Russian reserve lieutenant colonel, general director of Concord Management and Consulting, the management company of Evgeny Prigozhin's restaurant holding. in the media is called the founder of PMC Wagner, callsign Wagner.
"Biography"Until 2013, he was the commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate special forces brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (the city of Pechory, Pskov Region).
"Companies" "News" Dmitry Utkin pays millions of rubles to the families of members of PMC "Wagner" killed in SyriaToday it became known that the private military company Wagner, founded by Dmitry Utkin, began to compensate the families of the dead and wounded mercenaries in Syria for damage. In the first case, compensation is paid in the amount of 3 million rubles of a lump-sum allowance and another 2 million rubles of insurance, and in the second - amounts ranging from 500 thousand to one million rubles, respectively.
DEATH ACCOUNTING. WHO GIVES AND HOW MUCH BILLIONS FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF THE RUSSIAN WAGNER MERCENIES IN SYRIANow a private military company is run by Dmitry Utkin with the call sign "Wagner". In December 2016, he and his colleagues attended the Kremlin reception in honor of Heroes of the Fatherland Day and even took a picture with President Vladimir Putin. In November 2017, Utkin became the CEO of the “Kremlin chef” Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Concord Management and Consulting. The second person in the "Wagner group" is Andrey Troshev. The Fontanka publication describes an incident that happened to him in the summer of 2017: Troshev was admitted to the hospital while intoxicated, and they found a large amount of money and maps of Syria with him.
Western media told why PMC "Wagner" rushed to the oil fields in SyriaWe are talking about the largest Russian private military formation, which was headed by Lieutenant Colonel of the Pskov Special Forces Brigade of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Dmitry Utkin, aka Wagner.
A well-known photograph from a reception in the Kremlin, in which Utkin (far right) is captured in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin:
Putin around the world “protects Russian speakers”, but in Syria he simply used Russian Wagner mercenariesAt the same time, it is reported that Russia used Wagner mercenaries outside its country. The press center summarized: "It is significant that the corresponding meeting was held at the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation at the end of February 2015." From the published video evidence, it becomes clear that the parties during the conversation - Listopad and Dmitry Utkin agreed on further cooperation.
Alexander Baklanov: In Syria, Wagner group mercenaries were killed by a US airstrike. What is known about the dead"PMC Wagner" or the Wagner Group is a private military company from Russia, whose fighters participated in the armed conflict in the south-east of Ukraine, and since 2015 have been fighting in Syria on the side of forces supporting Assad. The private military company is run by the former commander of the GRU special forces detachment, reserve officer Dmitry Utkin (call sign Wagner). Many fighters of the Wagner Group received Russian orders and medals.
RUSSIAN MERCENIES DIE IN SYRIA DUE TO PRIGOGIN'S OIL DEAL, - MEDIAIn June 2017, Russian media wrote that Euro Polis had concluded a memorandum with the Syrian government on the liberation and protection of oil and gas fields and infrastructure in the country. According to the newspaper, PMC Wagner was supposed to deal with security. The PMC is also associated with Prigozhin: the company was founded by Dmitry Utkin, who allegedly knows the current head of Prigozhin's security service, Yevgeny Gulyaev.
Prigozhin's "imprints" are visible in Ukraine, the United States and Syria.Prigozhin is also linked to the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which also took part in the war against Ukraine. The leader of the group, former Russian officer Dmitry Utkin, also turned out to be the CEO of one of Prigozhin's companies in the Concord group.
Protocol video filming of the Kremlin reception in honor of the Heroes of the Fatherland on December 9, 2016 put an end to the conspiracy. Among the heroes invited to the celebration, Dmitry Utkin, better known as "Wagner" and the commander of the PMC of the same name, was seen in the Donbass and Syria.
The celebration of the Day of Heroes of the Fatherland restores the pre-revolutionary tradition of the Day of the Cavaliers of St. George, celebrated on December 9th. In 2016, the presidential reception was held in the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin. As reported on the official website of the administration, “more than 300 military and civilians who have shown special courage and heroism have been invited to the reception. Among the participants of the event are Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of Russia, full cavaliers of the Order of Glory and cavaliers of the Order of St. George.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed the heroes. He ended his speech with a toast:
“I heartily congratulate all those invited and all our heroes on the holiday, who, of course, simply cannot accommodate this hall. I wish you all health and peace. Each of you wrote his own, but bright page in the history of Russia.
Among those who entered the page, Fontanka noticed acquaintances. In the plot of Channel One, you can see a middle-aged man who is sitting at the table on the left, on the border of the frame. Those who are personally acquainted with Dmitry Utkin confirmed: this is him.
Dmitry "Wagner" // The plot of "Channel One",
frame from video.
Dmitry Utkin, callsign "Wagner". Reserve officer, until 2013 - commander of the 700th separate detachment of special forces of the 2nd separate brigade of the Special Forces of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense. After being transferred to the reserve, he worked at the Moran Security Group, participated in the Syrian expedition of the Slavic Corps in 2013. Since 2014, he has been the commander of his own unit, which, according to his call sign, received the code name “Wagner PMC”.
Andrey Troshev//The plot of the TV channel "Russia 1",
frame from video.
Andrey Troshev retired from the post of SOBR commander shortly before the liquidation of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Northwestern Federal District, in the spring of 2014. At that time, he did not have the title of Hero and, as Fontanka reliably knows, the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not prepare such a performance for him.
The badge on the lapel of Andrei Troshev's jacket - a flaming grenada with two swords - could not be identified.
Recall, according to Fontanka, both Utkin and Troshev in 2015-2016 were seen on joint trips with well-known security officers of billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin and, probably, also worked for the structures of the Concord group controlled by Prigozhin.
There are no presidential decrees on awarding Dmitry Utkin and Andrey Troshev in the public domain.
Dmitry Utkin's phone works in the answering machine mode, congratulations and the question of what feat he was awarded the high rank for are left to him. No response has been received yet.
Andrey Troshev's well-known mobile number has been disabled. Since June 2016, he has been the head of the St. Petersburg regional public organization League for the Protection of the Interests of Veterans of Local Wars and Military Conflicts, but no one answered the phone number indicated in the registration documents of the society.
As far as we know, this is the first "publication" of PMC Wagner. Prior to the reception on December 9, 2016, the Kremlin did not comment in any way on information about Wagner, the participation of his unit in hostilities and the awarding of fighters from the informal PMC with state awards.
The holiday of state recognition is overshadowed only by the Syrian army: just at the time when glasses were raised in the St. George Hall for the heroes who liberated Palmyra, militants of the Islamic State banned in Russia again captured the ancient city.
Denis Korotkov,
Fontanka.ru
From the Editor: The following material, which we print with some reduction. taken by us on the Radio Liberty website - an information resource, to put it mildly, unfriendly to us for ideological reasons! However, in some cases, alas, it is necessary to use similar sources of information, when, due to certain circumstances, information about the subject or person under investigation can be difficult to find anywhere ...
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov promised reporters to “check” whether Dmitry Utkin, nicknamed “Wagner”, the commander of an unregistered private military company (PMC) of the same name, was present at the recent reception in the Kremlin in honor of the “Heroes of the Fatherland Day”, the fighters of which, presumably participated in battles in Syria and Donbass. Radio Liberty recalls who Wagner is, what made his small army famous...
Wagner was noticed on the set from the Kremlin by Denis Korotkov, a journalist from the Fontanka.ru website. According to the Kremlin’s website, “more than 300 military and civilians who showed special courage and heroism, including Heroes of the Soviet Union, Heroes of Russia, full cavaliers of the Order of Glory and cavaliers of the Order of St. George” were invited to the reception, which took place on December 9, according to the Kremlin’s website.
In an interview with Radio Liberty in the spring of 2016, Denis Korotkov told in detail what traces of Wagner and his small army were found in Syria and Ukraine. Shortly before this, Fontanka.ru published data on the losses that the Wagner PMC suffered in Syria. According to unnamed Fontanka sources, these losses could have reached 60 people in the spring of 2016. Information about the participation of Wagner PMCs in the hostilities in Syria was partially confirmed in an interview with Radio Liberty by an activist of the investigation group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) Team Ruslan Leviev. In March CIT published information about the allegedly sixth Russian soldier killed in Syria - Sergey Chupov. Fontanka claims that Chupov was in fact not a regular soldier of the Russian army and was a member of the Wagner PMC. Leviev also agrees with the fact that this is quite possible, who, however, estimates the losses of “private traders” in Syria more modestly, at a maximum of several dozen dead.
De jure, there are no “private military companies” in Russia and there cannot be by law. De facto, "PMC Wagner", according to Ruslan Leviev, is a semi-legal military formation that exists under the wing and on the money of the Ministry of Defense - even the Wagner training ground is located next to the base of the 10th separate brigade of the Russian GRU special forces in the village Molkino, Krasnodar Territory. Wagner PMC fighters, according to journalists and investigators, participated not only in the Syrian campaign, but also in the annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine.
“Wagner” is the call sign of 46-year-old reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin. According to Fontanka, until 2013 Utkin was the commander of the 700th separate special forces detachment of the 2nd separate brigade of the GRU of the Ministry of Defense stationed in Pechory, Pskov region. After leaving the reserve, he worked in Moran Security Group, a private company specializing in the protection of ships from pirate attacks. According to the publication, he received his call sign thanks to his love for Wagner's music and "commitment to the aesthetics and ideology of the Third Reich." Wagner, not sparing the soldiers, sent them with "sabers naked" to the positions of the enemy, for which he was not very loved by his subordinates. Another thing is Sergei Chupov, who died in Syria, “thinking with his head and not sending people to meat.”
One of the rare photos of Dmitry Utkin, callsign "Wagner".
Investigations on Wagner PMC and its predecessor, the Slavic Corps, have been published before - for example, it became known that the salary of fighters of a private military company in Russia ranges from 80 to 120 thousand rubles a month (now the amounts are up to 240 thousand rubles), and the allowance to relatives in the event of the death of a soldier - 3 million. In an interview with Radio Liberty Denis Korotkov, the author of the publication on the Fontanka.ru website, gives details about the actions of Wagner PMCs in Syria, and the activist Conflict Intelligence Team Ruslan Leviev - about what "private military companies" are in Russian realities.
Ruslan Leviev, an activist of the investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team, which searches for information from open sources on the Internet and checks it "in the field" and through its own sources:
- We know only one Russian private military company - this is the same semi-mythical Wagner Private Military Company. We know that there are other companies in Russia that call themselves "private military companies", but these are usually something like security agencies. And only according to the "PMC Wagner" were there convincing evidence that its fighters really exist and are fighting in Syria. In particular, many probably remember the photographs of allegedly killed Russian soldiers near Palmyra, which were published by the militants of the Islamic State. (the organization is banned in Russia. - RS) March 17.
Similar rumors came from our familiar sources among the soldiers of the Ministry of Defense. We had similar assumptions regarding Sergei Chupov, whom we knew about, who died in Syria. In particular, some of his acquaintances, on condition of anonymity, told us that in fact he quit the internal troops in the middle of the 2000s and ended up in a private military company, and was already in Syria as a mercenary. However, we did not have convincing evidence that he actually fought in this PMC. Now we see from the article on Fontanka that, nevertheless, these half-rumors, half-theories that the Wagner PMC exists and that Sergei Chupov fought in this private military company are being confirmed. This also explains how a soldier of the internal troops, and not the Ministry of Defense, ended up in Syria, precisely because he ended up in a private military company.
– Did Wagner PMC exist before the start of the wars in Ukraine and Syria?
- Our sources, who are connected with the special forces of the Ministry of Defense and are familiar with the Wagner PMC, say that this unit was formed through the so-called Slavic Corps. This is a PMC that existed before Wagner PMC. She was hired by an offshore company Moran Security Group, that was in 2009. They hired them to protect ships from pirates when there were these stories of pirate attacks on ships. Around 2011–12, the "Slavic Corps" broke up and this so-called "Wagner PMC" appeared. We know that these photographs, then still of the "Slavic Corps", depict one well-known volunteer, a militia - Vyacheslav Korneev, his call sign "Leshy", which we heard about both in Syria and in the Donbass. He is captured in the photographs of this "Slavic Corps" from 2013 in Syria. And he also has a video from Syria in 2013 in his profile. That is, we believe that this PMC, which at first was the Slavic Corps, and then the Wagner PMC, in one form or another participated in the hostilities in Syria at least since the fall of 2013.
- What are the main differences between Russian private military companies, on the one hand, from the regular army, and on the other hand, from the usual private security company?
– In Russia, there is no legal framework for the existence of private military companies. It is impossible for civilian organizations to have weapons like sniper rifles, mortars, grenades, and so on. Even private security companies in our country do not have the right to own such weapons. And this PMC has it. We know that their training ground is located in Molkino, in the Krasnodar Territory, right next to the base of the 10th GRU Spetsnaz Brigade. We assume that they are trained directly by the Main Intelligence Directorate. And their entire existence is at such a secret level, semi-official, that is, apparently, there are no documents that such and such a person serves in this PMC, that he was sent to Syria. We believe that, most likely, these mercenaries, entering the PMC, agree with the condition that they formally will not exist either in Syria or anywhere else, and de jure they do not serve anywhere. And if they die, they are left to themselves, to their relatives, that is, there will be no help from the authorities.
- Is it possible, in this case, to assume that the main source of equipment and funding for this PMC is the Russian Ministry of Defense?
– Yes, definitely. We think so. Because, firstly, their training ground is in direct contact with the training ground of the 10th brigade of the GRU special forces. If their existence were illegal, if it were not approved by the Russian authorities, it would be impossible for them to be in the neighborhood with such an elite part of the GRU special forces. Plus, those photos of the dead mercenaries that were published by the IS fighters - they show weapons that only the elite units of the GRU special forces have. For example, a mine-grenade, an "insert", which was in the uniform of one of the dead. We also see from the photographs published by Vyacheslav Korneev and others that they are being delivered to Syria by the forces of the Ministry of Defense. They are photographed against the background of helicopters of the Ministry of Defense, aircraft of the Ministry of Defense. There is clear assistance in both transportation and armament from the Russian authorities and the Ministry of Defense.
- How diverse is the staffing of private military companies? Is participation limited by age, nationality or some other parameters?
- Of those people whom we saw, who are either definitely involved in PMCs, or there are reasonable suspicions about them, these are all people with extensive experience, as a rule, they are over 30 years old, they have already served both military service and military service. by contract. There are also quite elderly people, like the same Sergei Chupov, who was 51 years old. That is, as a rule, these are not some kind of volunteers that we met in the Donbass, former miners or some kind of car wash, but really people with combat experience who served in well-trained military units.
–Is it possible to at least approximately estimate the number of losses of the PMC we are talking about in Syria, say, over the past year?
- Those people with whom we spoke, who claim to be familiar with people from this PMC, say that during the period of Russia's official participation in the Syrian operation, there were several dozen dead. But we have not yet found confirmation of such a scale. As a rule, even those people who fight in PMCs, anyway, after their death, mourning posts of their relatives and friends appear, as was the case with Sergei Chupov. However, we did not notice such a wave of messages with grief, which would correspond to dozens of the dead. Therefore, only at the level of rumors, according to unconfirmed information, their losses amount to several dozen people, says Ruslan Leviev.
According to the Internet publication Fontanka, in total, about a hundred Russian fighters of the Wagner PMC took part in the battles in Syria. Their task was to go with the "first wave", direct artillery.
“The Syrian special forces are cheerfully following us, and then Vesti-24, along with ORT with cameras at the ready, go to interview them,” an unnamed Wagner PMC fighter told Fontanka. The online publication claims that about 60 fighters of this unit were killed in Syria. It is noted that before the operation in Syria, the fighters of the same private military company fought on the side of the separatists in eastern Ukraine. According to Fontanka.ru, one of the proofs of the existence of the Wagner PMC is that its soldiers receive military orders and awards on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The updated Wagner Division, according to Fontanka, was created a few years after the collapse of the Slavic Corps, in 2014. In total, the PMC has at least 600 people - without service personnel. Denis Korotkov, journalist of the Fontanka.ru website:
- You are very confident in naming those who hold leadership positions in this so-called battalion, or PMC. Where did you get your information from?
- I have this information from the words of my numerous interlocutors, whose names I cannot disclose, but I am sure of their awareness. In many cases, I am sure that these are very worthy people of honor who will not allow themselves to give me unverified information. These are numerous cross-sources, so the name of "Wagner", Dmitry Utkin, we allowed ourselves to name directly and openly. Although this name was already known to us more than six months ago, in previous materials we told his biography, but did not name him, but in January-February he already got into the public space, which is why we revealed his identity.
- On what basis are people recruited to the Wagner PMC, who exactly goes to serve there?
- These are very different people. In principle, the conditions are quite simple: these are men from 25 to 45 years old, who do not have an outstanding criminal record, are fit for health reasons, and are able to fulfill simple standards for physical fitness. A suitable military specialty would be an advantage. First of all, of course, these are former military personnel, former employees of the police, security agencies, that is, those who have received appropriate training. Recently, many more people go there, as I was told, quite unprepared, who simply find it very attractive a salary of 240 thousand rubles a month for a fighter in a combat zone.
There are also lumpenized individuals. But, it seems to me, the main composition is absolutely normal people, including representatives of the middle class, who for some reason either did not find themselves in this life, or could not find a job that would allow them to provide for themselves and their families. Well, and a certain percentage, of course, there are people of war who simply like this kind of life, who consider it their vocation, their profession.
– What are the functions of this armed formation in Syria? Who and how can coordinate the fighting between this battalion and the Syrian government army, the army of Bashar al-Assad?
- The function is very incomprehensible. If we proceed from how the training in the camp in Russia goes, then this is mainly training according to the methodology of the special forces. That is, this is the work of intelligence, the work of sabotage groups and the like. If we believe the information that comes through the first or second hand from Syria, then quite often the Wagner group is used as an elite infantry, which, of course, entails quite large losses that are incommensurable, let’s say, with the practice of special forces, and as a result, dissatisfaction personnel. Who can coordinate the work, who can exercise command - I do not know.
Maxim Kolganov - according to Fontanka.ru, a Wagner PMC fighter who died in Syria, on the Mediterranean coast in Latakia.
- The heroes of your material complain that in Syria, and in the east of Ukraine, they are sent into battle like cannon fodder. How can you explain this, despite the fact that huge amounts of money are spent on this formation, on these military operations?
It's hard for me to understand the logic of these people. I can only guess. In Syria, a "hodgepodge" is obtained. According to Russian officials, our military advisers are present there, as well as servicemen from special forces. Obviously, our artillerymen and aviation are also present there. There are also quite diverse forces that are subordinate to Bashar al-Assad. There are also people from Wagner PMC. No matter how the aviation and artillery work, in any case, until the infantry enters somewhere, there will be no victory. This is an axiom. And that's it to enter somewhere, to conquer directly the area, settlements, no one wants. Because the quality of the Arab infantry is rated very low. Throwing parts of the armed forces there is fraught with great reputational losses. Therefore, those who will cry the least will be moved there. This is my guess.
- What data do you have about the losses of this unit in Syria for the entire period of its hostilities? How and where did you collect this data?
- I’ll make a reservation right away, all these figures can only be estimated, from my point of view, from conversations with the fighters. None of the commanders deigned to get in touch with me and report on the losses, and the fighter does not see the whole picture. In addition, his information cannot always be confirmed, because he very often does not know the names and surnames of even those with whom he fought next. But this is my personal, purely inaccurate assessment. I think that at least 200 people have died there to date. Once again, I emphasize that this is my personal assessment, which does not claim to be accurate and objective.
– Another very important point in your investigation. How is it, in your opinion, that the soldiers of the formation of mercenaries receive state military awards?
- I'm not sure that the word "mercenary" is applicable here - in the sense in which it is described in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. As for how they receive combat awards, I wrote: from my point of view, it is officially impossible to do this. They receive awards, the information again came from various sources and is partially confirmed by documents, but there is an instruction - the procedure for submitting to state awards of the Russian Federation, approved by the President of Russia. In accordance with the usual procedure for submitting to state awards, it is not possible for me to receive a state award by a fighter of a similar unit operating on the territory of another state!
AWARD signed by the President of Russia, posthumously awarded to one of the Wagner PMC fighters.
“Here’s an example: an illegal intelligence agent who has been operating for a long time on the territory of some foreign state, then returns to his homeland and secretly from everyone, only the awardees know about it and he himself receives a high state award.
- No problem. An illegal intelligence agent is either a full-time employee of one of the intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation, or a citizen of Russia or a foreign citizen cooperating with this agency. The relevant state authorities, for example, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Federal Security Service or the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, form a package of documents, a presentation describing the feat, and by a closed decree this person is awarded the body. How can you reward a person who fights in a non-existent organization, I do not know.
– One more moment. What was the role of this battalion in the Crimea? After all, it turned out that the notorious "little green men" are servicemen of regular Russian units.
– If you watch documentary footage of the Crimean history, you will see very, very many different people there. You will see those who were called servicemen of the Russian army, and indeed, apparently, they were contract soldiers from the elite units of the Russian Armed Forces. You will see there much older people in incomprehensible uniforms, very reminiscent of rather serious special forces, you will see completely incomprehensible people in various camouflage and civilian clothes there. There seemed to be a wide variety of people from various organizations present, including, to my knowledge, people from the Wagner group. Those people who are on all the posters are “polite people”, with cats and dogs, of course, these are not them.
- Do you admit the idea that there are others besides this division of Wagner? Maybe we are talking about some kind of private Russian army, which operates in Syria, Ukraine and somewhere else? It’s just that we don’t know yet, but more people will come up, and even whole units - is it theoretically possible?
“Theoretically, anything is possible, but practically it is extremely unlikely. Because if a little more than 2 thousand people could pass through the Wagner group during its entire existence, on a national scale this is a drop in the ocean. And then information about her leaked out. To hide something larger and more active, it seems to me, is unrealistic. In fact, in the "DPR" and "LPR", let's say, well-informed people imagine what units are operating there. And such unidentified forces, the "Flying Dutchmen" were not seen there. Although I cannot rule it out, I have no information about it.
- Can such a unit be the "amateur" of some Russian commanders of the Ministry of Defense, heads of law enforcement agencies? Or can it exist in modern Russia only with the knowledge of the top leaders of the state?
– I am not too well versed in the higher spheres of the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense to judge who and what rights and opportunities they have there. I really don’t know, not that I don’t want to, but I can’t answer this question, ”says Denis Korotkov, a journalist for Fontanka.ru.
http://www.svoboda.org/a/27642396.html
The commander of PMC Wagner, Dmitry Utkin, disappeared from the media after he accidentally got into the lenses of the cameras of journalists of Channel One in December 2016 at a reception in the Kremlin (then a photo of Utkin was taken with Vladimir Putin, a month later it appeared on the Web). A year later, Utkin practically “came into the light” when he received an official position in the empire of Yevgeny Prigozhin - he became the head of Concord Management and Consulting LLC, but soon Wagner again “went into the depths”, leaving this position. Daily Storm found out that during this time in the Northern capital Utkin managed to create a double and began to register companies for him.
Part 1. What is known about Utkin and Moran
The story of the double drug dealer harmoniously fits into the biography of Dmitry Utkin, a retired officer, head of one of the most active private military companies, and a lover not to step out of the shadows under any circumstances. The available information about Utkin is fragments of a mosaic that still cannot be put together to understand what kind of person he is. How did the GRU officer who led the military unit get to Syria as part of a PMC? What did you do before this?
Group photo from a reception in the Kremlin. Photograph of Vladimir Putin together with Dmitry Utkin and his deputy Andrey Troshev
Fontanka wrote that Dmitry Utkin led military unit 75143 in the city of Pechory, Pskov Region (part of the well-known 700th separate special forces detachment that participated in two Chechen wars). Once in civilian life, the future Wagner PMC commander got a job at the Hong Kong company Moran Security Group (it was 2013) and went on a business trip to Syria. Not a simple officer Dmitry Utkin returned to Russia from the Middle East, but Wagner, as we now know him. He gathered people, organized a camp near Rostov and went to the territory of Ukraine to participate in hostilities. Then it became known that a Russian private military company was operating on the territory of the once fraternal country. It got its name just because of the call sign of its commander - Dmitry Utkin, who is allegedly fond of the history of the Third Reich.
Daily Storm found a white spot in this already well-known biography - another place of Dmitry Utkin's service: military unit 64044. Military unit 64044 - 2nd Special Forces Brigade of the Main Directorate of the Moscow Region (GRU). In 2017, the Ukrainian portal StopTerror published investigation materials, which stated that a scout of this unit was seen in the fighting on the territory of the DPR. Wagner lived and was registered in this part. And not alone, Diana Grinchishina lived with him (who previously served in the military unit of radio intelligence, Daily Storm sources in the Pskov administration tell).
In the peaceful year of 2006, when the Chechen wars ended, and the Syrian crisis was still far away, Utkin, together with Grinchishina, got a job at Sergei Galitsky's Tander CJSC (now we know this company as Magnit). However, judging by the data from the FIU, Utkin did not work there for long, only one month. But his companion managed to build a career in retail sales: Diana Grinchishina was first a staff training manager at Magnit, and then became a store director - she personally published this information during the election campaign for the seat of a deputy of the Pskov City Duma.
Service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation Grinchishina chose not to advertise in the election campaign in Pskov
In her campaigns, the girl informed voters that in 1994 she graduated from Vilnius Pedagogical University, and in 2004 from St. Petersburg University of Engineering and Economics. As professional experience, Grinchishina indicates the following professions: a kindergarten teacher, an accountant and the aforementioned "Magnet". For some reason, Grinchishina preferred to remain silent about her service in the RF Armed Forces. The candidate's card does not contain information about her children, which is traditionally indicated in elections: Grinchishina has two children - a son from her first marriage with Utkin and a daughter from her second marriage. It is known about the son of Dmitry Utkin that he followed in the footsteps of his father - he serves in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
Now Grinchishina is the executive director of the Pskov branch of the public movement "Support of Russia". Also, according to SPARK, she leads the Shestaka homeowners association. In an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, you can see that in 2015 she changed her surname to Nagih.
After his dismissal from CJSC Tander, the next official milestone in Dmitry Utkin's career was the service in PMC Moran Security Group. At the beginning of the Syrian conflict, this company was something like a hydra with two large heads and many appendages.
There were two major divisions. The first was the Moran Security Group itself, which did business on the verge of what is permitted by the Russian Criminal Code. The company (formally it continues to exist today) was engaged in the protection of ships, mainly carrying oil. The Russian legislator does not consider such work to be mercenarism, unlike what PMCs (#ihtamnet) do in Syria and Donbass.
The second large branch of Moran Security - "Slavic Corps" - was the forerunner of these very detachments. The Slavonic Corps Limited company (outside the Russian Federation, the Slavonic Corps operated under this brand) was created just in time for the war in Syria. According to the papers, the Russian recruits of Slavonic Corps Limited, sent to the Middle East, were promised that their task would be to protect the oil pipeline in Deir Ezzor, Fontanka wrote. Now, even citizens who are far from the news agenda have heard something about the second most important city for ISIS, about the oil fields around it, and the endless bloody battles. In 2013, for most, Deir Ezzor was just a dot on the map. Even just getting into this area was a huge risk to life, but the Slavonic Corps Limited fighters were ordered not only to guard the facility, but to support the rebels in the Homs province in the battle against ISIS militants. For Slavonic Corps Limited, that campaign ended in ambush and rout.
De jure, both Moran Security Group and Slavonic Corps Limited existed in several jurisdictions at once - in Russia and abroad. Moran Security Group was registered in Belize at 1 Mapp Street, Belize City. It's just a house with many mailboxes, each of which is a legal entity. Many of them appeared in the Panama Papers, some of them have Russian beneficiaries. But the number of these offshore companies is so great that it is impossible to calculate the shareholders by address.
Moran Security Group at the time of Dmitry Utkin's arrival there had its own fleet. These are escort vessels: Ratibor (ESU2529), Maagen (E5U2139) and Anchor 1 (E5U2491), trawler Deo Juvante (E5U2630). All of them are assigned to the Cook Islands. However, judging by the fact that the latest information on the movement of ships on the world's oceans is dated 2015, it can be concluded that they are not performing tasks at the present time. At the same time, the sailors who worked on these ships began to post their resumes on the Internet.
Ratibor (ESU2529)
Maagen (E5U2139)
Anchor 1 (E5U2491)
Deo Juvante (E5U2630)
In the "marine team" (among those who performed work on the operation of ships, and not combat missions) of employees of the Moran Security Group, Sergey Vitalievich Kramskoy (the founder of the Russian company Slavic Corps) was lit up. His position was called Sales Representative.
Slavonic Corps Limited was registered in Hong Kong. The last activity of the company is dated April 15, 2015 (announcement of the resignation of the secretary and director of the company). The company submitted financial statements in 2013 and 2014. From this we can conclude that the company began to curtail or reformat its activities in parallel with the Moran Security Group. The shareholder of Slavonic Corps Limited is Neova Holdings Ltd, registered in the British Virgin Islands. Information about its real owners, as in the case of a company from Belize, is impossible to find out.
In Russia, the Moran Security Group and the Slavic Corps became famous in 2013 after a failed campaign in Homs (where recruits were sent instead of Deir Ezzor). The organizers of the "tour to Syria" in Russia, the law enforcement agencies decided to prosecute under the article on mercenarism (Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). But the defendants in the case were not the first persons of the company, but representatives of the second echelon - Vadim Gusev (in the media he was called the deputy director of the Moran Security Group) and Evgeny Sidorov (HR specialist). Both made a deal with the investigation and were sentenced to three years in 2014. The hearing in their case was held in a special order, and the materials were classified, so who Gusev and Sidorov gave incriminating evidence (the obligatory requirement of a deal with the investigation - to hand over a person who is higher in the criminal hierarchy than you yourself) remained a mystery. There were no high-profile detentions of people from the PMC sphere after the deal. The verdict to Gusev and Sidorov was announced on October 24, 2014 by the judge of the Moscow City Court Rasnovsky.
Frame from the video program "Today", 2014
According to SPARK-Interfax, convict Yevgeny Sidorov was a co-owner and head of six non-operating companies: Design and Advertising LLC, Moran Security Group LLC, Moran Security Group LLC, Progress LLC, Universal Media LLC and LLC "Edelweiss"
Currently, since November 2016, he has been a 100% owner of Dana LLC in Moscow, which supplies mineral water with an annual turnover of 26 million rubles.
Sidorov's accomplice Vadim Gusev has no operating companies.
A few words about those who were part of the first echelon of PMCs, but for some reason did not interest the investigators. The main public face of the Moran Security Group is Boris Chikin, a person with serious combat experience (first he was an instructor in mountain shooting training for soldiers of the USSR special forces during the war in Afghanistan, then he studied as a bodyguard at the Israeli Security Academy and in China), an expert in practical shooting, bodyguard training specialist. Now he owns 3% in a large construction company from St. Petersburg "Ligovsky Canal". Until 2013, he had 40% in Russian Legion LLC, which is engaged in security and detective activities. He transferred this share of the capital to his partner Yuri Degtyarev.
The second person in the Moran Security Group is Vyacheslav Kalashnikov, an ex-KGB and FSB officer (18 years of experience), who worked as an adviser to Alexander Torshin, deputy chairman of the Central Bank (now former), involved in the scandal with allegations of espionage Maria Butinawhen he was in the Federation Council (this information was previously posted on the Moran Security Group website). Until 2013, he, like Chikin, had 40% in Russian Legion LLC (formerly this company was called Gideon), but he also transferred them to Yuri Degtyarev.
Degtyarev Yuri Lvovich, in addition to the Russian Legion, is the sole owner of the Northern Watch security organization, registered in July 2018. Her story is just beginning.
Part 2. Double for Wagner
According to SPARK, Dmitry Utkin (Wagner) became the head of Evgeny Prigozhin's Concord Management and Consulting company on November 14, 2017. A month earlier, he received a new passport in the Leningrad region, sources tell the Daily Storm. Following Utkin received a new TIN, different from the one that was under the leadership of the military unit in Pechory. For journalists, this appointment did not go unnoticed: literally the next day, on November 15, the RBC agency wrote that the commander of PMC Wagner had become the head of Prigozhin's company. But already on March 1, 2018, Dmitry Utkin left the post of General Director of Concorde.
But this appointment (and resignation) was preceded by no less interesting events, the writers of which were in no hurry to tell the public about them. A year earlier, in March 2017, two companies were registered in St. Petersburg: Bist LLC and Lilia. In the first, Anufriev Alexander Yuryevich became the general director and founder, in the second Anufriev received only a director's position. Both companies are connected with Yevgeny Prigozhin through a chain of others.
larger diagram
Most of the intermediaries between Prigozhin and Anufriev are people who fall under the definition of "nominal directors." All of them had previously come to the attention of law enforcement agencies and were convicted.Anufriev is no exception. He, like his "business partners", had problems with the law. Wagner's double was in prison three times: he was tried for fraud, possession of weapons, beatings, drugs. In total, Anufriev spent eight years in prison. Until March 2017, he was not interested in business and did not officially work anywhere. But in the spring, he literally began a new life, in every way. After the registration of the first two companies, Alexander Yuryevich Anufriev changed his passport, and with it his last name, first name and patronymic.
It was not the drug dealer Anufriev who came out of the department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which is engaged in issuing documents, but Utkin Dmitry Valerievich, born in 1970. The real Wagner was born in the same year. The difference between the newly minted Utkin and the original was now only in the day and month of birth. Wagner appeared in July 1970, and his counterpart Anufriev appeared in August, sources tell the Daily Storm.
The transformation of the Wagner copy did not end there: after receiving a new passport, the person who became Utkin received a new TIN. With his help, on May 3, 2018, he registered two companies - Partner LLC and Expert Policy. Then the double somehow managed to get another TIN and in mid-May registered two more companies - Almaz and Logistik-trans. At the same time, the SPARK system sees Wagner's double as two different people, due to the fact that he was able to get different TINs (Daily Storm sources in the Federal Tax Service of St. " and "Partner" are registered by the same person).
“The passport is the same, it’s just that he somehow received two TINs in the territorial FMS,” the source told Daily Storm.
The Almaz company, created by the new Utkin on May 16, 2018, was registered at the address: St. Petersburg, Shlisselburgsky Avenue, 24, building 1a, room 7-N, office 10B. In August, the firm moved to office 25D in the same building. A month later, in office 32D, everyone registered the company Concord LLC in the same room. In November, she changed her residence permit to the center - she moved to the address: St. Petersburg, Sadovaya street, house 28-30. Here is the St. Petersburg office of the Concord Group of Companies Yevgeny Prigozhin. The sole owner and general director of Concord LLC is a certain Dmitry Zaitsev, who had never been in business until 2018 (in September 2018 he registered as an individual entrepreneur, and in December he decided to liquidate).
Dmitry Utkin (commander of the Wagner private military company) and Evgeny Prigozhin
In total, there are nine companies in Russia, the name of which includes or included the word "Concord", directly related to Yevgeny Prigozhin (he is a co-owner or leader). Most of them are located in St. Petersburg.
The BBC Russian Service, in its investigation on the activities of PMCs in Russia, noticed one feature: PMC Wagner has been using shell companies that are not directly related to Prigozhin’s business since its inception. As such examples, journalists cited the Kontur company, which purchased bandages and medicines during the battles for Debaltseve (with a difference of a few seconds, this company registered a domain together with another company close to Prigozhin - Collective Service), as well as Megaline ” and “Exclusive Technology”, which were engaged in the construction of a chapel in memory of Russian volunteers who died in Syria in Molkino. An employee of Exclusive Technology used email as an email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view. , and the company's office is located in the St. Petersburg business center "Sofiyskaya, 14". The next room is occupied by the firm "Concordia".
Does Anufriev-Utkin understand that he named himself after one of the most dangerous people in the world? We do not know. Why would anyone want to create a double of Wagner? We do not know. We only understand that these adventures are elements of a large mosaic, collecting which you can see one of the sketches of Russian reality about war, money and power.
Utkin Dmitry (born June 11, 1970, Asbest, Sverdlovsk region, RSFSR, USSR) is a Russian officer, employee of the Moran Security Group, head of the unofficial private military company Wagner (). Reserve Lieutenant Colonel. Until 2013, he was the commander of the 700th separate detachment of special forces of the 2nd separate brigade of the Special Forces of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (the city of Pechory, Pskov Region). After being transferred to the reserve, he worked for Moran Security Group, specializing in the protection of ships in pirate-prone areas. In 2013, he was among the organizers of the Slavic Corps company, which was sent to Syria to protect Bashar al-Assad. Since the summer of 2014, he has been the commander of his own unit in the Donbass, which, according to his call sign, received the code name “Wagner PMC”. The unit served as a cleansing team in the rear of the militias. Since October 2015, the PMC has been performing combat missions in Syria.
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