The Wagner Group

“The founder of the company is reported to be Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, who was born in Kirovohrad Oblast (then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the USSR) in 1970.[25][26][27] According to the Security Service of Ukraine′s statement in September 2017, Dmitriy Utkin used to be a Ukrainian citizen.[26] Up until 2013, he was a lieutenant colonel and brigade commander of a special forces (Spetsnaz GRU) unit (the 700th Independent Spetsnaz Detachment of the 2nd Independent Brigade) of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).[28][1][29] He retired in 2013 and began working for the private company Moran Security Group founded by Russian military veterans; the company performed security and training missions around the world, specializing in security against piracy. The same year, senior Moran Security Group managers were involved in setting up a Saint Petersburg-based organization Slavonic Corps that headhunted contractors to “protect oil fields and pipelines” in Syria.[1] Utkin was in Syria as part of the Slavonic Corps and survived its disastrous mission.[28] The Wagner Group itself first showed up in 2014,[1] along with Utkin in the Luhansk region of Ukraine.[28] The company’s name comes from Utkin’s own call sign (“Wagner”), which he allegedly chose due to a passion for the Third Reich.[30] Radio Liberty cited insiders as saying that the Slavic Native Faith (a modern Pagan cult) is a faith favored by the leadership of the Wagner Group.[31] In August 2017, the Turkish Yeni Şafak speculated that Utkin was possibly just a figurehead for the company, while the real head of Wagner was someone else.[32]

In December 2016, Dmitriy Utkin was photographed with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Kremlin reception given to highly decorated servicepeople to mark the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland — along with three persons, Alexander Kuznetsov, Andrey Bogatov and Andrey Troshev.[33] Kuznetsov (call sign “Ratibor“) was said to be the commander of Wagner’s first reconnaissance and assault company, Bogatov was the commander of the fourth reconnaissance and assault company, and Troshev served as the company’s “executive director“.[34]” Wikipedia

 

Turkey & Venezuela via Moscow: “Flight of Interest: Turkish industrial conglomerate (in energy, media, & commerce) Ciner Group’s Gulfstream 5 flew from Moscow Vnukovo to Caracas Maiquetía, Simón Bolívar International in Flight of Interest: Turkish industrial conglomerate Ciner Group’s Gulfstream 5 departed Caracas Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International. Currently flying towards Europe. At 22:47GMT the plane was 300km NE of Guadeloupe. Back to Istanbul Atatürk via stopover in Moscow Vnukovo “Ciudad del Este is know for 2 things 1) Drugs trade, cheap goods & counterfeit 2) Hezbollah operations center in Latin America Nothing good is the outcome of that stop”@YorukIsik

Video January 25, 2019: “Russian soldiers spotted near General Assembly in #venezuela#venezuelalibre #venezuela🇻🇪 hiddenandlittleknownplaces
With winter uniform in Venezuela? Seriously?” JohnGuaido 
Moonies accused of involvement in drugs Irish Times  October 14, 2004. “There are two principal branches to Moon’s interest in Paraguay,” he said, “control of the largest fresh drinking water source in the world and control of the narcotics business”.  Indeed the famous Iran contra affair was operated from Ciudad del Este. “The Moon sect is a mafia. They seek to subvert government control and are effectively building a state within a state. An aid to the Chilean Interior Minister described Rev Moon’s ideology, somewhere to the right of the Taliban‘s Mullah Omar, as “profoundly anti-communist, xenophobic and with a marked Nazi inspiration”. Venezuela and Honduras have expelled the cult. In 1999, the Brazilian federal police launched an investigation into the involvement of Rev Moon’s associates in money-laundering and tax evasion, amidst accusations of drug-running. Rev Moon bought the Banco de Credito in 1996, in nearby Uruguay, the banking hub of Latin America. On the day of opening under its new ownership, the Uruguayan bank employees’ union blew the whistle on a suspected money-laundering scheme. Rev Moon’s first involvement in the continent came during the late 1970s when his organisation donated the first $100,000 to Oliver North’s (President of the NRA) Nicaraguan Freedom Fund. The religious leader was implicated in many of the so-called Contra scandals during the Reagan-Bush administration.”  Council for National Policy      Religious Right

 Treasury Designates Individuals and Entities Involved in the Ongoing Conflict in Ukraine. 6/20/2017 ​

“PMC Wagner is a private military company that has recruited and sent soldiers to fight alongside separatists in eastern Ukraine.  PMC Wagner is being designated for being responsible for or complicit in, or having engaged in, directly or indirectly, actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine. 

Dmitriy Utkin is the founder and leader of PMC Wagner.  Utkin is being designated for being responsible for or complicit in, or having engaged in, directly or indirectly, actions or policies that threaten the peace, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine; and for acting or purporting to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, PMC Wagner.
Its officers serving in Syria are reported to earn up to 300,000 roubles (£3,800; $5,300) a month.”

“The US suffered heavy casualties in Vietnam, and later the Afghanistan war was very costly for Russia. Those wounds – and the associated public anger – encouraged both countries to privatise war in recent years. Military sources quoted by RBC said that when Russia helped Assad forces to recapture Palmyra it was the Wagner men who went in first. “First Wagner’s guys go to work, then the Russian ground units come in, and then the Arabs and the cameras,” an unnamed ex-Wagner officer said. In December 2016 the US Treasury said Mr Prigozhin had “extensive business dealings” with the Russian defence ministry and was linked to the construction of a new military base near Ukraine.

What about the Russian debacle on 7 February (2016)?

Unnamed US intelligence sources quoted by the Washington Post say Mr Prigozhin was in close contact with the Kremlin in the run-up to the assault on the Syrian Democratic Forces base in Deir al-Zour region. The force is said to have crossed the River Euphrates and shelled the base close to Khursham, a short distance from highly-prized oil fields. According to the report, intercepted communications showed that Mr Prigozhin was also involved in the operational planning with Syrian officials, ahead of the attack.

Amid unconfirmed reports that more than 100 Russians had been killed, the Kremlin denied that any regular Russian military forces had been involved. It admitted only that there had been “several dozen” Russian casualties, but gave no further details.

On 8 February, a Pentagon spokeswoman said that coalition forces waited to engage the Russians until their artillery was falling within 1,640ft (500 metres) of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) headquarters. Dana White told reporters that the US and Russia were “in regular communication with Russian counterparts before, during and after the attack” via the so-called de-confliction line of communication between the two nations.

“Russian officials assured Coalition officials they would not engage Coalition forces in the vicinity,” she added.

Mr Prigozhin’s involvement is reported to be via a company called Evro Polis Ltd.

Last month the US Treasury added Evro Polis to the sanctions list, describing it as “a Russian company that has contracted with the government of Syria to protect Syrian oil fields in exchange for a 25% share in oil and gas production from the fields”. It said the company was “owned or controlled” by Mr Prigozhin.”

Prigozhin ran the Internet Research Agency and was charged by Mueller