian army. WASHINGTON, April 30 -- Erik Prince - the founder of the controversial private security firm Blackwater and a prominent supporter of US President Donald Trump - has been pushing a plan to deploy a private army to help topple Venezuela's socialist president, Nicholas Maduro. Over the last several months, the sources said, Prince has sought investment and political support for such an operation from influential Trump supporters and wealthy Venezuelan exiles. In private meetings in the United States and Europe, Prince sketched out a plan to field up to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire on behalf of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, according to two sources with direct knowledge of Prince's pitch. One source said Prince has conducted meetings about the issue as recently as mid-April. White House National Security Council Spokesman Garrett Marquis declined to comment when asked whether Prince had proposed his plan to the government and whether it would be considered. A person familiar with the administration's thinking said the White House would not support such a plan. Venezuela opposition officials have not discussed security operations with Prince, said Guaido spokesman Edward Rodriguez, who did not answer additional questions from Reuters. Politically far-fetched The Maduro government did not respond to a request for comment. Some US and Venezuelan security experts called it politically far-fetched and potentially dangerous because it could set off a civil war. A Venezuelan exile close to the opposition agreed but said private contractors might prove useful, in the event Maduro’s government collapses, by providing security for a new administration in the aftermath. A spokesman for Prince, Marc Cohen, said this month that Prince "has no plans to operate or implement an operation in Venezuela" and declined to answer further questions. Lital Leshem - the director of investor relations at Prince's private equity firm, Frontier Resource Group - earlier confirmed Prince’s interest in Venezuela security operations. "He does have a solution for Venezuela, just as he has a solution for many other places," she said, declining to elaborate on his proposal. The two sources with direct knowledge of Prince's pitch said it calls for starting with intelligence operations and later deploying 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers-for-hire from Colombia and other Latin American nations to conduct combat and stabilisation operations. 'Dynamic event' For Prince, the unlikely gambit represents the latest effort in a long campaign to privatise warfare. The wealthy son of an auto-parts tycoon has fielded private security contractors in conflict zones from Central Asia to Africa to the Middle East. One of Prince's key arguments, one source said, is that Venezuela needs what Prince calls a "dynamic event" to break the stalemate that has existed since January, when Guaido - the head of Venezuela's National Assembly - declared Maduro’s 2018 re-election illegitimate and invoked the constitution to assume the interim presidency. Maduro has denounced Guaido, who has been backed by most western nations, as a US puppet who is seeking to foment a coup. |
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