Russia: the paramilitary group Wagner launches a vast recruitment campaign
The "PMC Wagner Center", associated with the founder of the private military group Wagner (PMC), Evgueni Prigozhin, in Saint Petersburg, November 4, 2022. AFP - OLGA MALTSEVA
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The paramilitary group Wagner is preparing to open 58 recruitment centers in 42 cities in Russia.
It was his boss, Evgueni Prigojine, who announced it this Friday, March 10.
A development that fuels speculation about Russian casualties and rivalries between this militia and the regular Federation army.
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With our correspondent in Moscow,
Jean-Didier Revoin
Is it a question of mitigating the important human losses due to the intensity of the fighting for the capture of the city of Bakhmout?
We can believe it.
In recent weeks, Evguéni Prigojine had complained that he could no longer recruit prisoners in exchange for reduced sentences.
It is undoubtedly for this reason that he decided to address an audience that gives pride of place to testosterone.
Most of these 58 recruitment centers, including eight for the city of Moscow alone, were opened in sports halls and martial arts clubs.
Proof that the oligarch close to Vladimir Putin is seeking to expand its workforce.
Some see it as a new episode in the rivalry between him and the executives and leaders of the regular army, but nothing is less certain.
The purpose of the staff, like that of Wagner, is to win battles in the field.
And if the losses are as significant as the figures provided by the Ukrainians and the Westerners suggest, the Russian authorities would thus have found a way to enlist additional men without announcing a new partial mobilization, or even general mobilization, with the negative impact that this could have on the population.
► To read also: According to Ukraine, Russia fired six Kinjal missiles simultaneously on its soil
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