WAGNER GROUP - DEFENCE AND SECURITY
News:
Putin vows to crush ‘armed mutiny’ as rebel Wagner chief tries to oust top
military brass
What's in the news?
● Russian
President Vladimir Putin said in an emergency televised address that an “armed
mutiny” by the Wagner Group mercenary force was treason, and that anyone who
had taken up arms against the Russian military would be punished.
Key takeaways:
● Putin
addressed the nation after Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin called for armed rebellion and reached a key
Russian city with his troops. Prigozhin, owner of the Wagner private military
company, claimed that his forces had military facilities in Russia’s southern
city of Rostov-on-Don under their control.
Wagner Group:
● The
Wagner Group also known as PMC Wagner is a Russian
paramilitary organization.
● The
group is believed to have been founded in 2014 by a Russian veteran of the
Chechen war who so admired Hitler he named the group after Richard Wagner, the
führer’s favorite composer.
● The
skull is the symbol of the Wagner
Group.
● The
organization first came to the world’s attention in 2014, fighting alongside
Russian-backed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
● The
organization has also been active across Africa in recent years - Libya, Sudan, Mozambique, Mali and the
Central African Republic.
● Today
there are thought to be some 10,000 Wagner Group members.
● The
U.S. government has called Wagner a “proxy force” of Russia’s defense ministry.
Legal Status:
● The
group is not registered as a legal
entity anywhere in the world.