The Wagner Group, Putin's strong arm

The Wagner Group, which is acquiring special prominence in the Russian-Ukrainian war, has for some time now been acting, if not creating, internal conflicts in different countries, mostly in Africa. It is described as a militia made up of mercenaries at the service of political and economic interests, although, as we are seeing, it is a powerful armed organisation with several thousand unscrupulous soldiers that in practice functions as Vladimir Putin's less and less secret armed wing. 

Its objectives, to fight with modern weaponry in the service of the Kremlin, are increasingly clear, although its origins are unclear. It is recorded that they were created in Russia in 2014, founded by Dimitri Valerievich Utkin, a retired military officer, with the approval and likely funding of the government. The paramilitary group, which enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy, appears to be an initiative to intervene under cover of the regular army in conflicts that Russia promotes or supports in Africa. 

They were counting on the continent's difficult situation and the frequency of conflicts both internally and between the countries themselves, most of which are former colonies with poorly defined borders, and the temptation to subject them to the military, economic and political influence that their interests awaken. There are those who claim that their precedent arose in the Darfur war in Sudan, in whose internal conflict Russian militia appear, but where they first became involved was in the occupation of the Crimean peninsula and above all in the Syrian war. 

It was there that they revealed themselves to be an unscrupulous, brutal and bloodthirsty militia that shot and beheaded enemies who fell under their power, as well as civilians who came into their path and looked suspicious. These massacres were denounced years ago by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, whose condemnations in the midst of the confusion prevailing in this war ended in condemnations that were soon forgotten. 

The actions of the militias, strategically well organised in the Sahel, were decisive in the conflict in Mali, where the French, who had been maintaining a more or less constitutional order in the face of the jihadist threat, ended up abandoning the country and leaving power in the hands of a junta that remains under Russian influence, under the tutelage of the Wagner Group, which continues its efforts to recruit mercenaries, in many cases from Russian or foreign prisons, in each case under different names. 

One of the group's goals is to bring about an integration of countries under the same political regime in Africa, which Russia can then supervise. The militia in Africa is currently under the command of General Yevgeny Prigozhin and is involved in Libya, where the institutional situation remains precarious, Burkina Faso, the Central American Republic and Mozambique. Currently of greatest concern is Ukraine, where the biggest atrocities of the conflict are attributed to them. In recent days, it was this militia that maintained pressure on the city of Bakhmut, under the command of Yevgeny Prigozhin.