Secret mercenaries in Syria: Russia's second-class dead

Little time? At the end of the text there is a summary.

For days, the Kremlin blocks: There is no information about the dead in Syria, said spokesman Dimitrij Peskow. During the night from 7 to 8 February, the heaviest clash of troops under American leadership and Assad-loyal units with Russian fighters occurred.

Maria Sacharova, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also fell into her usual mode of speaking, citing reports of dozens or hundreds of dead Russian fighters near the city of Deir al-Sor as "classic disinformation", only to confirm:

It does not concern Russian military personnel, she stressed.

Sakharova's statement is astonishing in that Russia acknowledges for the first time since the beginning of the military operation in late September 2015 that Russian non-military personnel have died in Syria. The spokeswoman confirmed what is already known - two Russian armies are fighting in Syria:

• the official, whose fighters are celebrated like heroes, like the downed pilot of a Su-25, who killed himself to avoid capture - the funeral of which was even shown on state television;
• and the unofficial, "Wagner's private security firm," whose dead are buried in secret. The private army, which is said to be up to 3,000 men, is named after its leader Dmitrij Utkin, an ex-lieutenant colonel specializing in military intelligence GRU, fighting name "Wagner".

REUTERS / Russian Defense Ministry

Coffin of the pilot Roman Filipov

The existence of the mercenary group, which is registered after research by the media company RBK in Argentina, was never confirmed by the Kremlin. There are pictures of Vladimir Putin, as he gives Utkin a medal on December 9, 2016, the "Day of Heroes of the Fatherland". Under the Russian Criminal Code, Russian citizens outside the army are prohibited from participating in armed conflicts abroad.

Up to 300 injured and dead fighters?

That only five Wagner fighters should have died in the US air raid near the city of Deir al-Sor in eastern Syria, hardly anyone in Russia believes credible. But how many are in reality, you will hardly know.

The published numbers vary depending on the source. Reuters spoke with reference to different sources of up to 100 dead and 200 injured. The wounded, many with severe injuries, were taken to Russia in four hospitals in St. Petersburg and Moscow and near the capital in Krasnogorsk.

REUTERS

Military hospital in Krasnogorsk

So far, the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), Russian activists researching information on military operations, and media have published the names of at least ten Wagner men killed in Syria. Many were not alone in Syria, but with other men from their locality or environment, such as Oleg Tereschenko from the settlement Krylovskaya in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar or Ruslan Gavrilov, 37 years, from the village Kedrovoje, 1400 kilometers east of Moscow in Ural.

MIRROR ONLINE

Kirill Ananjev from Moscow, a member of the left-wing party Drugaja Rossiya, has been fighting for almost a year in Syria at a Wagner unit as commander of an artillery unit, says the co-chairman Aleksandr Awerin SPIEGEL ONLINE.

How did he learn about Ananiev's death? "I do not want to say more about a source in Syria." Just trying to figure out how a second man is going. Ananiev was already a long time with the Wagner troupe: first he fought in Donbass in eastern Ukraine 2014 to 2017: "Not because of the money, he wanted to protect the interests of Russia," says Awerin. And in Syria? "I do not want to comment on that." He demands that the Wagner troupe must finally be legalized. He speaks of a "gap" in Russian law that should be closed.

Facebook / Drugoros

Kirill Ananyev, photo on the Facebook page of the party Drugaja Rossiya

"I want these men to be thought"

According to CIT, depending on their experience, the mercenaries of the Wagner troupe get about 1200 Euro to 2000 Euro per month plus high premiums for fighting success. They have no right to care for their survivors, not even a decent burial.

Before the fighters go into action, they are trained on a base in Krasnodar, southern Russia. Stanislav Matveev was also there, as the wife of the Cossack told the internet portal Znak (The German translation can be found at dekoder.org). She complains that her husband and his comrades in Syria had no protection:

And she demands a proper commemoration:

But the state will not care. Several times there have been discussions about giving private armies a legal framework, and the Duma is discussing it again.

AP

Farkchanur Gawrilowa, mother of one of the Wagner soldiers

For the first time, Russian media critical of the government had reported on the mercenary operations in eastern Ukraine three years ago, and they are said to be in Libya and Sudan. In Syria, they do the dangerous missions, fought on the front line, such as in Palmyra, says Ruslan Lewijew of CIT. Up to 200 Wagner men died by the end of last year, he estimates.

For the Kremlin the use of the private army is practical. He can represent the military operation in Syria against Islamist terror as a war without great losses, so far, according to official figures, 44 soldiers have died.

Inconvenient questions for the Kremlin

The fact that so many Wagner fighters have been injured and killed means many uncomfortable questions for the Kremlin - and not only because the situation on the ground is anything but calm, contrary to Putin's explanation of victory in Syria. What did the Russians do near Deir al-Sor? How could the US attack come about? And why did not the Russian army headquarters in Syria, which is constantly connected with the Americans, warn the private army? If only the Russian army controls the airspace.

Dmitrij Utkin (r.), Fighting name "Wagner", with Putin and other fighters

So far, it was believed, the mercenary army, behind which evidently the oligarch Yevgeny Prigchenhin is an investor, operates under the supervision of the military intelligence service GRU. But last year the portal "Fontanka" reported that since 2017 not the Russian Ministry of Defense, but the government of Syria has been financing and equipping the private army.

So are there conflicts of interest? That the use of the Wagner army not only military interests in the foreground, suggest more media reports. For example, Ewro Polis of Prigoshin, according to AP's contract, is to receive 25 percent of the oil from a state-owned Syrian oil company to capture and protect Wagner fighters.

The area around Deir al-Sor is rich in oil resources.

In summary: In Syria , Russian fighters of a private army were killed in a US air strike. Why they had to die and how many they are is unclear. Russia's leadership has now admitted, at least for the first time since the beginning of Syria, that five men have died. Members of the "Wagner" fighters demand that their dead be thought - but that does not provide the law. Private armies are illegal.