The mass death of employees of the private military company Wagner. Ghosts of war: how the Russian private army appeared in Syria. Who did he contact

During two campaigns in 2015-2017, PMCs lost up to a hundred killed and more than three hundred wounded soldiers in Syria.

The personnel documentation of the informal military unit "Wagner Group" was at the disposal of the Fontanka editors. Our story is about who dies and for what in the Syrian Republic, not getting into the official statistics of the Ministry of Defense, and about why the words of the generals are slyness. And also about how the private war has changed after Syria signed a document with the Russian Euro Polis LLC.

PMC Wagner is an informal military organization that took part in the fighting in the Donbass (on the side of Novorossiya) and in Syria (on the side of the Assad government). For the first time, Fontanka spoke about the activities of this PMC in the fall of 2015. The employees of PMC Wagner are not related to any official power structure of the Russian Federation, however, they received military orders and medals for their combat work.

Whom the Ministry of Defense despises

It is officially recognized that 39 Russian servicemen were killed during the operation in Syria. The Ministry of Defense should not include the killed and wounded fighters of the Wagner group in its statistics, considering these losses as "a myth about some dead "contract soldiers" from a "mysterious" organization." The Reuters publication, according to which Russia lost 36 people in Syria in 2016, and approximately 40 in seven months of 2017, was considered by the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, to be “mockery”, deserving of contempt: “Again, some rumors are used as sources , social media data and fictitious conversations with allegedly "intimidated" anonymous "relatives and acquaintances" ”(quote from RIA Novosti).

If “data from social networks and conversations” is not enough, documents and photographs must be provided. The content of the documents at the disposal of the editors confirms the assumption that since the end of 2015, a private battalion has been operating in Syria in the interests of the structures of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its fighters are being trained on the territory of the military unit of the Ministry of Defense in the Krasnodar Territory.

Unaccounted losses of Palmyra

Wagner's fighting in Syria can be roughly divided into two campaigns.

The first began in September 2015, when the companies arrived in Syria. Until the beginning of 2016, the units did not conduct large-scale actions. Serious battles and losses began in February - March, during the operation to liberate Palmyra. In April - May 2016, according to our data, the main combat units of the group, having handed over heavy weapons and equipment, were withdrawn from Syria to Russia.

According to the lists, which we believe were compiled by the administration of the Wagner group, approximately 32 private fighters died during this campaign. About 80 fighters were seriously injured, requiring long-term inpatient treatment in hospitals. The approximation in our calculations is explained by the fact that not in all cases it was possible to establish the fate of the wounded who were in critical condition.

The second campaign started in early 2017. The documents available to Fontanka date back to June 2017. The main activity is Palmyra and the adjacent oil fields. Fontanka does not have such accurate evidence as for the period 2015-2016. Based on the analysis of available documents and the words of eyewitnesses, one can speak of losses ranging from 40 to 60 killed and two to three times as many wounded. We were also able to document the affiliation to the Wagner group of several fighters whose deaths in Syria were reported by Fontanka, RBC and the Conflict Intelligence Team in 2017.

In between the two operations in Syria, there were support units, as well as groups of specialists who participated in local skirmishes. During this period, mountainous Latakia, the oil fields of Shaer and Aleppo are mentioned.

The documents that fell into our hands - self-filled application forms, copies of passports from "personal files", photographs of candidates taken in the "security service" - allow us to confidently speak about the belonging of the fighters to the structure known as "Wagner PMC" and which in the documents is referred to as the "Wagner Group", "Battalion Tactical Group" Wagner "or simply" the company ".

The fact of the death of a fighter is more difficult to establish, but in most cases we succeeded. Comments of officials, reports in the media, especially in those media that can in no way be attributed to the opposition, photographs of burial places, messages from grieving relatives on social networks and condolences from friends, in our opinion, are sufficient confirmation.

The most difficult question is to confirm the place of death. Fontanka believes that in at least ten to fifteen cases it was able to convincingly prove this.

For example, in March 2016, photographs appeared on the Internet resources of the Islamic State (banned in Russia), which were allegedly taken from dead Russians who fought on the side of Assad. Among them are several photos of a fair-haired guy with a memorable face in Syrian landscapes. On video frames - the mutilated body of the same person.

"Fontanka" established the name of the deceased. This is Ivan Vladimirovich Sumkin, born in 1987. Callsign "Varyag", Wagner's reconnaissance company. He is from a village in the Orenburg region. He served in the motorized rifle troops, then worked as an electric welder. In the spring of 2015 he came to Wagner. March 16, 2016 died. Where the grave of Ivan Sumkin is located, and whether he was buried at all, is unknown - according to Fontanka, his body was not removed from the battlefield. Ivan is survived by his wife and two-year-old son.

A video about the awarding of the Order of Courage to Alexander Karchenkov appeared on Channel 9 of Stary Oskol on November 3, 2016. It was reported that on September 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the posthumous awarding of Starooskol Karchenkov, who died during the liberation of Palmyra in the spring of 2016. The order was presented to the widow and mother of Karchenkov by the head of the district.

Lyudmila Karchenkova said that her husband went to Syria to serve under a contract in January 2016, and in March it was reported that he died "during the mission."

Alexander Karchenkov is not in the official lists of the dead published by the Ministry of Defense, which General Konashenkov suggests that the press be guided by. And of course, a 45-year-old unemployed, reserve foreman, could not be a secret officer of the Special Operations Forces.

As follows from the documents of the Wagner company, Karchenkov got a job there in December 2015, was part of a material support company and died on March 13, 2016. Indeed, near Palmyra. As evidence, there is a photograph of Karchenkov taken when signing up for service at the Wagner base in Molkino, a self-filled questionnaire, an agreement and a non-disclosure agreement.

There are more than forty similar stories with only well-known surnames. Syrian martyrology "Fontanka" - these are documents, photographs, awards of "Wagnerites". Each, when applying for a “job”, filled out a questionnaire, each was photographed and checked on a polygraph. These documents were made available to readers for the first time. We publish the stories of men who went to fight for 240 thousand rubles a month and found their death in the Syrian desert. Someone pointed out “patriotism” or “changes in the geopolitical position of Russia” as the reason for admission. The majority referred to loans and a desire to improve their financial situation.

Two Russian citizens who did not return from Syria were not included in this list. Fighters with the call signs "Altai" and "Bertolet" (their full details are known to the editors) are considered missing. They disappeared on the same day that Ivan Sumkin died, whose body was left on the battlefield.

The chances that Altai and Bertolet are alive and in captivity are minimal, but there is such a possibility, and Fontanka refrains from publishing their names and photographs.

How Wagner got lost in Molkino

Fontanka, RBC, Wall Street Journal and Zeit wrote that personnel formation and training of the Wagner group unit takes place on the territory of a military base in the village of Molkino, Krasnodar Territory, in the same place where the 10th separate brigade of the GRU Special Forces of the Ministry of Defense is deployed. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of evidence on social networks that in order to join the PMC, one must go to Molkino and head straight to the checkpoint with a question about Wagner. But for the Ministry of Defense this is not an argument, because it is regarded as rumors and slander.

Having studied the photographs of the Wagner security service taken during the check of the candidates being hired, Fontanka believes that these photos convincingly prove that an armed structure, not provided for by any Russian law, is located precisely on the territory of the Molkino training ground. In the Fontanka investigation, you can see how the delinquent "Wagnerites" are treated and even see the head of the mysterious "company's security service."

Tramp, Gray-haired, Wagner and Ratibor surrounded the President

The commanders of the "mysterious organization" do not hide their faces. In December 2016, the commander of the group Dmitry Utkin and his deputy Andrey Troshev appeared on the footage of the protocol shooting of the Heroes of the Fatherland ceremony in the Kremlin. In January 2017, a photograph was found on the Web, apparently from the same reception, where Utkin and Troshev, as well as two other men with high awards, were captured together with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Fontanka found out who these mysterious cavaliers are next to the president. Their names are Tramp and Ratibor, in the world - Andrey Bogatov and Alexander Kuznetsov. One of them just before the Ukrainian events was released from the colony, where he was serving a term for kidnapping and robbery. The other did not have violations worse than illegal parking.

Palmyra-2016 and Palmyra-2017

The Kremlin reception of December 2016 is the highest point of Wagner's takeoff. Then something went wrong. The fighting in Syria in 2016 and 2017, as veterans of both campaigns told Fontanka, are fundamentally different.

In 2015-2016, according to participants in the events, training in Molkino took up to two months, ammunition was allocated for study in unlimited quantities, including expensive rounds for anti-tank missile systems. In Syria, the group received T-72 tanks, BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, and D-30 122-mm howitzers. The states of the spring 2016 model provided for 2349 personnel, including four reconnaissance and assault companies, a group headquarters, a tank company, a combined artillery group, reconnaissance and support units. There were 1,500-2,000 fighters on a Syrian mission at the same time. Combat salaries and bonuses were paid on time, orders were not stinted.

At the end of that spring of 2016, the first misunderstanding came. The fact that, according to the initial agreement, five commanders of the Wagner group were presented to the title of Hero of Russia, Fontanka was informed by several informed interlocutors. Two passed through the filter of the awards department.

Before the withdrawal from Syria in April-May 2016, heavy weapons and military equipment were handed over. Most of the personnel was sent to the reserve - to sit at home and wait for a call on a business trip. When at the end of 2016 they began to assemble a team for a new expedition to the oil fields, it turned out that everything had changed.

Now, there are allegedly practically no weapons left at the Wagner base in Molkino, with the exception of a few machine guns, mostly at the guards.

Training is reduced to control firing, heavy infantry weapons crews (heavy machine guns, automatic mounted grenade launchers, mounted anti-tank grenade launchers) do not conduct practical firing from "regular" weapons.

Upon arrival in Syria at the beginning of 2017, according to the stories of those who returned, 20 rounds of ammunition were issued to the machine gun for zeroing weapons and four magazines and 120 rounds of ammunition as ammunition. Armament consisted of North Korean-made AK-47 assault rifles received from the Syrian side and several Kalashnikov PK and RPK machine guns. The second company got 1946 RP-46 company machine guns. In the Soviet army, these weapons in the troops were replaced by PCs and RPKs back in the 60s of the last century.

A couple of weeks later, several SVD sniper rifles and one or two AGS-17s entered service, which did not fundamentally solve the problem.

Instead of the T-72 tanks handed over in the spring of 2016, four or five T-62s were received. Instead of D-30 howitzers - about a dozen M-30 howitzers of the 1938 model, long removed from service in the Soviet army.

Fontanka does not have exact data on losses in the battles of January - May 2017. Based on fragmentary and undocumented stories, we can talk about 40-60 dead and three times the number of wounded. Seven Wagner fighters who died in 2017 are known by name, and all of them, apparently, did not return from Syria, since the group’s activities in the Donbass have been curtailed.

The number of losses exceeding the losses of 2016 at times, according to the participants in the events, is explained not only by the lack of weapons and military equipment, but also by the significantly reduced quality of personnel.

In 2017, the salary policy of the Wagner company changed. Now only a fighter of a reconnaissance and assault company involved in combat operations receives 240 thousand per month. The security of the Hayat plant, gunners, operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, and support units receive about 160,000 rubles a month. Unlike in previous years, there are delays.

They try to compensate for the decrease in quality with quantity. Two additional reconnaissance and assault companies have been deployed. Thus, the number of companies has been increased to six, and the number of infantry personnel in the group - to about 2 thousand people. Today, four companies are working in Syria, two companies have been temporarily sent to the reserve.

"Spring" in Syria

An additional source of recruitment for Wagner is the population of Donbass. Until 2017, citizens of Ukraine (or the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics) were not accepted to Wagner. The exception was the group "Karpaty", formed mainly from ethnic Ukrainians. The composition of this group was planned to be used for sabotage and deep reconnaissance in the rear of the Ukrainian troops, but, as they say, due to the poor training of personnel, these plans failed.

In 2017, the group was deployed to the Vesna unit (by call sign of the commander), its strength was increased to 100-150 people. In addition to Ukrainians, the group included residents of the Cossack regions of Russia and fifteen or twenty natives of Chechnya.

Oil, gas, Euro Polis

As of August 2017, according to Fontanka, the work of Wagner units in Syria is to protect and defend oil-bearing regions with the main object - the Khayan plant. If possible, advance and capture territory.

The main base is located on the tank track about 80 kilometers from Homs and 40 kilometers from the Hayan plant. In addition to Wagner, units of Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and similar units are based at the Tankodrome, including the showcase Syrian ISIS Hunters, the heroes of pretentious pr-videos. They are promised 500 US dollars for twenty days of a military operation, but the Syrians, judging by the stories of the Wagnerites, do not agree to fight on such conditions and often, having received military training, go into the armed opposition or into the very ISIS banned in Russia, for which they were supposed to hunt.

Fontanka has already talked about the agreements reached between Syrian government organizations and the Russian Euro Polis LLC, behind which are people from the structures of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin. LLC "Euro Polis" undertook to liberate and protect oil fields and factories for reimbursement of the costs of hostilities plus a quarter of the oil and gas produced. That is, to do exactly what the Wagner group is doing today (we talked about the probable connections of which with Yevgeny Prigozhin during the time of the “first Palmyra”). They say that now blue jackets with a white inscription "Euro Polis" are issued to all Wagner employees who depart on a Syrian business trip.

Judging by our information, since 2017, the financing of the Wagner campaign, its supply of weapons, equipment and ammunition has been carried out at the expense of the Syrian side and is accompanied by constant delays in payments and disputes over their amount.

Why did Sergey Kuzhugetovich quarrel with Evgeny Viktorovich

In 2016, the Wagner group clearly did not experience such problems. Now it has become bad not only with the supply: as eyewitnesses told Fontanka, interaction with army aviation and artillery (which was allegedly commonplace in 2016) has been reduced to almost zero, helicopters of the Russian group do not take part in the evacuation of the wounded of the Wagner battalion, which is significantly complicates their delivery to medical facilities. Military transport aviation allegedly no longer transports wounded Wagnerites, and they have to be taken out almost in the cargo compartments of charter flights of a Syrian airline flying to Rostov.

The reasons for the onset of cooling, according to Fontanka's sources, may be different.

Perhaps the conflict is caused by weak conspiracy in the activities of the quasi-military organization. If the army men were ready to tolerate an incomprehensible private structure on their territory, supply it with weapons, equipment and support it with fire as long as it remained a secret, then since the appearance of numerous information about Wagner and his team on the Web, the situation has changed. It is unlikely that the military command wants to bear responsibility for the actions of a detachment that is not bound by any formal laws and operates outside the boundaries of law. It is impossible not to note the coincidence: the time of the urgent withdrawal of Wagner from Syria with the actual disarmament and the suspension of recruitment and the time of the publication of Fontanka about Dmitry Utkin and his team.

According to one version, the reason was not at all serious for statesmen: a dispute about the number and dignity of awards. Fontanka has reason to believe that the reason for the cooling is much more significant.

Investigations by Fontanka, RBC, Novaya Gazeta, other media, and the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation convincingly showed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s almost monopoly position in government procurement of the Ministry of Defense and subordinated military structures. Legal entities associated with Prigozhin receive the lion's share of orders for the construction and maintenance of military camps, cleaning, occupy almost the entire military food market.

Judging by open information on the website of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, numerous claims and proceedings in cases of administrative offenses in arbitration courts and in courts of general jurisdiction, a wave of claims against companies associated with the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Concord holding has been growing since 2016. Companies and officials are brought to administrative responsibility for violating license requirements and for non-compliance with labor law, army control bodies, after checking military canteens, identify and document cockroaches, products with traces of mold and decay, after which they resort to penalties. Military prosecutors fix the construction work without the relevant documents, permits, projects and react - within the limits of their authority.

At the same time, a situation has arisen where the same military supply system, for example, is completely closed to the Concorde structures, and its restructuring promises many problems. The situation is similar with the maintenance and construction of military camps. Apparently, the military department can no longer refuse the services of a monopolist, although the leadership of the Ministry of Defense is unlikely to be happy with this state of affairs.

Games with their own private army, when possible profits go to a corporation, and all the bumps fall on the military, who are responsible for the operation in Syria, could overflow the cup of patience.

Another issue is the level at which the decision is made about the use (and the very existence) of a private battalion. And whose word weighs more at that level: the Minister of Defense or the owner of the Russian Kitsch restaurant.

Russian officials claim that our troops are not involved in the ground operation in Syria. But is it. Skynews journalists interviewed two former mercenaries who fought in Syria as part of the Wagner PMC.

“Only a small number of instructors and military advisers,” Russian officials keep saying that there is no need for a ground operation in Syria.

These claims about the low cost of the Syrian conflict for Russia may be seriously questioned by the story of two young people who argue that Russian involvement in the Syrian events is much larger and at a cost that the Putin administration is unlikely to be willing to admit.

The interlocutors told reporters that they were recruited by the private military company Wagner to serve in Syria and were taken there on board a Russian military transport aircraft.

For the equivalent of £3,000 a month, these men were thrown right into the thick of the fighting against insurgent groups, including the Islamic State.

Two of this group, Dmitry and Alexander, told reporters that they were happy only because they were alive.

“About 50/50,” says Alexander (not his real name). “Those who go there for money tend to die. Those who go to fight for an idea, to fight against the Americans, their special forces, have a better chance of surviving.”

“Approximately 500-600 people died there,” Dmitry says. “No one will ever know about them… It's a terrible thing. Nobody will ever know."

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev warned in February that the deployment of foreign ground forces in Syria could lead to a new world war. Probably, in his opinion, Russian mercenaries do not fall into their number - although analysts are not too surprised by this.

Military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer believes that the use of mercenaries is quite consistent with the Russian doctrine of "hybrid warfare".

“Obviously, Wagner exists. This kind of "volunteers" appear in the zones of various conflicts, where the Russian government wants to be represented. First Crimea, then Donbass, and today Syria. And they are all there illegally,” he adds.

They accuse the Russian authorities of hiding this information.

“Did anyone tell you about this? Sometimes the bodies are cremated, and the documents say “missing”, sometimes the papers say that the soldier was killed in the Donbass, and sometimes they write - a car accident or something like that,” says Alexander.

Dmitry claims that the number of Russian losses in Syria is in the hundreds.

“Sometimes they burn it, sometimes they don't,” he says. “Often it’s just a hole in the ground. A lot depends on how commanders treat the dead soldier,” he adds.

Dmitry has already returned to Moscow, but experiences still haunt him. When he was recruited by Wagner, he handed over his papers. He went to the training base to look for them, but ended up with the police instead. The officer told him in no uncertain terms that "Wagner never existed."

Dmitry said he knew about 50 other Syrian survivors who, like him, roam the streets of Moscow without documents.

“No one knows me. He just threw me out,” says Dmitry.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

Private military companies on the territory of the Russian Federation are officially outlawed, which, however, does not prevent people close to the ruling elite from earning billions of rubles on the oil and gas trade in Syria with their help.

A real explosion of indignation of the public of the Russian Federation was caused by information about the death of Russian guys during the shelling of the column by the US Air Force. Until now, the exact number of dead is not known, and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation frankly stated that they had nothing to do with these people, since they all served under a contract with some illegal structures without legal status.

In the Russian hinterland, the journalists managed to talk to fellow countrymen of the militants who died in Syria and found out that they were leaving for Syria under various pretexts, without revealing either the true purpose of their trip or the exact location. So, two guys left, allegedly to the Krasnodar Territory for the construction of the Kerch crossing, only then it turned out that they were in Syria ...

The mother of 34-year-old Ruslan Gavrilov until the last thought that her son was engaged in the construction and restoration of houses in Syria, the truth was revealed only after his death.

“I used to be in the Donbass, but we don’t know what he did there,” says the mother of the deceased, Faina Gavrilova. – Then he went to Syria under the same pretext, but he never returned home alive…

According to the mother, the son did not serve in the army and did not hold a machine gun in his hands, who and why recruited him to participate in hostilities - does not know. He says that Ruslan did not even pass a medical examination before leaving.

He did not have a normal job, he worked part-time at a construction site, but this was not a permanent job, but the family really needed money - a small child was growing up. Faina Gavrilova wonders why the Russian Defense Ministry hides the truth and does not speak about all the Russians who died in Syria.

“All we know is that some military operation failed in Syria and many Russians died,” says opposition politician Alexei Navalny. - No matter how we feel about the fact that the guys are going to Syria to fight as mercenaries, there is only one truth - Russian citizens died, but they intentionally hide the truth from us ...

According to Navalny, the Americans reported that the US Air Force bombed a convoy in which some people were traveling, and before that they asked the Russian Ministry of Defense for information about the presence of Russian soldiers there. According to the official statement of the US Secretary of Defense, the answer was received: "There are no Russian soldiers in this column!"

- What happens? That the Russian Ministry of Defense betrayed its own citizens? Alexey Navalny is perplexed. - The Americans reluctantly admit that they have lost, among others, Russian soldiers. After all, it was the death of our people that gave rise to talk that the Third World War began in Syria, and this is already a very serious statement in light of the fact that the soldiers of the American army shot the Russians!

And how then to understand the monstrous comment of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that there is no reason to declare mourning for the dead.

It turns out that they simply disowned these citizens of Russia, deliberately placing them outside the Law! And this despite the fact that it is with their participation that an entrepreneur from Putin's entourage earns tens of millions of rubles!

The question arises, what are these Russian soldiers doing in Syria? What private companies do they participate in and why? Who benefits from putting them outside the law, given that the financing of these dubious military campaigns comes directly from people close to the President of the Russian Federation?

Russian reserve colonel Dmitry Utkin, who received the call sign "Wagner" back in 2013, has never hidden his ties with Vladimir Putin. There are many photographs where they celebrate some events together and shake hands.

Officially, no organization called Wagner PMC (private military company) simply exists! And the thing is that the legislation of the Russian Federation does not recognize these very private military companies, allowing only the presence of individual civilians.

That is, people are deliberately thrown into this “gray zone” and they go to fight in Syria solely at their own peril and risk, realizing that in their homeland they can be prosecuted for their actions.

Money is allocated for them in “cash”, which cannot be traced, and the fighters recruited by Wagner PMCs go to the Donbass or Syria, but at the same time they are not interested in who and why they work. Their main goal is to sell their military experience for as high a price as possible.

“These people sign contracts on their own, sometimes it is simply impossible to track their future fate,” explains Vladimir Yefimov, chairman of the Sverdlovsk Public Fund of Special Forces Veterans. - It is only known that one of their bases is located near Krasnodar.

It is there that they conclude contracts and undergo the necessary military training. I only know that they are offered very serious money, for example, a good sniper can get 10 thousand dollars or more for a successful operation.

Therefore, there is no end to those who wish, which is not surprising in the conditions of total unemployment in some regions of Russia. It would be foolish to assume that the Wagner PMC exists without the "blessing" of the state bodies of the Russian Federation.

I know that those who cooperate with the special forces of the GRU of the Russian Federation are working seriously in Syria, and in all other cases they recruit militants by means of private military campaigns. After this ridiculous death of the guys in Syria, those who want to, of course, will temporarily decrease, but time goes by, everything is forgotten ...

Recall that this is not so much about the liberation of Syria, but about a banal business, where people close to Vladimir Putin have the main financial interest, and the rest get only crumbs from the master's table!

So, a quarter of the oil and gas that was reclaimed for the incumbent Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will go to a company associated with Putin's restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In return, PMC Wagner undertakes to liberate factories, oil refineries and gas fields. That is, it makes sense to recruit people, conduct trainings for them near Rostov on the official base of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, then send them to the Donbass or to Syria to carry out military operations, and in case of their death, pay “coffin” to grief-stricken mothers at the expense of taxpayers Russia.

And those cases when they fall into the epicenter of "hot spots" - this is already a reason for a serious investigation at the level of official structures. PMCs cannot have aviation, tanks, drones and satellite communications, all these are the privileges of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Meanwhile, the number of civilian militants from PMC Wagner is about two thousand people and their equipment is no worse than that of legally existing units.

Combat training and good equipment allow fighters to earn money both in the East of Ukraine and in Syria. Mercenary activity is prohibited by article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, however, the State Duma and the Russian Foreign Ministry are already talking about legalizing private military companies on the territory of the Russian Federation.

However, this alignment is not beneficial to the official Kremlin, where they are ready to pay money to mercenaries, but are not ready to officially recognize their existence. And while the issue of employment of men aged 20 to 55 has not been resolved in the regions of Russia, there will always be those who turn a blind eye to the illegal situation of a private military campaign and sign a contract even with Satan himself, just to feed their family.

But far from everyone will return home, and the disabled will not receive the status of a participant in hostilities and will forever remain illegal in their own country ...

"Reedus" managed to obtain confirmation of the catastrophic clash between Russian mercenaries and American troops in Syria.

The private military company Wagner suffered heavy losses in Syria as a result of the actions of American artillery and aircraft, which covered the ground units of their Kurdish allies. Information about this appeared on the Web on February 9, while the data on those killed were reported contradictory.

On that day, the American television channel CBS, citing an unnamed Pentagon official, reported that the troops of the international coalition led by the United States on February 7 dealt a powerful blow to pro-government troops in Syria. The story noted that this "was the first time that Russian citizens were killed in a US airstrike in Syria." There were no other details, and officials declined to comment.

The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, said that the militias supporting the Syrian authorities came under fire from the coalition in the province of Deir ez-Zor due to military actions not coordinated with the Russians. The department stressed that there are no Russian military personnel in that area.

On February 10, some Russian media in their publications referred to messages in one of the popular Telegram channels, which posted four audio recordings at once and a transcript of conversations between witnesses of the American attack. From the negotiations, it followed that the Wagner PMC column was first subjected to an artillery and then an air attack, as a result of which hundreds of fighters were killed.

At the same time, the “Wagner group”, for its part, was not supported by artillery due to the fact that it was allegedly disabled by American combat drones, and the soldiers did not have portable air defense systems with them.

“There are 177 killed, this is only the fifth company. The "Two" was practically not hooked, and the "Five" was completely destroyed. They were rolled out, ****, by aviation, turntables and artillery. There, ****, these Kurds flooded with the Americans. The boys just didn't stand a chance. “Five” lay down almost all, the remnants are heavy, now the “Tulip” will come, ****, tonight already at night, we will meet, ”a source told an unknown interlocutor on one of the audio recordings.

“They lined up in a column, And they did not reach these, ****, three hundred meters, ****, to the positions, ******. There, one platoon went forward, and these stood in a column. And they, in short, did not reach the metro three hundred, and those, *****, raised the American flag, and direct artillery began to shoot hard at them ******* [shoot]. And then the turntables flew up and started to ****** [attack] everyone who was there, *****. Here they ran. Right now, the guy called, in short, a total of 215 - "two hundred", *****. A total of 215, like so, *****. There, in short, they rolled out, *****, just harshly, *****, identified themselves, *****. What were our hopes for? Like, themselves ******** [run away], or what? Scared, *****? They can’t identify anyone at all, there are a lot of people there. In general, this is how it is. They just blasted a standing column with artillery, but the infantry did not move forward, they blasted it with pure artillery. And ****** [the end], here, ”said the second.

Reedus managed to obtain unofficial confirmation of the fact of a clash between Russian mercenaries and American troops in Syria from the lawyer of the International Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, Alexander Ionov.

“According to my sources, more than two hundred people died. The exact number of those killed will be clear within a few days, negotiations are underway on the presence in this corridor. The column was attacked on the march. It is not completely clear what goals and objectives were pursued by the representatives of the Wagner company, gathering their units and subdivisions for a march towards the Euphrates,” Ionov said.

Also, the Committee was able to restore an approximate picture of what happened.

“After talking with the Syrian military, we concluded that our fighters came under heavy fire from artillery mounts that were covering the pro-American Kurdish units. Further, two US Air Force helicopters launched a missile and bomb attack on those who had taken refuge behind the ruins. People were simply finished off,” the expert added.

Alexander Ionov considers what happened as a possible revenge of the Pentagon for the death of American military advisers in the Idlib region as a result of a retaliatory strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces after the heroic death of Su-25 attack aircraft pilot Roman Filipov.

“During the attack on our plane in Idlib, the Russian side responded with air strikes on militant concentration points. Perhaps these points were American military advisers. Most likely they were among these 30 people whom ours laid down. And here, apparently, the Americans showed integrity, decided to take revenge, and struck, but not at the units and formations of regular Russian troops, but at the allies - Wagner PMC and militias of Syrian origin, ”Ionov believes.

“This does not change the fact that Russian citizens died. There is not just a civil war going on in Syria, as they try to make it out to be. There is a war on terrorism in Syria, and, unfortunately, the Americans provide all kinds of patronage to the units of the so-called Free Syrian Army, to the Kurdish units - to those who are responsible, among other things, for attacks on our military, for downed planes. The Americans want this conflict to continue and the bloodless Syrian army has a great need for officers. The people who died there are the heroes we must remember. They accepted death not for some corporate interests, but protecting the perimeter from terrorists who have been tormenting the Syrian Republic for six years,” Alexander Ionov concluded.

The reaction in Runet to this information is very different: some users believe that all this information is not true, others are horrified by the number of losses, users from Ukraine are mostly gloating.

Officially, the death of Russian citizens by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has not yet been confirmed.

https://www.site/2018-02-13/intervyu_s_suprugoy_pogibshego_v_sirii_uralskogo_boyca_chvk_vagnera

Where were they sent and why? How pigs were sent to slaughter

Interview with the wife of the Ural fighter "PMC Wagner", who died in Syria

Information is confirmed that on February 7, many fighters of the Russian private military company Wagner were killed in the Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor. The site managed to communicate with the wife of one of the residents of the Sverdlovsk region, who lost his life on a Syrian business trip.

Earlier, the Conflict Intelligence Team named the names of two residents of the city of Asbest who died in Syria - this is 38-year-old Stanislav Matveev and 45-year-old Igor Kosoturov. We talked with the widow of the first, Elena Matveeva, as well as with the Asbest ataman Oleg Surnin, in whose Cossack village the dead have been for the last two years.

The mourning news reached the relatives on February 9 from colleagues Kosoturov and Matveev in the LPR. Both of them fought in the militia in 2015-2016 and, it must be understood, it was there that they got contacts with representatives of the Wagner PMC. For the last few days, Elena Matveeva has been at home, constantly taking sedatives. She does not want to believe in the death of her husband, with whom they lived for 13 years. Keeps hoping. He also tries not to say anything to children, so as not to injure them. Before talking to us, the woman sends her sons for a walk.

How were you informed about your husband's death?

“Our ataman from Asbest called me. First he asked if we had been in contact with Stas for a long time. I replied that the third day there was no connection. And the girls who had husbands there also didn’t know anything. Literally a minute later, the ataman calls back and says: "Stas and Igor are no more." I was in the store at that moment, in Wright. She dropped the phone from her hands, now it's broken. I went home on the machine, I almost got hit by a car.

- When were you notified?

- Somewhere on the 9th. Happy.

- Did they tell you under what circumstances your husband died?

- Not. In the evening I called the chieftain again. He asked - do not boil, they say, nothing really is known yet. I started to recognize the bodies. She asked to order a priest, to sing like a human when they are delivered. The ataman then said that they should be delivered on Tuesday and officially called from Rostov. Whether this is true or not, I don't know. The Cossacks still have all the information from the Donbass (crying). I don't know how they have it all connected. I'm still trying not to believe in all this, I'm not preparing for the funeral.

- That is, the body will be delivered to Rostov?

- Someone says that in Rostov. But there still DNA-examination should be carried out. Someone says that they will immediately bring it to Yekaterinburg.

— Why Rostov?

- They originally went to Rostov.

- Do we understand correctly that your husband served in the 5th company?

— I don't know the company at all. He protected me from all this.

He takes out his smartphone and shows a video of the fight - supposedly the same one - sent by the wife of another deceased. It is doubtful that this is a real video (it seems that this is generally footage from a video game), but the wives of the victims now simply have no other information. “They were just shot there like dogs, like experimental rats,” says Matveeva. “The guys don’t even know that they are seen there. Like rabbits they are there, and they can't hide anywhere,” her mother adds while watching.

On another forwarded recording, audio, a male voice comments on what happened: “Hi. What they show in Syria... In short, this is the time... (defeated) us. In short, in one company there are 200 two-hundredths, in the other - 10 more. I don’t know about the third, but they were badly disheveled. They beat the Pindos. First, they covered us with "artoy". Then they raised four turntables and launched into the carousel, ... (shot) from large-caliber ones. Ours, apart from machine guns, had nothing at all, not to mention MANPADS. Made hell. The “Pindos” specifically knew that it was we, the Russians, who were coming. Ours went to press the plant, and they were sitting at this plant. In short, we ... (blows) got very hard. Ours are now sitting at the base and thumping. Lots of missing people. This is ... (everything is bad), in short. Another humiliation. No one takes us into account, as they did with the devils. I think that ours, our government, will now turn on the back, and no one will make any answer for this. (This entry was previously published in the telegram channel WarGonzo).

Have you heard about the Wagner detachment? Dmitry Utkin is his real name?

I heard from girls.

- When Stas went to Syria, did you know about it?

“He warned me. After Donbass, he was at home for about a year. Arrived in July. A year later, on September 27, he left - they had already boarded the train with the boys from Kedrovy. And now no one really gets in touch with us, no one says whether this is true or not. On the head as shied away - and silence now.

- You said, from Kedrovoe?

- Nine people from Asbest and from Kedrovy traveled a lot. I don't know anything else.

- Under what conditions did your husband go to Syria, how much was promised to pay him?

“He didn't tell me anything. He took care of me so much that he never let me in on such things. The boys were buried from the Donbass, and I was always the last to find out.

Who did he contact?

- With Igor Kosoturov, this is the commander of Stas. They are distant relatives. Stas has a cousin, and Igor was her husband before. And so they are always together. Cossacks.

- Did your husband manage to send you some money from there?

- For a month and a half - 109 thousand. This is because they were in Rostov. From September to October, while the teachings were. I received this money in December.

Why did he go to Syria?

- He, apparently, was dragged out by all these machine guns and army training. About six months after Donbass, he began to get bored already. To remember your machine gun, they say, how is my “swallow”. I dissuaded him and in a good way, and it almost came to a divorce. But I see that all this is useless already. He soaped himself and marked this path for himself. They even ran and trained here on their own.

- Your husband used to serve in the 12th GRU brigade, which was stationed here in Asbest before?

- Did you serve urgently?

- Not. Well, at least I don't know about it. This was his first trip to the Donbass. There must have been some sort of army.

- Who was he by military specialty?

- Ensign. I have his award, the St. George Cross from Donbass.

Did they give him a title?

- Seems to be yes. You better tell me who should call me now, where will they tell me from? If everything is fucking torn up there, how will they recognize him, just scrape off the pieces and say that this is my husband, or what?

- Have you met Stas for a long time?

— 13 years ago. I worked in the store as a salesman, and he was a freight forwarder. Goods were brought to us.

Why was he chosen for himself?

- He was a wonderful person. Didn't let me work. He always said: "Stay at home, take care of the children." He did all the repairs himself, all with his own hands. He was a master of European-style repairs, he traveled a lot to Yekaterinburg. He loved children very much: zoos, cinemas, he constantly dragged them to Wright.

— Are you not working now?

- What do you live on?

“I took care of his mother. She is disabled. They gave an allowance of 1380 rubles a month.

Matveeva's mother: “Of course, we need financial assistance. He left there, so I moved to my daughter and we live on my pension. She is missing - a daughter, me and two grandchildren - boys 6 and 8 years old.

- Elena, you said that your husband fought in the Donbass when he went there?

— In 2016.

- What prompted him?

- It was they who decided all this with the men. He came and said: “You see what a fuss is going on in the Donbass. We need to help people." He said that he would go build houses for refugees. He's still a builder.

- And how did you know that he was not engaged in construction there, but was fighting in the militia?

- My wife told me his colleague. He didn't even tell himself.

— How did you take it?

- I was nervous. But what will I do?

What brigade did he serve in?

- I dont know.

- How long did you stay there?

Probably seven months.

— How did you meet him after Donbass?

- The children screamed with joy so that other boys even complained. Like, no one meets them like that. He immediately went to his parents. His mother is sick, with diabetes, and I took care of her. Well, and there is a table, of course, booze, as usual.

Where did he go to work after Donbass?

- For repairs, everything moved for me.

- Now, when did he plan to return from Syria?

- In six weeks. He wanted to go for three months. Then for a week to return on a visit and again for three months. Then he called from there and said that it did not work out that way. This is a different state, it's not so easy to leave. I thought it would be back by March. There, my son's vacation is just, such plans were for the rest.

— What would you like now, what actions from the state would you like to see?

“I would like everyone to know about my husband. And not only about my husband, about all the boys who died there so stupidly. It's all wild! Where were they sent and why? They didn’t even have protection, as the pigs were sent to be slaughtered! I want the government to avenge them. I want the memory of the boys to remain, so that the wives would not be offended by their husbands, so that the children could be proud of their fathers.

We are talking with the chieftain of the village of Svyato-Nikolskaya, Oleg Surnin, at the opposite end of Asbest, in the office of the local branch of the Union of Afghan Veterans on Fizkulturnikov Street.

- How many Russians died, is there updated data?

- On the first day, when it all happened, there was information about 30 dead. The day before yesterday there was information already about the 217th.

— How many of them are from Sverdlovsk?

- Two: Igor Kosoturov and Stas Matveev. About the third information is still being specified - the call sign "Communist". He is not from our village, and it seems that he is not even from the region.

- Kosoturov and Matveev were Cossacks?

- They were from our village. We took them together the year before last on the day of reconnaissance.

- Have you known them for a long time?

- With Igor Kosoturov, we took humanitarian aid to Ukraine, to Luhansk. He stayed there. I then returned, I had to go to work.

- What year is this?

Looks like 2015.

- What kind of humanitarian aid did they carry?

- Products, medicines.

- How long did Igor Kosoturov stay in the LPR?

- About half a year. Then he got wounded. In the leg, shard. Came here for treatment.

Who did he fight there?

- Scout.

- He served in the 12th brigade of the GRU before Ukraine?

— Yes, from 101 kilometers.

What did you do after the injury?

- I went for another six months. Then I didn’t go to Lugansk anymore.

- Why?

— There were other plans for Syria already.

Why did you decide to go to Syria?

- Yes, how to say ... Help. Feeling of patriotism again! Many of his brother-soldiers from Ukraine went there.

- Is Stas Matveev also his fellow soldier in Ukraine?

- They were together in Lugansk with Igor. They came here together, joined the Cossacks together.

What rank was Igor?

- He was a captain in Ukraine. Here, in the brigade, he did not even have an officer.

How did they manage to reach Syria?

- There are a lot of Russians there. In Rostov there is a base for training. They train on these bases. Accordingly, Wagner PMCs work with them there. For the first time when they went there, they were offered to split in half and fly to Syria on different sides. The men refused. Igor came here from Rostov two months later. But then they received a call from the commander, they all packed up and left.

What base were they in Syria?

- There is no such information. I actually talked to them a week before my death. Everything was normal. They were guarding a factory. As I understand it, it's all about oil. There was another one of my Cossacks - Nikolai Khitev.

- Is he still alive?

Yes, we've already talked about it. Then information came from the Donbass that Kosoturov and Stas had died. And now I can’t even get through, there is a person who collected these bodies, the call sign “Swede”, is no longer getting in touch. We got through to Kolya Khitev, and he said that the three dead were Igor, Stas and the third - his call sign "Communist". For two, for sure, for the third, the information is checked.

“Yesterday the information passed that the bodies had already been brought to St. Petersburg. So far this hasn't been confirmed.

- Why to St. Petersburg, and not to Yekaterinburg?

- I asked the same question. They brought everything there.

What condition are the bodies in?

At least they were able to identify.

- You say all the time - the information came from - where?

- Basically, all this information comes through the Donbass from colleagues.

- Are there any payments to relatives in connection with the loss of a breadwinner?

- Must be. The amount is announced at 3 million rubles [for the deceased].

- Were these people from PMC Wagner voiced?

- You understand correctly.

- Are there any guarantees, what will they pay?

- So far, no one has been deceived. Directly to the person who was involved in sending, we can not get through.

- Does the state somehow support such private soldiers?

- Now a man came from Syria due to illness. It is desirable for him to have an operation, but he does not have any documents confirming it. What documents if he signs for five years of non-disclosure?

- In PMCs, they at least sign some kind of contract with people, is there paper with seals?

- Of course, some documents are signed.

- Does the Ministry of Defense or the FSB of the Russian Federation control everything somehow?

- What does the Ministry of Defense have to do with it?

- Then who will pay all the expenses and compensation?

- I dont know.

- Relatives say that they were supposed to stay there for six months?

- Six months, then here. We rested and, if there is a desire, then for another six months you can.

How much were they promised to pay for these six months?

- I dont know.

- In terms of food, uniforms, weapons, how were the "Wagnerites" provided?

- Everything is great. Now they just fell under ISIS and the Americans. In general, there at the moment Syria is still divided in half.

Dozens of Russian PMC mercenaries may have died in combat with the Americans in Syria

— Wait, Vladimir Putin has publicly announced earlier that everything has been cleared, Syria is entirely under the control of government forces and Bashar al-Assad?

- I also watch TV. There is a difference between what we are told and what real people tell us first hand. Let not in half, but part of the territory is still controlled by ISIS. Ours go to combat - from factory to factory. Release one, stand guard. Then they prepare a new operation and go to another plant. This time we were expected. There was a leak of information, they were definitely waiting. If these were simple ISIS with small arms, then everything would have gone wrong.

- The recaptured plants are controlled by our oilmen - was there information that Rosneft employees went there?

No, Syrians.

- Your Cossacks reported about the Chechens - did Putin say that they work there in the military police?

- Didn't meet.

- After what happened, the state should somehow react?

- Not. To know and so everyone knows that ours are there.

— How do you feel about the idea of ​​legalizing PMCs in Russia?

- How many years has the French "Foreign Legion" existed? And everything is official! What about Blackwater? Why not, we have a lot of specialists left!

P.S.: An international coalition led by the United States on February 7 attacked a detachment of armed supporters of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in the vicinity of the Syrian Deir ez-Zor. The US said it was self-defense, as the squad planned to attack the headquarters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Pentagon said that Russian mercenaries could have been under the airstrike. As USA Today reported earlier, citing US Central Command, at least 100 fighters were killed in the clash. Former participant in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Igor Strelkov, citing anonymous sources, said that at least 200 fighters of the Wagner PMC, as well as a certain unit of special operations forces of the Ministry of Defense, were killed near Deir ez-Zor. The Russian military department claims that there were no Russian servicemen in the area of ​​fire.

In addition to the Sverdlovsk residents, according to the coordinator of the Other Russia Alexander Averin, Kirill Ananiev, an activist of the Other Russia, died near Deir ez-Zor. Previously, Ananiev fought in the Donbass on the side of the pro-Russian separatists. He rose to the rank of commander of an artillery battalion, after which he left for Syria. Ananiev has been a member of the NBP party of Eduard Limonov, banned in Russia, since the early 2000s. Perhaps it was he who bore the call sign "Communist".