Anyone can read what you share. Russian Paramilitaries Accused of Torture and Beheading in Landmark Legal Case Against Wagner Group IN THE DOCK The Kremlin-backed Wagner Group will be Its not clear how the videos ended up online or why the perpetrators chose to document the killing. Bouta is believed to have been killed in the spring of 2017, and a video of his death first emerged online in June 2017. The reports revelations have chilling implications, as Russian mercenaries motivated by both money and far-right ideology are increasingly operating unchecked in some of the worlds most fragile countries. The newspaper has not released the mans full last name in order to protect his family from potential reprisals. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The head of the holding company Concord, Yevgeny Prigozhin (rear), in Sochi, Russia, on Oct. 11, 2017. The case is being lodged jointly by lawyers and advocates associated with Darwishs organization, the Memorial Human Rights Center in Moscow, and the International Federation for Human Rights in Paris. If for some reason the case does not go forward in Moscow, Darwish said, it is likely that he, Novikov and others will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. accused of war crimes and human rights abuses. It was dark, according to the documents, and the roads were littered with felled power lines and shell craters. And neither the United States government understands how terrifying it is nor do its European allies.. Thousands of Russian contractors fought in Syria alongside a 2015 military intervention by Putin that helped turn the tide in the countrys civil war and saved the government of Bashar al-Assad. A U.S. military convoy drives on a Syrian highway on September 29, 2017. As the videos of Boutas torture and beheading were circulated, they became a rallying point for the social networks that have coalesced around Russias mercenary activity abroad. Mercenary activity that enables and secures these business interests has become the most visible manifestation of these networks. The mercenaries loosely coordinate with the Russian military in Syria, although Wagners leaders have reportedly received awards in the Kremlin, and its mercenaries are trained at the Russian Defense Ministrys bases. New Report Exposes Brutal Methods of Russias Wagner Group, Click + to receive email alerts for new stories written by, The perpetrators, who have not yet been charged, were, Close to Russian government but nominally independent, private military contractors give the Kremlin a degree of plausible deniability and have complicated efforts by Western policymakers to formulate a response. Putins Russian Critics AreGrowingEver Louder, The Conversation About Ukraine Is Cracking Apart, The State Departments Lack of Diversity Is Bad for U.S. On his way back to Syria in 2017, he was arrested and drafted into the Syrian military. Novaya Gazeta called on Russian law enforcement to investigate the case. The outcome of the battle, and much of its mechanics, suggest that the Russian mercenaries and their Syrian allies were in the wrong part of the world to try a simple, massed assault on an American military position. Explore the benefits of your FP subscription. Three Wagner Group mercenaries are alleged by Ukrainian prosecutors to have killed and tortured civilians near Kyiv in April 2022, alongside regular Russian troops. Delivered Thursday. Is the United States becoming protectionist? Delivered Friday. Eight of the 11 individuals and all seven entities sanctions were linked to Wagner's largest and longest-runningknown operations in Africa, in the Central African Republic and Sudan. The group is not registered as a legal entity anywhere in the world. A new report by Frontline Forensics, a joint initiative of Arizona State University and the New America think tank, published on Tuesday explores the circumstances of Boutas death using company records and social media analysis. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video. At 1 a.m., with the artillery fire dwindling, the team of Marines and Green Berets pulled up to the Conoco outpost and began firing. At some point in late March or early April, he escaped on foot from the T4 air base in Homs. Wagner Group The brutal torture and beheading in video from Syria, according to the Kremlin, none of Putin's business. But as well as disputing Wagner's presence, Russia said it would "actively participate in collective efforts to stabilize the situation" and "develop a multifaceted cooperation with Burkina Faso," including potentially training the country's military. At 3 p.m. the Syrian force began edging toward the Conoco plant. This week, Moscow denied reports of Wagner already being operative in Burkina Faso another West African country that recently underwent a coup, fell out with former colonial power France, and is showing no sign of a return to democratic rule. Russia Forced Me to Flee. Snippets of the video had been posted online since 2017 but the full footage was uploaded last week to a closed VKontakte group for members of Wagner. Delivered Wednesday & Sunday. Commanders briefed pilots and ground crews. MOSCOW -- The graphic video shows four men in camouflage gear exchanging jokes in unaccented Russian as they pour flammable liquid over a man's mutilated corpse strung up on two wooden beams. Online messages sent to him and his wife by the Guardian were not immediately returned on Thursday. What will another year of war look like? Who Is Vagner? Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin who was indicted in the United States for attempted interference in the 2016 presidential election, is widely regarded as the driving force behind the mercenary group. Apostols family have reportedly confirmed that he worked as a private security contractor in Syria, and that he was one of several hundred Russians killed in a U.S. airstrike in the northeastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. Its mercenaries have also fought in Ukraine and the Central African Republic, and are said to be active in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique. Afterwards, the men posed for a photograph with the suspended body, across the torso of which they wrote: For the VDV [Russian airborne forces] and an out-of-focus word that appears to say razvedka, a term for military intelligence. Xi Jinpings signature foreign policy is a shadow of its former self.. Wagner Syrian authorities arrested Bouta as he crossed the border and turned him over to members of the Syrian military. But, a federal arrest warrant issued for Prigozhin in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 16 would seem to indicate renewed interest at the Department of Justice in seeing Prigozhin brought to account. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said he had not had time to watch the video. horus of lawmakers in Europe and Asia have begun to say the United States is fostering unfair competition. The legal case in Moscow turns on four separate video clips depicting several Russian-speaking men beating, decapitating, and burning a badly mutilated man at the al-Shaer gas plant, a central node in a multimillion-dollar joint oil and gas deal forged between the Syrian government owned General Petroleum Corporation and Stroytransgaz, a Russian state-run hydrocarbon engineering firm headed by Gennady Timchenko, a longtime Putin associate. Even if Moscow holds onto territory, the war has wrecked its future. The private Russian military force, which has close ties to President Vladimir Putin and has been used in war zones across the world, is expanding its presence in Ukraine. A Russian-speaking man who filmed the torture and killing of a prisoner in Syria has been identified as a member of Wagner, a Russian private military company Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the United States Central Command has refined the amount of equipment, logistics, coordination and tactics required to mix weapons fired from both the air and ground. Governments are almost endlessly prone to throwing good money after bad. The contractors train at a GRU compound in Molkino, a village in southwestern Russia, and the SBU has identified over 25 Russian officers who instruct Wagner contractors in skills ranging from artillery to combat engineering. In a legal criminal complaint announced Monday on behalf of the victim, Muhammad Hamdi Bouta Taha al-Abdullah, attorneys representing the victims brother allege that six Russian citizens who worked on a contract to secure a Russian-Syrian operated gas plant were behind the 2017 killing. The GRU often directs and supports the group in combat, and the available evidence indicates close coordination in A member of the group can be overheard discussing whether they should cover their faces before one says theres no point, as the video is not going to go anywhere., Amy Mackinnon is a national security and intelligence reporter at Foreign Policy. The U.S. government has said that the organization is financed by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and a close associate of Mr. Putin. The details of the Feb. 7 firefight were gleaned from interviews and documents newly obtained by The New York Times. Some of the Green Berets and Marines took aim from exposed hatches. Theyre testing us every day., How a 4-Hour Battle Between Russian Mercenaries and U.S. Unless you have been on the battlefield in Syria, Libya or the Central African Republic, you most likely have never heard of the Wagner Group, a private military force with close links to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Former President Obasanjo warns: Danger looming ahead., Report: The United States troops on the ground, now roughly 40 in all, braced their defenses as the mercenaries left their vehicles and headed toward the outpost on foot. The clip of the brutal murder in Syria, apparently filmed in the summer of 2017, resurfaced this week in the wake of an investigation by Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta. NEW FOR SUBSCRIBERS: In the end, 200 to 300 of the attacking fighters were killed. Novikov said that Novaya Gazeta asked the Investigative Committee to open an inquiry into the murder, but the committee ignored the request. The report also revealed that at least one of the Russian-speaking men in the video had fought in the embattled region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine before traveling to Syria to work for a contingent affiliated to the Wagner Group. Prigozhin, who had been charged by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller in early 2018, was slapped with new U.S. Treasury Department sanctions on September 30, in an announcement that also included photographs of three jets and a 122-foot yacht that purportedly belongs to Prigozhin or his companies. You may opt out at any time. The military dependence of the CAR administration on Wagner has translated into a very influential political role for the mercenary organization," the report said. Click + to receive email alerts when new stories are published on Journalists, open-source researchers, and other observers have tracked Russian military companies to operations in the Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Libya. While it is not clear whether U.S authorities would pursue further sanctions against Prigozhin, Timchenko, or any of the other entities implicated in reporting and legal filings on Boutas case the facts certainly suggest that American investigators in Washington will be tracking its outcome closely. Some of the fighters appeared to have been recruited from Syria and Libya, the Pentagons spokesman, John F. Kirby, has said. At this point, members of the group Bouta was traveling with notified Boutas brother-in-law, who was in Lebanon at the time, that the Syrian military had taken Bouta into custody. The Wagner Group is a mercenary firm that has been heavily involved in the fighting in Ukraine. Subscribers can send in questions in advance. WebPosted by 2 days ago. Our whole family was in tears watching the video he was murdered like an animal, Nuzhin said. While mercenary groups are outlawed within Russia, they have served as the tip of the spear of the Kremlins proxy wars abroad. The group sketched out activities like this as a standard mixture for Wagner, providing both military fighters, military and political and economic advice, and also securing business in the countries, often extracting raw materials, for businesses with ties to Wagner or Russia or both. A billboard in Bangui with the slogan "The Central African Republic is hand in hand with Russia" (file photo), published what it claimed was the victim's name. Advertisement. "Fontanka" named the name of another alleged participant in the brutal execution in Syria Ok-Manner1919 1 yr. ago This is a great video for those who don't want to see the gore but wanna know what the video looks like. 'There's no one to help': Russian mercenary industry's toll on families, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. The Novaya Gazeta report added more clarity to an incident that prompted anger and confusion when evidence of it first surfaced. 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