The story of secret Russian mercenaries.

Oleg served in Syria in a military unit that did not officially exist on paper, but which was known as the “Wagner Group” or “musicians”, fought on the side of the Syrian pro-government forces and was formed from experienced fighters by order of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Oleg took part in the battles for the liberation of Palmyra. His salary was 4,500 euros per month plus bonuses.
Russia began a military operation in civil war-torn Syria just over a year ago, on September 30, 2015. A lot has changed since then. If at that time the House of Assad was on the brink of death, then after Russian intervention the loyalists managed to recapture Palmyra from the Islamic State and win a crushing victory in Aleppo.

All these successes of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), which was pretty battered in the heat of war, would have been unthinkable without the support of Russia. It carries out air and missile strikes against government opponents, supplies weapons and trains some units.

Officially, the Russian contingent does not include fighters who do “dirty work” - people from the “Wagner Group”. Such a unit or private military company does not formally exist. But this is on paper. In reality, the Russians managed to fight in different parts of Syria both against the Islamic State and against the “greens” - various groups that are considered a moderate opposition in the West.

When asked why Oleg went to Syria, he replies: “I was a hired worker, and I don’t care about this war at all. I like this job, if I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t work there.”

Oleg is not worried that he might be called a hired killer: “That’s right, I went for the money. Maybe it’s simpler, in fact?” If you meet him on the street, you won’t recognize him as a soldier of fortune - Hollywood cliches don’t work. A regular guy. A cheerful fellow whose eyes well up with tears when he remembers his fallen comrades.

New Slavic Corps

"Wagner Group" is not an ordinary private military company. This is a miniature army. "We had a full complement: mortars, howitzers, tanks, combat vehicles infantry and armored personnel carriers," explains Oleg.

In some circles, the unit's fighters are called musicians: supposedly the unit commander chose a call sign in honor of the German composer Richard Wagner. According to some reports, behind this call sign is 47-year-old reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin. Served in special forces in Pechory. This is not the first time in Syria - before that he officially worked as part of a private military company known as the Slavic Corps.

The company was hired by Syrian tycoons to guard oil fields and convoys in Deir ez-Zor. However, in October 2013, in the city of Al-Sukhna, the guards found themselves in serious trouble: they entered into an unequal battle with the jihadists of the Islamic State. “The participants told me that there was an enchanting battle, almost a head-on battle for the city. With almost two thousand fighters against two hundred or three hundred guards,” says Oleg.

After these events, the contract between the customer and the guards broke down. According to Oleg, they did not agree on payment: the “Syrian bigwigs” refused to pay extra for more dangerous work and began to threaten the Russians. The "Slavic Corps" left Syria.

The Wagner Group has another, more serious customer - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (MOD). Before being transferred to Syria in the fall of 2015, the “musicians” underwent three months of training at the Molkino training ground in direct proximity to the base of a separate special forces brigade of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

The Wagner Group arrived in Syria by plane. And these were not Aeroflot airliners, Oleg says, smiling. The fighters were transported on transport aircraft of the 76th Airborne Division, which is stationed in the Pskov region.

"Pskov flights took us. From Molkino by bus to Moscow: we received international passports. From there to Chkalovsky, from Chkalovsky to Mozdok by plane. Two hours for refueling and servicing. And another five-hour flight: over the Caspian Sea, Iran, Iraq and landing on Khmeimim base. Turkey doesn’t let us through - it’s impossible directly,” explains the fighter. After arrival, they were accommodated in a sports complex in the city, which Oleg chose not to name.

Equipment, including artillery and tanks, was transported by sea using the so-called “Syrian Express” - on Russian Navy ships from Novorossiysk to Tartus. It is known from various sources that the group was sent to Syria twice: on short term in the fall of 2015 and to participate in a longer operation in the winter and spring of next year. Each trip is a separate contract.

As a rule, Wagner's men are experienced fighters who have gone through several conflicts. And although you won’t see recruitment advertisements in newspapers, the group had no problems recruiting specialists.

Oleg admits that he didn’t go to Wagner the first time - he didn’t trust: “Practically, they get in by acquaintance and that’s all. As such, there is no free recruitment. When recruiting, they carry out a couple of tests: for alcohol and drug use. Then there are physical tests. In fact, there are no exams ".

Among the Wagnerites there are quite a few who fought in the Donbass on the side of the separatists. They undergo additional polygraph testing. They may even ask if they are FSB agents - intelligence agencies are not welcome in Wagner. The group has its own security department that combats information leaks. Find photos of Russian condottieri on the Internet - great luck. This is an offense that entails serious sanctions for the offenders.

In Syria, fighters were paid 300,000 rubles (about 4,500 euros) per month plus bonuses. There was also a kind of insurance system: about 300,000 rubles for injury and coverage of treatment costs in high-quality clinics. For death - five million rubles to the family. Although from a legal point of view the contract with the Wagner group is an insignificant piece of paper, Oleg confirms: they paid everything to the last penny and even more. But there is no talk of complete safety.

That is, do you have at least some kind of protection?
- From what?
- From the state.
- From the state, I think not.

Passed through fierce hell

The civil war in Syria is merciless - the interests of many countries are intertwined here. Hundreds of factions with different motivations are fighting on both sides of the front, but none can be denied cruelty. Oleg prefers not to think about why Russia needs this stupid war. “I haven’t seen smart wars yet,” he retorts.

According to Oleg, a predominantly secular way of life reigns in government-controlled territories. A woman in a burqa is a rarity, although many wear a hijab. In the liberated areas of Latakia, the local population is more likely to support Assad.

“In Latakia, there are portraits of Assad and Hafez Assad, the president’s father, all around. But the locals don’t show the relationship. This Civil War- you are either for it or against it. If you try to be neutral, then you will most likely feel bad,” Oleg describes.

The locals treat the Russians well, and they almost idolize the Syrian military. “We are Russians for them. You see, they are very glad that the Russians have arrived. Finally, they think, I can sit down and drink mate again, let the Russians fight,” Oleg says, smiling. “When we arrived in the same city, They danced there all night in the squares, shooting in the air with joy. But how upset they were later when we left!"

The once prosperous Murek was abandoned by the Syrians after the Russian “musicians” left. Years of war have depleted the Syrian Arab Army's manpower. Coupled with a lack of fighting spirit and military training, only certain units remain combat-ready: “Firstly, they have no training: they don’t even know how to shoot. Secondly, they have a terrible attitude towards weapons: they don’t even clean them.”

This is largely why, according to various sources, the Wagner Group was used as a fire brigade - it operated where it was most difficult and, with the exception of the operation near Palmyra, in small groups.

“We have always been where there was the most scum, the very hell. All I saw was the fiercest hell,” Oleg does not hide his disdain for the Syrian militias and military, who, according to him, are impossible to distinguish. “God forbid, have such allies. Because they always screw up the task. Always."

In Latakia, due to the inaction of the Syrians, the “Wagner Group” suffered significant losses. Oleg retells the circumstances of that battle he heard from his colleagues with poorly concealed irritation. On that day, the Russians were supposed to cover the Syrian attack on the mountain and suppress enemy firing points on neighboring heights. After the end of the artillery preparation, the Syrians refused to attack. The Wagner group had to take over the work themselves. The ascent to the mountain passed without incident, but at the top point the Russians found themselves under fire from three sides.

“The mountain is completely bare. If you are not in the trench, it’s the end. The wounded appear, they need to be evacuated. How many people drop out? At least two are dragging, others are covering. The path along which the guys climbed was under fire - you can’t go. We had to go down the mined slope.” , says Oleg.

Wagner's fighters lost about twenty people wounded that day and not a single one killed.

The Russians tried to force the allies to attack by force - they jumped into their trenches and shot at their feet, but they did not budge. “And the Syrians did not stop firing at the heights. It turns out that they were shooting at our ass. It was hell,” Oleg complains.

According to him, in the fall the Wagner Group lost about 15 people killed. Half of them in one day: from the explosion of ammunition in a tent camp. What it was, Oleg does not know; there were versions about a mortar mine or an American bomb. In winter and spring, losses were greater, but he could not give exact figures.

This is not the only reason why Oleg does not like government forces. “They steal everything that is not nailed down. They drag everything: pipes, wiring, they even tore off tiles. I saw how they dragged a toilet,” he explains. Oleg had not heard about punishments for looting among the Syrians.

Fought for Palmyra

However, Oleg does not have a high opinion of the “women” - this is the name given to the armed opposition, which is considered moderate in the West. According to him, the concept of the Free Syrian Army should be understood as hundreds of groups, including Islamist ones, that periodically fight each other for territory: “They need to eat something.” Although he admits: “Greens are different.”

“Turkomans are good guys. Good, I respect them. They fight desperately because they are fighting for their villages. If they leave the village, everyone leaves. They are completely different people. It would be beneficial for the Syrians to push them out of Latakia completely. In fact, it’s ethnic cleansing,” - he states.

In 2016, the Wagner Group was united and transferred to Palmyra to fight the Islamic State. If in the fall there were about 600 mercenaries operating in Syria, then in the winter and spring their number doubled. “It was easier near Palmyra, because we were all herded into a heap and we carried out one integral task,” says Oleg.

According to him, there were no battles as such in the city. In difficult battles, the “Wagner group” occupied all the important heights, after which the jihadists simply left the devastated city: “There is a highway over the ridge. Ours brought out tanks and began to destroy everything that moved along it. They burned a bunch of cars. Then they went for trophies.” .

ISIS has proven itself to be a fanatical fighter, spreading terror among both Iraqis and Syrians. Oleg points out that Islamists from Europe probably fight well, but they have not encountered such people. “Blacks” are also different. They have local militias: the fighter has a machine gun and nothing else. This “black” guy doesn’t know how to fight either. There was a case. Observers reported that unknown people drove up in cars, formed a wedge and were coming towards us. They were covered with artillery, no one fired a machine gun - they put everyone down,” he recalls.

However, there are obvious advantages on the Islamists’ side: “They are very competent. Ours occupied the ridge, and they left Palmyra: they didn’t set up Stalingrad. Why is this necessary - they saved the people and moved away. And now they are constantly using small injections, constantly attacking the Syrians.”

Having completed the task, Wagner's group left the city. The laurels of the winners went to the Syrian troops, who had already entered the empty city. However, government troops did not retain the victory achieved by the Russians: on December 11, 2016, the Islamists recaptured Palmyra.

The fall of this city is eloquent confirmation that despite all the recent successes, the war is still far from over. Assad's supporters are not able to act everywhere - there are not enough forces and specialists. And not only at the front: the Wagner Group was also used to repair equipment.

“There is a huge armored tank factory in Hama. Before our guys arrived, the Syrians were repairing two tanks a month. When ours arrived, they immediately began producing 30 tanks a month. They worked from morning to evening: they, the poor ones, weren’t even allowed into the city. They worked like slaves, but in the evening they fell without legs. All of our people left, but these repairmen remained there," Oleg recalls, laughing.

The Wagner Group was withdrawn from Syria at the end of spring of this year. The last operation of the Russians was to clear the surrounding area near the airport near Palmyra. “Among palm trees and a labyrinth of stone fences,” says the mercenary.

Since then, there have been no signs of Russian condottieri participating in this war. After the liberation of Palmyra, the Russian Ministry of Defense held a concert in the ancient amphitheater of the city. They played Prokofiev's music. It is quite possible that musicians may appear in this city again. Only these will be “musicians” with machine guns - a ghostly “Wagner group”.

Oleg is ready: “Of course I’ll go. At least I’ll go to Africa, Lord. It doesn’t matter where, I really like this work.”

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 a Ural PMC Wagner fighter who died in Syria

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

Earlier, Conflict Intelligence Team named the names of two residents of the city of Asbest who died in Syria - 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 Asbestov ataman Oleg Surnin, in whose Cossack village the victims had been members 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 acquired contacts with representatives of the Wagner PMC. For the last few days, Elena Matveeva has been at home, constantly taking sedatives. She doesn’t want to believe in the death of her husband, with whom she lived for 13 years. Continues to hope. He also tries not to say anything to the children, so as not to traumatize them. Before talking to us, the woman takes her sons for a walk.

— How were you informed about the death of your husband?

— Our chieftain from Asbest called me. First I asked how long it had been since we had contacted Stas. I replied that there was no communication for the third day. And the girls, whose husbands were there, didn’t know anything either. 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's. I dropped the phone from my hands, and now it lies broken. I was walking home automatically and almost got hit by a car.

— When were you notified?

- Around the 9th. During the day.

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

- No. In the evening I called the chieftain again. He asked - don’t fuss, saying that nothing is really known yet. I began to recognize them by their bodies. I asked them to order a priest and sing like a human being when they were delivered. The chieftain then said that they should be delivered on Tuesday and an official call from Rostov. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know. The Cossacks still have all the information from Donbass (crying). I don’t know how they have everything connected there. I’m still trying not to believe in all this, I’m not preparing for the funeral.

— So the body will be delivered to Rostov?

— Someone says that in Rostov. But they still have to conduct a DNA examination. Someone says that they will bring it straight to Yekaterinburg.

- Why to Rostov?

— They initially left for 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 actually footage from a video game), but the wives of the victims simply have no other information now. “They were simply shot there like dogs, like experimental rats,” says Matveeva. “The guys don’t even know they can be seen there. They’re like rabbits there, and they can’t hide anywhere,” her mother adds while watching.

On another forwarded audio recording, a male voice comments on what happened: “Hello. What they show in Syria... In short, this is the time... (they defeated) us. In short, in one company there are 200 two-hundredths, in another there are 10 more. I don’t know about the third, but they were very disheveled. They beat the Pindos. First they covered it with art. Then they raised four turntables and launched them into the carousel, ... (they shot) from large-caliber ones. Ours had nothing at all except machine guns, not to mention MANPADS. They created hell. The “Pindos” knew specifically that it was us, the Russians, who were coming. Our people were going to squeeze out the plant, but they were sitting at this plant. In short, we... received very hard blows. Our guys are now sitting at the base and drinking. There are many 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 ours, our government, will now turn on the rear, and no one will make any answer for it.” (This post was previously published in the WarGonzo telegram channel).

— Have you heard about Wagner’s detachment? Dmitry Utkin him real name?

— I heard from the 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; the boys from Kedrovoye had already boarded the train. And now no one really gets in touch with us, no one says whether it’s true or not. They hit me in the head - and now there’s silence.

— You said from Kedrovoye?

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

— Under what conditions did your husband go to Syria, how much did they promise to pay him?

“He didn’t tell me anything.” He was so protective of me that he never initiated me into such things. The boys were buried from Donbass, and I was always the last to find out.

—Who did he contact?

- With Igor Kosoturov, this is Stas’s commander. 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 there were exercises. I received this money in December.

— Why did he go to Syria at all?

“Apparently he was caught up in all these machine guns and army training. About six months after Donbass, he began to get bored. Remember your machine gun, how’s my “swallow” doing? I tried to dissuade him in a good way, and it almost came to a divorce. But I see that all this is already useless. He lathered himself up and outlined this path for himself. They even ran and trained here on their own.

— Your husband previously served in the 12th GRU brigade, which was previously stationed here in Asbest?

— Did you serve in the military?

- No. Well, at least I don't know about it. This was his first trip to Donbass. There was probably some kind of army.

- He's military specialty who was?

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

— Did they give him a rank there?

- Seems to be yes. You better tell me who should call me now, where will they inform me from? If everything there was fucking torn apart, how will they identify him? They’ll just scrape off the pieces and say it’s my husband, or what?

— How long have you known Stas?

— 13 years ago. I worked in a store as a salesperson, and he worked as a forwarder. They brought goods to us.

— Why did you choose him for yourself?

— Wonderful man was. 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 specialist in European-quality repairs and traveled to Yekaterinburg a lot. He loved children very much: zoos, cinemas, and always took them to Wright.

—Are you not working now?

-What do you live on?

— I looked after his mother. She is disabled. They gave me an allowance of 1,380 rubles a month.

Matveeva’s mother: “Of course, we need financial help. When he left there, I moved in with my daughter and we live on my pension. She is missing – her daughter, me and two grandchildren – boys 6 and 8 years old.”

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

— In 2016.

-What prompted him?

“It was they and the men who decided all this.” 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 to build houses for refugees. He is a builder after all.

- How did you find out that he is not engaged in construction there, but is fighting in the militia?

“My wife told me about his colleague. He didn't even say it himself.

- How did you take it?

— I was nervous. But what will I do?

— In which brigade did he fight?

- I don't know.

- How long did you stay there?

— About seven months, probably.

— How did you meet him after Donbass?

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

— Where did he go to work after Donbass?

— Everything was moving along with the repairs.

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

- In six weeks. He wanted to go for three months. Then return for a week on leave and again for three months. Then he called from there and said that it doesn’t work that way. This is a different state, it’s not so easy to leave. I thought it would be back by March. My son is on vacation there, these were his plans for his vacation.

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

“I would like everyone to know about my husband.” And not only about my husband, about all the boys who died there so stupidly. This is all wild! Where were they sent, why? They didn’t even have protection, like pigs were sent to slaughter! I want the government to take revenge for them. I want the boys to be remembered, so that the wives don’t feel bad for their husbands, so that the children can be proud of their fathers.

We are talking with the ataman 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 any updated data?

— On the first day when this all happened, there was information about 30 dead. The day before yesterday there was information about 217.

— How many of them are from Sverdlovsk?

— Two: Igor Kosoturov and Stas Matveev. Information about the third is still being clarified - the call sign is “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 hosted them together the year before last on reconnaissance day.

—Have you known them for a long time?

— Igor Kosoturov and I took humanitarian aid to Ukraine, to Lugansk. He stayed there. I then returned, I had to go to work.

- What year is this?

— It seems like 2015.

— What kind of humanitarian aid were they carrying?

— Food, medicine.

— How long did Igor Kosoturov stay in the LPR?

- About six months. Then he got wounded. In the leg, a fragment. I came here and received treatment.

—Who did he fight there?

- A scout.

— Did he serve in the 12th GRU brigade before Ukraine?

— Yes, from 101 kilometers.

— What did you do after being wounded?

— I went for another six months. Then I didn’t go to Lugansk again.

- Why?

— There were already other plans for Syria.

— Why did you decide to go to Syria?

- How can I say... Help. The feeling of patriotism again! Many of his fellow soldiers from Ukraine went there.

— Is Stas Matveev also his fellow soldier in Ukraine?

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

— What was Igor’s rank?

— I was a captain in Ukraine. Here, in the brigade, he didn’t even have an officer’s rank.

— How did they manage to reach Syria?

— There are a lot of Russians there. There is a training base in Rostov. They train at these bases. Accordingly, Wagner PMCs are working with them there. The first time they went there, they were asked 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.

— In Syria, what base were they at?

- There is no such information. I actually talked to them a week before my death. Everything was fine. They were guarding some kind of factory. As far as I understand, this is all connected with oil. Another one of my Cossacks was there - Nikolai Khitev.

- Is he still alive?

- Yes, we already talked. Then information came from Donbass that Kosoturov and Stas had died. And now I can’t even get through on the phone, the person there who collected these bodies, call sign “Schved,” is no longer in touch. We got through to Kolya Khitev, he said that the three dead were Igor, Stas and the third was his call sign “Communist”. Two for sure, information on the third is being verified.

— Yesterday information came out that the bodies had already been brought to St. Petersburg. This has not yet 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 him.

- You constantly say - the information came - where did it come from?

— Basically, all this information comes through Donbass from colleagues.

— Are there any plans for payments to relatives in connection with the loss of a breadwinner?

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

— Did people from PMC Wagner voice this?

- You understand correctly.

— Are there any guarantees that they will pay?

“We haven’t deceived anyone yet.” We cannot reach the person who handled the shipment directly by phone.

— Does the state somehow support such private soldiers?

— Now a man has arrived from Syria due to illness. It would be desirable for him to have an operation, but he does not have any supporting documents. What documents if he signs a five-year non-disclosure agreement?

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

— Of course, they sign some documents.

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

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

- Then who will pay all the expenses and compensation?

- I don't know.

— Do your relatives say that they were supposed to stay there for six months?

- Six months, then here. We rested and, if you want, you can stay for another six months.

— How much did they promise to pay them for these six months?

- I don't 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 is this moment Syria is still divided in half.

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

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

— I also watch TV. There is a difference between what we are told and what living people tell first-hand. Even if not in half, part of the territory is still controlled by ISIS. Ours go to combat - from factory to factory. They will release one and stand guard. Then they prepare a new operation and go to another plant. This time they were expecting ours. There was a leak of information, they were definitely expected. If these were simple ISIS members with small arms, then everything would have turned out wrong.

— The recaptured factories are controlled by our oil workers. 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?

- We didn’t collide.

— After what happened, should the state react somehow?

- No. Everyone knows that they are ours 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 don’t have many specialists left!

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

The Pentagon said that Russian mercenaries could have been hit by the airstrike. As USA Today previously reported, citing US Central Command, at least 100 soldiers were killed as a result of the clash. A former participant in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Igor Strelkov, citing anonymous sources, said that at least 200 soldiers 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 military personnel in the area of ​​fire.

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

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

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

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

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

Mercenaries and "private traders"

According to Russian law, a military man can only work for the state. Mercenary is prohibited: for participation in armed conflicts on the territory of another country, the Criminal Code provides for up to seven years of imprisonment (Article 359), for recruitment, training, financing of a mercenary, “as well as his use in an armed conflict or hostilities” - up to 15 years . There are no other laws regulating the PMC sector in Russia.

The situation in the world is different: the operating principles of private military and security companies are set out in the “Montreux Document” adopted in the fall of 2008. It was signed by 17 countries, including the USA, Great Britain, China, France and Germany (Russia is not one of them). The document allows people who are not registered public service, provide services for armed security of facilities, maintenance of combat complexes, training of military personnel, and so on.

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

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

Hybrid financing

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

The military department is engaged in equipping the training ground. As follows from documents on the government procurement portal, in the spring of 2015, the Ministry of Defense held a corresponding auction for the amount of 294 million rubles, its winner was JSC Garrison, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Defense. The base in Molkino also underwent refurbishment: 41.7 million rubles were spent on the training ground.

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

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

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

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

It is not clear whether the Krasnodar PMC camp is supplied from the same government orders as the GRU camp on the same base. RBC's interlocutor, who is familiar with the structure of the unit, claims that the camps are similar in number and size, therefore average cost service also applies to the Wagner Group base. Companies related to Prigozhin could earn the most at auctions that mention the military unit in Molkino: Megaline and Teplosintez: these companies signed government contracts worth 1.9 billion rubles in 2015-2016, it follows from procurement documentation.

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

Price issue

If contracts for base maintenance pass through electronic platforms, then it is almost impossible to track the expenses for the salaries of PMC fighters: salaries are paid mainly in cash, according to fighters from the Wagner group. Part of the money is transferred to instant cards, which do not indicate the owner’s name, and they themselves are issued to strangers individuals, one soldier clarifies and a Defense Ministry officer confirms. Cards without a name are issued by a number of Russian banks, including Sberbank and Raiffeisenbank, as indicated on their official websites.

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

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

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

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

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

The standard compensation for the relatives of a deceased soldier is up to 5 million rubles, says a source familiar with the PMC structure (the same amount is received by relatives of Russian Armed Forces personnel who died during combat operations). But getting them is not always easy, insists an acquaintance of a “private trader” who died in Syria: families often have to literally scramble for funds. An officer from the Ministry of Defense clarifies what the deceased relative families receive 1 million rubles, soldiers are paid up to 500 thousand rubles for wounds.

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

Foreign PMCs and security companies do not disclose the structure of expenses - from their reporting it is impossible to “extract” either the amount of training costs, or the fighter’s salary, or the cost of maintaining the group. In the mid-2000s in Iraq, employees of one of the most famous military companies, Academi (formerly called Blackwater), received from $600 to 1,075 thousand per day, the Washington Post wrote. According to the publication's calculations, the US Army general at the same time received just under $500 a day. Veterans Marine Corps The United States, which trained soldiers in Iraq, could earn up to $1 thousand, the Associated Press wrote. CNN estimated the salaries of mercenaries a little more modestly - at $750: this is what the fighters were owed at the beginning of the war in Iraq.

Later, the monthly salary of “private traders” working in the Middle East could grow to about £10 thousand (about $16 thousand at the average annual rate), the Guardian indicated. “There was a period of about three months in 2009 when we were losing people every two to three days,” the publication quotes a British Army veteran who was serving under contract in Afghanistan at the time. The total losses of PMCs operating in the Middle East amounted to tens of killed and hundreds and thousands of wounded: for example, in 2011, 39 soldiers were killed and 5,206 people were injured.

"Syrian Express"

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

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

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

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

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

Voitenko estimates the charter of one civilian ship at $4 thousand per day, of which $2 thousand is its maintenance, and $1.5 thousand is the cost of fuel and fees. Based on this estimate, the rental of only civilian ships from the “express” for 305 days (September 30 - July 31) could amount to $18.3 million, or a little more than 1.2 billion rubles.

Sensitive interests

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

PMC fighters played a major role in the liberation of areas of the historical part of Palmyra, says former officer groups. “First, Wagner’s guys work, then Russian ground units come in, then the Arabs and cameras,” he says. According to him, the Wagner detachment is used mainly for offensive in difficult areas. This makes it possible to reduce losses among regular forces in Syria, says an interlocutor at one of the PMCs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With the participation of Elizaveta Surnacheva

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

The three men were returning from a six-month deployment to Syria. We traveled under a contract concluded with the well-known private military company (PMC) Wagner, although the document, of course, does not contain either this pseudonym call sign or the surname of its owner - Dmitry Utkin, who, by the way, headed Evgeniy’s restaurant holding in the same November Prigozhin, also known as the “chief cook of the Kremlin.” They flatly refused to disclose the official name of the organization that hired them, saying only that this name is constantly changing. The legal address is located in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on Ilinskoye Highway, in the area of ​​the military town of Pavshino. The contract period is from three to six months. The contract is signed at the PMC base in Molkino. The future fighter reads the multi-page document, signs it, and it remains in the company office. It is strictly forbidden to communicate with representatives of the media, so in this collective interview they appear as Sergei Ts., Gennady F. and Stepan M. These men were among those who put an end to the long war in the ancient lands of Syria.

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

COLLECTION PLACE: MOLKINO BASE

In the area of ​​the Molkino village, Krasnodar Territory, the 10th separate special forces brigade of the GRU (military unit 51532) is located. The Wagner PMC base is adjacent to it. Soldiers came here from all over the country. First, they had to pass a medical commission and various admissions tests.

There was a medical examination, but the selection was more visual: arms and legs in place - and forward, says Sergei. - They took everyone, because the PMC suffered heavy losses in Syria. They also had to run 3 km and do 40-50 push-ups (this was rated as “good” and “excellent”). Many did not pass these standards, but were enrolled.

A lie detector was considered a much more serious test. Every candidate takes a polygraph. For example, out of eight people in the group in which Gennady was, only two successfully passed the lie detector, including himself. Gennady still has no idea what the others were using, what kind of lies the PMC psychologists were looking for. But, in his opinion, this selection certainly did not concern the criminal background of the candidates.

Personnel accepted under the contract were distributed among “brigades.” These were not army brigades in their traditional form; the PMC brigades consisted of only 300 to 400 people, depending on the tasks assigned to them.

FLIGHT ROSTOV-ON-DON - DAMASCUS

From international airport We flew to Rostov-on-Don on April 25, 2017, on a regular charter flight. They did not put a visa in the passport; the border guards only stamped the departure note (and upon return, another arrival note). The Syrian Border Service does not appear in the documents at all. In total, one and a half hundred PMC fighters flew in the Boeing; a day or two later, the second half of the “brigade” arrived in the same way. We flew to Damascus in civilian clothes and changed clothes at the Syrian base, that is, in the middle of the desert. Military uniform they took with them, each dressed to their own taste. The desert uniform of the British SAS special forces is considered the most comfortable, the best in strength and color, followed by the uniform of the American special forces. So in appearance Russian fighters were no different from a detachment of Anglo-Saxon special forces. The Syrian uniform, according to the unanimous opinion of the interlocutors, is of very poor quality.

OIL FIELDS AL-SHAIR

The PMC fighters did not go through control at Damascus airport; they immediately boarded buses and off they went. Where?

The rank and file are never told where, how long to go and what they will do, says Stepan. - We were brought to the area of ​​the oil fields of Ash-Shair, where we stayed for three months and only after three months did we find out what this place was called. 40 kilometers northwest of Palmyra.

They dropped us off right in the mountain desert. Some did not have tents, in particular Sergei, and for the first month and a half he lived “in the fresh air,” although it was raining and cold in the mountainous areas at that time. Only later were government-issued tents issued. In total, three PMC brigades were gathered in that place, that is, about a thousand people. What did you do?

The mountains were on guard, says Gennady. - ISIS spirits were sitting on the opposite mountain range. They were bombarded by aircraft all the time. Armored vehicles were transported past us every day - tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, about 60 units in total. Apparently, preparations were underway for an offensive.

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

"STORMS" AND STORM OF AKERBAT

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

For example, the commander of our brigade, says Gennady, was approached by the Syrian commander and offered several tanks for free, since the Arabs did not have crews for them.

The first to attack are the “assaults”, followed by a platoon of heavy weapons - mortars, heavy machine guns, ATGMs, etc. The enemy set traps, allowed several suburban villages to be taken almost unhindered, and just before the city of Akerbat the brigade encountered an iron defense, where dozens died. There were specific battles here, for every house. They found documents of ISIS members (they were handed over to the PMC special officers), they came across notebooks with prayers in Russian, and there were many Uzbek names on the lists.

Akerbat was taken only by Russian PMC brigades,” says Sergei, the other two nod their heads in agreement. - The Syrians approached the final stage to film for television news. We even hid so as not to get into the frame when the Syrians posed with a heroic look.

OFFICIAL REPORT ON THE CAPTURE OF AKERBAT

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

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

PERFUME

Almost all ISIS fighters wear a suicide belt,” says Stepan. - Such a beautiful thing, neat, light weight. A plastic package filled with a transparent gel containing many, many metal balls. Because of this, we did not take a single spirit prisoner. One night, ISIS soldiers foolishly entered our village. Most of them, of course, we immediately killed, and several we chased around the village for some time. One spirit, apparently seriously wounded, called for help for a long time, and then an explosion thundered. The explosion caused a nearby wall to collapse. It turns out that he was twenty meters from us. In the morning they carried out cleaning, pits and basements were thrown with grenades.

The tactics of the spirits are simple: when there is a night shootout, two or three suicide bombers get close and explode, added Gennady. “This happened once or twice a week: an ISIS fighter would approach the wall of our shelter and explode. Quite a few died from such night attacks: eight in one battle, fifteen in another, ten in a third.

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

DEIR EZZOR: SYRIAN STALINGRAD

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

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

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

What is the blockade of Deir ez-Zor - this must again be understood in an eastern way,” said Sergei. - All those three years that the blockade lasted, cars with food and consumer goods passed through unhindered. No one suffered from hunger. They even joked that the Syrians said: we fought here for three years, fought, the Russians came - and the war began.

And chaos began,” Gennady laughed.

Meanwhile, according to Sergei, while the spirits held the line in Al-Shair, the Kurds sent here by the Americans captured the oil fields. At the end of September, the ISIS retreated along flank directions, and again Russian PMC brigades had to return to “squeeze out the oil fields.”

Apparently, the top officials reached an agreement, and the Kurds moved a little, says Sergei. - Judging by the inscriptions on the oil rigs, some of them belonged to Europeans, some to Canadians. Canadians lost the most.

At the end of October, the mission of the Wagner PMC fighters was ending. In those days, ISIS cut one of the two main roads connecting the east and west of Syria. They took us along a longer route - about 800 kilometers. There were no incidents.

LOSSES

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

MILITARY EQUIPMENT

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

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

What about the spirits? - says Stepan. - For example, 30-40 people usually sit at a position, so they are given two or three night sights. When the spirits go on a night attack, five “assaults” barely see them, the rest don’t see a damn thing. The father commanders say: shoot at the flashes. And to do this you need to stick your head out of the shelter. And if you get into the night sight of an ISIS soldier, who definitely won’t play the fool, he’ll shoot right away - and you won’t have time to notice the flash. So it turns out: the spirits see everything, but most of the “assaults” are blind. And therefore the losses are huge.

So how should it be? - says Sergei. - Like in special forces: each soldier has a night sight and one of the three has a thermal imaging sight. And so - lead people to slaughter. But the management of the PMC may have a lot of money, but they are not going to buy new equipment. I saw with my own eyes a unit armed with three-line rifles, revolvers, Degtyarev machine guns, and even Maxim machine guns. And at first I had a three-ruler. Body armor from the time of the capture of Kabul. The tanks are all “prize”, that is, captured from the Arabs, some resemble a colander. When I was indignant in front of my superiors, I heard: “Darling, why are you in a fairy tale? What they gave you, fight with.”

MILITARY TRAINING

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

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

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

And even the Fatimids are well equipped,” said Gennady. - I myself saw how they drove “jihadists” through the desert on their motorcycles (that’s what they call an ISIS pickup truck with weapons; it differs from a “suicide bomber” - the same car, but stuffed with explosives). They abandoned this “jihad” as if there was nothing to do. Is it really possible to fight like that with our equipment?! Our fighters walk on foot, together with the infantry, there are three of them: one carries the installation, two carry one rocket each (each of them weighs 25 kilograms). ISIS also has three pilots, but they are on two motorcycles. On one motorcycle there is an installation and two people, on the other there is a third with two missiles. They made a noise and disappeared a minute later.

I personally saw how a Dukhovsky ATGM knocked out three vehicles - an armored personnel carrier and two trucks - within 10 minutes,” says Sergei.

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

Personally, I saw how Syrian special forces went on reconnaissance, Sergei recalls. “We walked about seven kilometers and started yelling over the radio that they had run out of water, several people were hit (and these were indigenous residents of Syria). And they returned without completing the task. The Russians even had to endure sun-stricken Arabs on themselves. I agree with Gennady: zero level of training.

All of Syria is approximately two Moscow regions, most of it is desert,” Stepan concludes. - It’s enough to liberate a few enclaves and a valley - and that’s it! And let the spirits ride like steppe hares through the desert as much as they want. The work is for a month or two, but no one needs it. Generals make money from the war, tanks and weapons are decommissioned, ISIS conducts trade with everyone almost officially.

PERSONNEL OF PMC "WAGNER"

Despite the fact that many PMC soldiers served in the army and special forces, I will not be mistaken if I say that 90% do not understand where they are going,” says Sergei. - The desire to earn money completely blows your brain away. Therefore, having found themselves in a real mess, they declare that they came here not to die, but to earn money. These are called “five hundredths,” that is, deserters and refuseniks. They are immediately sent to rigging teams, that is, shell loaders, etc.

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

EARNINGS OF A GENTLEMAN OF LUCK

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

What is the reason for the drop in earnings? - asked Stepan. - I think with the fact that everyone steals, they steal everything. At some point, people lose their heads and start stealing without a twinge of conscience. We suspect that the top people still pay decently, but just below they come up with various restrictions that are associated with salaries. For example, there is a clause in the contract that states that a business trip starting from the fourth month is considered long-term and an additional thousand rubles are paid for each day. When someone reminded the boss about this point, he received the following answer in a very softened form: “Are you crazy? You already get a lot!”

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

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

“I have an ambivalent attitude towards these private military companies,” Stepan adds. - On the one hand, they deceive, and this is insulting. On the other hand, if you look at the situation from the outside, PMCs are removing unnecessary elements from civilian life (this is literally what the fighter said about his comrades, and therefore about himself. - A.Ch.).

As it turned out later, Sergei brought one and a half million rubles from Syria. I paid off my debts, bought a night sight, binoculars, warm clothes, and other little equipment. There is only just enough money left to get from Moscow to Krasnodar.

What jobs are left in Syria? Protect oil fields and factories. They will no longer throw attacks.

According to reports, hundreds of Russian mercenaries were eliminated as a result of a US counterattack

Attempted capture on the night of February 7-8 of Khasham in the province of Deir ez-Zor by several companies Russian PMC Wagner ended in their almost complete defeat.

This information has already been confirmed by many sources, and at the moment the only question is the number of deaths as a result of the US counterattack.

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Khasham is under the control of the Syrian opposition, supported by American special forces.

According to available data, a column of Russian mercenaries, reinforced with armored vehicles and divisional artillery, advanced towards the city to take control of the oil plant.

However, when the Wagnerites were discovered, US special forces engaged them, calling in artillery and aircraft.

The exact number of Russian casualties is not yet known, however, according to available information, the number is in the hundreds.

At the same time, the Americans did not suffer any losses during the battle.

“Reports about losses during the defeat of the Wagner group come in very different ways. But there is one trend - they are constantly changing towards an increase. At the moment, it is clear that there are actually hundreds of dead and wounded. Several hundred,” the Russian terrorist said on his Facebook. Igor Girkin.

As it became known from the stories of the surviving mercenaries, they were first shelled by American artillery and aircraft for about four hours, after which ground forces entered the battle.

After a short clash, American special forces and Syrian opposition fighters retreated, and US helicopters began working on the Russians.

In addition, combat drones destroyed the divisional artillery of the Russian forces.

At the same time, according to Pentagon head James Mattis, when the United States notified the Russian Armed Forces about the start of the battle, they stated that they had nothing to do with it.

“They were notified when the shelling began. Then we were told that there were no Russians there,” he noted.

It is worth noting that Moscow officially denies the participation of its mercenaries in the Syrian conflict, and Damascus passes off the Wagner PMC as a “Syrian militia.”

Let us recall that with the help of the Wagner PMC, the Russian Ministry of Defense , and also hides various kinds of war crimes on the territory of other states.

The commander of the group, created from the remnants of the so-called Slavic Corps, is Dmitry Utkin, nicknamed Wagner.