Russia again recruits soldiers from Wagner

The attempted mutiny by the Wagner Group was a turning point in the relationship between the paramilitaries and the Kremlin government. After the mediation of the Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, Yevgeny Prigozhin's soldiers halted their advance towards Moscow.

Although things calmed down, the wound did not close. Prigozhin was branded a traitor by President Vladimir Putin, and just weeks after the attempted attack on Moscow, the Wagner leader died in a plane crash. An accident that many did not hesitate to blame on the Kremlin. For the rest of the fighters of the paramilitary group, Putin offered several alternatives: return home and lay down their weapons or serve in the Russian army.

"Wagner no longer exists," Putin said in mid-July. Now, many of Wagner's members are already "retired", the Kremlin is trying to put them in its service. But no longer as part of a paramilitary group, but as a unit of its most select army, which is directly dependent on the leader of the Kremlin: Rosgvardia.

The paramilitary group stopped recruiting soldiers after the failed march on Moscow, forcing it to dismantle its military base in southern Russia and surrender tons of weapons. At that time, Putin offered the fighters to sign contracts with the military, causing the Wagner group to disappear completely. After Prigozhin's death, a former senior Wagner commander, Andrei Troshev, met with Putin about a possible use of Wagner in Ukraine. A meeting that ended in an agreement with the Ministry of Defense.

According to The Guardian, Putin's forces began recruiting Wagner soldiers earlier this month to deploy to Ukraine. "We are urgently looking for new people this month. We will fight like Wagner, but contracts will be signed with Rosgvardia," said Andrei Bulgakov, a Wagner veteran.

As Bulgakov explains, Wagner's unit within the Rosguardia will be commanded by Pavel (age 25), Prigozhin's son. "Pavel Yevgenyevich is now in charge," he comments.

The end of Wagner

Despite everything, what seems certain is the end of Wagner as a paramilitary formation. Denis Korotkov, a Russian expert on the paramilitary group, believes that with Yevgeny's march to Moscow, everything about Wagner changed. "Prigozhin was allowed to get rich under Putin's direct blessing. But that changed the moment he marched towards Moscow," he says.

Now, it is not clear how many soldiers Wagner had before his disbandment. According to Korotkov, at the time of the uprising there were about 3,000 experienced soldiers. And, after the invasion, this number would have increased to 25,000 soldiers, many of them ex-convicts.

“The state will now seek to recruit these fighters by adopting the Wagner brand. But behind the banner there is no longer any organized structure. "Wagner as an independent entity ceased to exist after Priogozhin's death," notes Korotkov. It also ensures that no high-ranking Wagner commander will be able to command any other brigade after the mutiny.

In any case, there are many soldiers who, given the Kremlin's past hostility to the Wagner Group, are wary of signing any contracts with the regular army. For this reason, they choose another path, that of other mercenary groups connected to the Moscow oligarchs. In this respect, Redut is the main option. This private military company has operated in the Middle East, Africa and also in Ukraine since it was founded in 2008 by Russian paratroopers attached to the Russian intelligence services. After the fall of Wagner, Red seems to have taken his place.

"Wagner is the past. If you are really interested in a job in Africa, then the Ministry of Defense and Order PMC are your choice," said an advertisement on the Russian social network VKontakte. (A2 Televizion)