Explainer: What Is the Wagner Paramilitary Group?

Russian police officers are seen, reflected on a window, as they patrol in an area outside PMC Wagner Centre in Saint Petersburg, on June 24, 2023. Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images

Amid recent commotion around a possible coup in Russia by the Wagner private military organization, attention has turned to the shadowy group and its leader, a longtime affiliate of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After appearing to have launched an armed rebellion to force a change at the helm of Russia’s military, the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on Saturday announced that Wagner forces would halt their advance on Moscow to avoid bloodshed.

Prigozhin’s audio announcement on his Telegram channel appeared to defuse a dramatically escalating crisis and the most significant challenge to Putin’s leadership in his 23 years in power.

Fighters of Wagner private mercenary group are seen atop of a tank while being deployed near the headquarters of the Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24, 2023. Stringer/Reuters

Wagner Beginnings

The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, or Wagner Private Military Company, is a Russian paramilitary organization that was first identified in 2014, when it backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

While private military companies are technically illegal in Russia, Wagner has operated with state backing, with some reports indicating that the group’s murky legal status has allowed it to operate with plausible deniability as an unofficial armed wing of the Kremlin on sensitive foreign missions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2012, while serving as prime minister, told the Russian Duma that he supported the creation of private military companies as tools of Russian influence abroad.

Despite its murky legal status, Wagner in November 2022 opened an office in St. Petersburg, where Putin once served as mayor and Prigozhin ran a restaurant that Putin would frequent.

Visitors wearing military camouflage stand at the entrance of the "PMC Wagner Centre," associated with the leader of the Wagner private military group (PMC) Yevgeny Prigozhin, during the official opening of the office block in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Nov. 4, 2022. Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images

British intelligence said that in December 2022, Wagner had formally registered as a legal entity with a Russian state registry showing that the group said its core activity was “management consultancy,” with no mention of combat services.

Prigozhin has become a prominent oligarch in Russia, with operations that include catering services to the Russian military. He also heads Wagner, with some reports crediting him with the group’s founding, although this is disputed.

The company was named after the old callsign “Vagner” of former Russian Spetsnaz commander Dmitry Utkin, who is widely noted as the group’s founder though it’s unclear whether he actually initiated its establishment or was only a frontman, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Utkin himself, along with Wagner operatives, took part in Russian operations in Ukraine in 2014, the year Russia took over Crimea.

Since its founding, Wagner has grown considerably and has operated in the Central African Republic, Mali, and Syria, among other countries.

Leader of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin makes a statement as he stands next to Wagner fighters in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in Bakhmut, Ukraine, in this still image taken from video released on May 20, 2023. Press service of "Concord"/Handout via Reuters

Wagner in Ukraine

Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Wagner forces have provided the Kremlin with key support, doing much of the heaviest fighting in the Donbass region and taking significant casualties in the fight for Bakhmut.

“Wagner almost certainly now commands 50,000 fighters in Ukraine and has become a key component of the Ukraine campaign,” the British Ministry of Defence said in January.

The U.S. National Security Council said at the beginning of the year that around 80 percent of Wagner’s troops in Ukraine have been drawn from prisons.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia's Wagner mercenary force, speaks in Paraskoviivka, Ukraine, in this still image from an undated video released on March 3, 2023. Concord Press Service/via Reuters

In the course of the conflict in Ukraine, however, Prigozhin has ramped up his criticism of Russia’s top military brass, accusing them of corruption and incompetence.

Faced with battlefield setbacks in Ukraine, including Wagner taking significant casualties in the fierce battles over Bakhmut, Prigozhin leveled a series of accusations against the Russian military, including that they weren’t supplying Wagner with enough ammunition.

A culminating point was a June 23 accusation Prigozhin made in a post on his Telegram channel against Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who the Wagner chief accused of “destroying” his fighters and called for an armed mutiny.

“Prigozhin amplified a video from a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel on June 23 which reportedly shows the aftermath of a missile strike on a rear-area Wagner camp and accused the Russian MoD of conducting that strike,” states an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

A longtime ally of Putin, the Wagner Group’s leader did not target the Russian president in his attacks on Russian military brass.

“Prigozhin claimed that the Wagner Commanders’ Council made the decision to stop ’the evil brought by the military leadership' who neglect and destroy the lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers,” ISW said.

In this handout photo taken from video released by Prigozhin Press Service, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the owner of the Wagner Group military company, records his video addresses in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, on June 24, 2023. Prigozhin Press Service via AP

The Wagner leader vowed to “deal” with those who destroyed Russian soldiers and then return to Ukraine after restoring justice.

“Prigozhin also notably accused Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu of personally planning an operation to destroy Wagner and claimed that 25,000 Wagner personnel are prepared to act,” ISW stated.

He later posted on his Telegram channel that there was no “coup” but only a “march for justice.”

Wagner’s March on Moscow

On Friday and into Saturday, mercenaries from the Wagner Group moved closer to Moscow after seizing a southern city overnight, with Russia’s military reportedly firing on them from the air and setting up roadblocks but appearing to do little to blunt their rapid advance.

After capturing the city of Rostov overnight, Wagner operatives set off on a 680-mile run toward Moscow, drawing rebuke from Putin, who in a speech called the armed rebellion a betrayal and vowed to punish its leaders.

Russian servicemen guard an area standing in front of a tank in a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023. Vasily Deryugin, Kommersant Publishing House via AP

Then later on Saturday, the Belarus President’s Office said that Prigozhin had agreed to stop the group’s lightning-fast advance toward Moscow and to deescalate the situation.

Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and an ally of Putin, reportedly held talks with Prigozhin and helped broker a deal that would provide security guarantees for Wagner fighters.

Russian state media TASS reported that a tentative deal had been reached that would halt Wagner’s advance toward Moscow.

Prigozhin himself confirmed in a statement on his Telegram channel that he ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and retreat to their field camps in Ukraine in order to avoid shedding Russian blood.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that charges against Prigozhin would be dropped and he will be sent to neighboring Belarus.

Video shared on social media appeared to show Wagner forces withdrawing from their positions in Rostov-on-Don.