Inside Prigozhin’s Wagner, Russia’s Secret War Company | WSJ Documentary

The Wall Street Journal’s latest documentary “Shadow Men: Inside Russia’s Secret War Company” goes deep inside the lethal global expansion of the Russian private military company Wagner — tracing the group's evolution from a small, guns-for-hire operation into a sprawling network of businesses that has been active on four continents.

Through interviews with current and former Wagner fighters, government insiders, victims of attacks and war crimes investigators, the film reveals how the group is hiding the flow of riches and resources through a complex network of front companies that ultimately connect to the Kremlin.

0:00 What is Wagner and who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
3:36 How the Wagner Group operates
6:16 Wagner’s origins
10:36 A new business model in Syria
17:24 Wagner’s expansion into Africa
19:59 Wagner’s Africa playbook: guns and gold
27:13 The war in Ukraine, Wagner steps out of the shadows
36:09 Wagner’s future

#Wagner #Russia #WSJ

[david]

The secret war company the whole world knows about...

[jasminerichardson]

This episode needs a part 2 immediately because how the tables have turned 😅. Very interesting.

[SeekSeekerMaster]

It's hilarious to see how they never said these things for American and British PMC's.

[wilmeroberg]

Hearing Americans talk about "It's not a classic private military company" is insane. Americans love to use Russia to make themselves seem mild and normal. There is nothing normal about private military companies and don't pretend like it is.

[lenvg]

"Wagner is nothing like what Americans might understand as a private military company, Wagner are mercinaries for hire." Ok true but didn't America themselves extensively use PMC like Blackwater in Afghanistan? Furthermore these PMC also commited warcrimes and were funded by billions of tax payer money. So if Wagner is a terrorist group what does that make Blackwater?

[videoscontrabandos]

As a Colombia national, I can tell you from experience, this is what happens when you give a paramilitary group more money and power than the actual army.

[dutchkushman]

The enemy never tells the truth about their enemy

[abdulmuqit]

Who is watching this after Prigozhin's "plane crash" death.

[artemasward]

Maskim Borodin was a Russian reporter trying to help the Wagner Group widows after Wagner attacked American positions in Syria. When 200 Wagner mercenarys were killed in 15 minutes, because they were ordered to attacked over open terrain, Maskim Borodin started going to the funerals back in Russia and asking questions about getting combat pay for the widows. Maskim died when he fell off his balcony.

[commandermcnash]

And now we all expect Part 2: Prigozhin's Heresy and Wagner's road to Moscow.

[tokesalotta]

So we're to act like the French, British, Italians, and Americans haven't been doing the same for decades?

[encore]

'they are nothing like an7y private military company you've heard of' goes on to describe every private military company/mercenary from the beginning of time.

[Valdorel]

"Wagner is nothing like what Americans might understand as a Private military company" .... Your description is exactly equivalent to American PMCs in the Middle East, Africa, and South America... Did we suddenly forget that Blackwater exists?

[Maximusesss]

Thank you for the opportunity to participate and work on this project! 🎥

[Captain.Pugwash]

Very interesting. I feel like I want to write a screenplay now 🙂

[Mr.SKIFLANDIAN]

In general, of course, this is not a private military company. This is a full-fledged private army. By the type of those armies that were in Medieval Europe. They are not guards, they are soldiers. A unique phenomenon in the modern world.

[hiyou]

How about making a movie about Blackwater mercenaries or is that a bad thing to say?

[jonasf]

US BIG MAD when somebody beats them with their own politics

[mr.wigglemunch]

I'm afraid there won't be a part 2 anymore

[johnd.]

We Americans are guilty of the same. In Iraq, for example, we hired mercenaries who also regularly committed war crimes. Our government protects them too. Julian Assange exposed one of the war crimes by our mercanary contracters and, despite the public wanting our government to not prosecute him, they are working to prosecute him under the espionage act because he embarrassed them. We have no standing as human rights leaders.