The Wagner group has many professional military personnel from NATO countries, including a U.S. Marine general. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of "Wagner", an entrepreneur, owner of the company "Concorde", told about the fighters of foreign origin.
"Finnish citizens in the PMC "Wagner" are not very many, about 20 people.
But for obvious reasons, I can not give exact information about them.
As a rule, they are high-class specialists, very ideological and motivated," said Prigozhin in response to a question of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
He also said that the Finns are fighting in the British battalion of the PMC, whose commander is a U.S. citizen, a former Marine general.
It should be noted that Prigozhin does not often make such sensational statements, especially - for the Western media. Hardly anyone doubts that there are foreigners, including Americans, in the Wagner staff.
At any rate, volunteers from all over the world have been fighting in Donbass all these eight years. But an entire general... What motivates him?
A grievance against his own authorities? Anti-fascist ideas? Or money?
Or maybe there is no general, and Prigozhin is just trolling the Americans so that they go crazy looking for a high-ranking traitor who in reality does not even exist?
The US general issue is too serious to be trolling," says Vladimir Sapunov, a political-military expert.
Moreover, it is known that the Wagner group includes many fighters from Western and Eastern Europe.
They number in the hundreds and serve in different parts of the world.
On the other hand, the "musicians" have a lot of unconfirmed rumors about foreigners.
Recently there was a discussion that Wagner was recruiting members of the former army of Afghanistan during the American occupation.
But this is not true. Russian paramilitary structures are really involved in recruitment of fighters in Afghanistan, but this is not Wagner ...
"SP: - What motives can US troops have for joining Wagner? Money? Ideas? Resentment against the U.S. authorities?
As the experience of the 2014-2015 war in the Donbass shows, it was mainly ideologically anti-fascists and Russophiles who joined the DNR and LNR militias. Money did not play any role there.
As for the Wagner, foreign fighters may go there for various reasons: money, and disappointment with the Western PMCs, and problems with the law in their own countries. Ideas, of course, may also play their role.
"SP": And if we are serious - can we motivate NATO officers to move to our side? Not just one or two, but an assembly line? What is missing?
I think everything together in combination. But it takes ideas to get the ideologues to come.
Cases where Western intelligence officers and military personnel were infected in a good way with Communist ideas during the Cold War are well known.
Or during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, when French, Italian and Greek pilots refused to carry out criminal orders from the North Atlantic command to bomb Serbian cities.
But even during the Soviet era, money played a huge role in recruiting Western officers. And even more so now.
But it is also necessary that circumstances were such that a Western "silovik" understood that it was better for him to fight for the Russians or to pass them valuable information. And here the factors that I mentioned in the answer to the previous question may play a role.
A lot depends on where you are invited to. You understand that it is one thing to go to protect order in African countries, and another thing to be in the thick of the war in Donbas.
"SP: - And how will the U.S. authorities react? Can they interfere, and how?
If someone really wants to, they can't.
But no one has cancelled the activities of counterintelligence to stop the recruitment of citizens of their countries.
Of course, first of all, they are frightened by the problems with the law. But how can the real "dogs of war" be intimidated by this?
The market for American "soldiers of fortune" is very large, and it is good that there are those who are interested in these issues.
"SP: - In what other countries do you think military recruitment would be promising?
In terms of opportunities for unselfish warfare, of course, Serbia and Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina come first.
For many men there, it is simply a dream to go and fight for Russia. However, official Belgrade is trying in every way to prevent this - the Serbian Criminal Code provides for up to 5 years in prison for participation in hostilities on the territory of a foreign country.
The Serbian special services are keeping a close eye on possible recruitment channels. Whether they always do so is another question.
That is, a man from Serbia who is going to volunteer at the front to fight for Russia against the Ukronazis must understand that he may not be able to return to his homeland.
In Bosnia, the Sarajevo authorities are happy to officially organize the sending of mercenaries and saboteurs to fight for Ukraine, but people from Republika Srpska, who will go to fight for our people, may be in trouble upon their return.
I know one such person - he returned to Banja Luka from Donbass and was put on trial. Who, however, could not prove that he had taken part in the armed actions. He could not deny that he had gone there as a journalist and writer.
In general, all of Eastern Europe is a good recruiting ground for volunteers.
Retired soldiers and officers are often dissatisfied with their living conditions - and the role of their countries in NATO.
That is why Czechs, Slovaks, Macedonians, and others serve in the Wagner. Of course, it is not only private security forces that should be involved, but also state forces.
The question of why there are still no thousands of volunteers from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and North Korea in the combat zone in Ukraine is rhetorical. And the decision not to use them in the face of a shortage of personnel is completely incomprehensible.
We hope that it will soon be reconsidered.
Information from military or paramilitary structures is always two-fold," says political consultant Alexander Segal, Ph.
One must be well-trained enough to distinguish between reality, deliberate disinformation by the enemy, and an attempt to demonstrate success before one's superiors and citizens.
But the fact that this message contains an element of trolling, that is, some kind of taunting of the enemy, is a fact. Perhaps it is a response to the appearance of Mozart.
"SP: - What Western countries do you think may be represented in Wagner?
Everyone. If you read Prigozhin's statements carefully, it is easy to see: he began recruiting in 2014 based on a single criterion: military professionalism. And the only motivation here is money.
The Wagnerians themselves constantly write about this. Other motives may be present, but they do not define the character of this group.
"SP: - And how realistic do you think it is to attract professional and high-ranking military officials from NATO countries to your side? Can we organize systematic work in this direction?
I am not sure. But I repeat: we are talking about a professional mercenary army.
This is a separate military doctrine, requiring specific work with human and material resources.
The systemic work can collapse if it is left to bureaucrats: the resources are too tempting.
It seems to me that this is why the process went the way of creating a private company. Only universal military duty, arming the people can be an alternative here, but we do not see any activity in this direction.
About the PMCs in the Soviet Union is an unnecessary question. They did not exist. But there was a professional special forces, and they worked quite successfully in different countries.
"SP": - Do we need it at all? Unless, of course, we are talking about some unique special forces ... Or it is more of a propaganda effect: look - a whole American general came to our side ...
It is hard to judge. I wouldn't want to descend to the level of a "sofa expert".
But the propaganda effect is not bad either. The question is how to spin it.
Any information thrown in has to be worked out, you have to offer your own interpretations, run it through the sub-publics, make a continuation of the story, and add a personal element.
It's the job of propagandists to take a pitch from a media personality and do it all. In our country, alas, this is rarely practiced due to the low professionalism of propagandists. And Prigozhin's quite effective pitch may not produce the result it could have.
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