• Thousands of Russian private contractors fighting in Syria
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[QUOTE]MOSCOW (AP) — Before he was killed by a sniper in Syria at age 23, Ivan Slyshkin wrote a poignant message on social media to his fiancee: “We will see each other soon — and I will hold you as tight as I possibly can.” But Slyshkin’s name won’t be found among the Russian Defense Ministry’s official casualties in the fight against Islamic State extremists. That’s because the young man who left his hometown of Ozyorsk in the Ural mountains was one of thousands of Russians deployed to Syria by a shadowy, private military contractor known as Wagner, which the government doesn’t talk about. Slyshkin’s gravestone depicts him holding a machine gun, according to a local news website Znak.com that sent a reporter to his March 2 funeral in Ozyorsk, where friends said he joined Wagner to earn money to pay for his wedding. “He was in Wagner’s group,” his friend Andrei Zotov told The Associated Press, adding that Slyshkin was killed as the security forces were advancing on the Al-Shayer oil field north of Palmyra. “There are many good guys there. He volunteered to join the company,” Zotov said. “Like many Russian fighters, he wanted to solve his money issues.” The St. Petersburg-based website Fontanka reported that about 3,000 Russians under contract to the Wagner group have fought in Syria since 2015, months before Russia’s two-year military campaign helped to turn the tide of the civil war in favor of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a longtime Moscow ally. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]When Putin went to a Russian air base in Syria on Monday and told Russian troops that “you are coming back home with victory,” he did not mention the private contractors. Russian troops are expected to remain in Syria for years while the contractors are likely to stay to guard lucrative oil and gas fields under a contract between the Syrian government and another Russian company allegedly linked to a businessman known as “Putin’s chef” for his close ties to the Kremlin. Proxy fighters like Slyshkin have played a key role in Syria. In addition to augmenting troops officially sent by Moscow, their secret deployment has helped keep the official Russian death toll low as Putin seeks re-election next year. The Russian Defense Ministry has said 41 of its troops have died in Syria. But according to Fontanka, another 73 private contractors have been killed there. The Kremlin and the Defense Ministry have stonewalled questions about Russians fighting in Syria in a private capacity. Private contractors have been used by countries like the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan for years; Russian law forbids the hiring of mercenaries or working as one. But Russia has used such proxies before — in the conflict to help pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine since 2014. One Russian commander boasted of working alongside Russian troops who said they were “on vacation” while fighting in Ukraine. The Defense Ministry has refused to say how many of its troops are in Syria, although one estimate based on absentee ballots cast in the Russian parliamentary election last year indicated 4,300 personnel were deployed there. That number probably rose this year because Moscow sent Russian military police to patrol “de-escalation zones.” [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]“The Russian people are not very enthused by the idea of an empire that would involve their boys coming home in body bags. There’s clearly a lack enthusiasm for this conflict,” said Mark Galeotti, senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. “By having this military company Wagner, they can have a force they can actually deploy ... but when people die, it doesn’t have to be announced,” Galeotti said. Fontanka, which is respected for its independent reporting, has obtained what it described as Wagner’s spreadsheets and recruitment forms that indicate thousands of Russians have fought in Syria. Of about 3,000 Wagner employees deployed to Syria over the years, the single largest contingent at a given time has been about 1,500, said Denis Korotkov, a reporter for Fontanka. Since 2015, at least 73 of them have died, he said. Another investigative group, Conflict Intelligence Team, or CIT, put the number of private contractor deaths at 101. Both outlets say those are conservative estimates. “The most important proof is people, dead and alive, who have said they are mercenaries and their relatives say there are mercenaries,” said CIT founder Ruslan Leviev. “How would hundreds of people all over the country collude and come up with the same story?” [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]In October, the Islamic State group released video of two Russian captives it said had been fighting in Syria, and one of them identified himself as Roman Zabolotny and said the other was Grigory Tsurkanu. The Defense Ministry denied they were Russian servicemen, and media reports said they were working for Wagner. Their fate at the hands of the extremists is unknown. The Wagner group was founded by retired Lt. Col. Dmitry Utkin, who came under U.S. sanctions in June after the Treasury Department said the company had recruited former soldiers to join the separatists fighting in Ukraine. Utkin was photographed a year ago at a Kremlin banquet thrown by Putin to honor military veterans. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]As the Russian campaign in Syria draws to a close, the private contractors will probably stay, analysts say. Wagner is “is likely to cement its footing because we saw that there were not only military goals to pursue ... but there is a commercial motive,” Leviev said. “Someone needs to guard the oil fields.” [/QUOTE] [URL]https://apnews.com/7f9e63cb14a54dfa9148b6430d89e873[/URL]
I wonder if this is related to that article awhile back where the Kremlin was giving away mineral deposits to any company that could secure them? It was pretty much an open invitation to mercenary companies and/or heavy industry to employ mercenaries. It does say they're protecting industrial assets in the region.
Private contractors are a concern, because they ultimately answer to a corporation and fly the flag of a corporation, therefore nations often can get away with bullshit performed by contractors that they would otherwise be held directly responsible for (see Academi) but people I talk to about this seem to think because they're [B]explicitly[/B] soldiers for a paycheck, it's fine. Serving your country is a sin, shooting for a dime isn't.
[QUOTE=Chris Morris;52971179]but people I talk to about this seem to think because they're [B]explicitly[/B] soldiers for a paycheck, it's fine. Serving your country is a sin, shooting for a dime isn't.[/QUOTE] Which is funny, because since at least the 1600s, the view (at least in the west) has generally been the opposite: mercenaries are inherently untrustworthy, dangerous and immoral, and national armies are preferred.
[QUOTE=Psychokitten;52971845]Which is funny, because since at least the 1600s, the view (at least in the west) has generally been the opposite: mercenaries are inherently untrustworthy, dangerous and immoral, and national armies are preferred.[/QUOTE] That's the weird distinction. When I say "contractors" everyone just thinks of white-collar security mallcop dudes instead of the kind of amoral dregs that brands like Academi trawl out of the underworld, but when I clarify that I basically mean mercenaries they do a U-turn. Thing is people often can't seem to see past the guys in collared shirts and ties that stand guard at Blackwater/Academi's more public ventures and outings, and seem to be myopic to the repeated incidences that they perform. To say nothing of G4S' repeated idiocy.
What a bullshit, Fontanka is less of an independant source but more of opposition, also that Prague's expert is shit - most of nation and electorate are extastic about whole idea of russia showing it's force abroad and lack of considerable uproar after death of russian pilot whose plane was downed by Turkey is quite a proof of not giving a damn about soldier's fate (cause we friends naw with Turkey yay). There is surely private contractors but dear god does it try hard to tie everything up together in one Kremlin mega scheme - not everything, everywhere is always tied to Putin directly, and amount of anonymous sources that "reportely" say otherwise is just hilarious.
[QUOTE=karimatrix;52972359]What a bullshit, Fontanka is less of an independant source but more of opposition, also that Prague's expert is shit - most of nation and electorate are extastic about whole idea of russia showing it's force abroad and lack of considerable uproar after death of russian pilot whose plane was downed by Turkey is quite a proof of not giving a damn about soldier's fate (cause we friends naw with Turkey yay). There is surely private contractors but dear god does it try hard to tie everything up together in one Kremlin mega scheme - not everything, everywhere is always tied to Putin directly, and amount of anonymous sources that "reportely" say otherwise is just hilarious.[/QUOTE] I don't see you listing any viable, non-biased sources, that contradict the claims in the OP. It's your word against a media corporation. Which isn't saying much, considering how you often outright choose to ignore bad things caused by your country and blame them on literally everyone else but Russia.
[QUOTE=karimatrix;52972359]most of nation and electorate are extastic about whole idea of russia showing it's force abroad and lack of considerable uproar after death of russian pilot whose plane was downed by Turkey is quite a proof of not giving a damn about soldier's fate (cause we friends naw with Turkey yay).[/QUOTE] Bullshit. There's no visible effect because casualties are relatively low - cries of a few widows and orphans simply cannot create a big effect (barring possible exceptions). However if nice family-bonding "present" of "cargo 200" will visit, let's say, every 10th family in the country you'll see a huge mess.
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