Wagner Group Volume 1

Private Military Company: Establishment, Profile and Operations 2013-2023

by Janos Besenyo, Lt. Col. (Ret.) Endre Szénási and András István Türke

Series: Europe@War

Imprint: Helion and Company

80 Pages, 8.3 x 11.7 in, 90 color photos, 21 color profiles, 5-6 maps

Paperback
9781804516096
May 2024
Pre-Order

$29.95

Buy

Description
Authors

The Wagner Group is symbolic of Russia’s deployment of private military companies (PMCs) to exercise influence in Africa, the Middle East and Europe since the mid-2010s. Nominally an independent commercial enterprise, but actually operating on behalf of the Russian government, and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defence and its Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), and the Federal Security Service (FSB), it has been deployed to perform a very wide range of military and paramilitary tasks, provide security, and collect intelligence.

Through much of its existence, the activity of the Wagner Group appears to have been clandestine and poorly recorded. In practice, the operating principles of this PMC have been very similar to those of numerous similar enterprises from the West.

Since its failed coup attempt in the summer of 2023, the fate of the Wagner Group appears to be sealed. Indeed, presently, it is highly unlikely that a Russian PMC might ever again have the same power and influence that Wagner once wielded. However, this does not mean that such all such enterprises have been completely disbanded: only that the Wagner Group has not (yet) been replaced by some other enterprise – whether Russian or foreign. In fact, we are witnessing a recurrent trend that is likely to become even more characteristic for conflicts in the coming decades as almost everybody who can afford to pay for the services of a PMC is hiring them. Indeed, numerous governments in control of relatively weak or disloyal armed forces have concluded that the deployment of a PMC holds significant advantages.

This two-part works examines the predecessors to the Wagner Group, and the establishment of the latter organisation by Yevgeny Prigozhin, its activities in a number of conflicts around the world, and its armed mutiny against the top leadership of the Russian Federation. It is thoroughly illustrated with authentic photographs and custom commissioned color illustrations and maps.

János Besenyő is a professor in Óbuda University (Hungary) and head of the Africa Research Center. Between 1987 and 2018, he worked as a professional soldier and served in several peace operations in Africa and Afghanistan. He received a PhD in military science from Miklós Zrínyi National Defense University and a habilitated doctorate at Eötvös Lórant University. In 2014, he established the Scientific Research Center of the Hungarian Defence Forces General Staff, and was its first leader from 2014 to 2018. His most recent publication is Darfur Peacekeepers: The African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur (AMIS) from the Perspective of a Hungarian Military Advisor.

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Endre Szénási is a retired Field Artillery officer and a former strategic analyst of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence. He served as a professional soldier between 1988 and 2023. Following graduation at Kossuth Lajos Military High School (Hungary, 1989), Field Artillery Officers’ Advanced Course in the United States of America, Field Artillery Officers’ Staff Course (Hungary) he got his Masters’ Degree at the Miklós Zrínyi National Defence University (Hungary) receiving a Security- and Defence Policy Expert’s diploma in 2022. Between 1989 and 1995 he served at several Field Artillery units in Hungary as a subunit commander. He served as a professional duty officer in Cyprus at the UNFICYP HQ between 1995 and 1997. He was a senior strategic analyst of the Defence Policy Department of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence between 1997 and 2023, with multiple fields of expertise stretching from post-Soviet policies to global migration, energy security and climate change etc. He retired after 35 years of service as a professional soldier.

András István Türke is director of the Europa Varietas Institute (Switzerland) and senior research fellow of the Africa Research Institute (Óbuda University, Hungary). He is senior expert of the Institute for Strategic Research (IRSEM, French MoD), of the Research Center of the General Staff (Hungarian MoD) and of the Peace Operations Research Network (CÉRIUM-ROP, University of Montréal). Between 2006 and 2011 he worked as visiting fellow at the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) as well as at the Assembly of the WEU - Defence Committee. Between 2013 and 2018 he was lecturer at several universities in Hungary. Dr. Türke holds a PhD degree in History of International Relations from the Sorbonne University (Paris III) and received a habilitated doctorate at University of Szeged (Hungary). His most recent publication is the contemporary history of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi (chapters in a book on French-speaking Africa).