Major Companies in Russia Creating Private Armies a la Wagner
Russians close to Putin preparing for the chaos of post-Putin Russia.
There is currently a race by Kremlin-friendly oligarchs to establish paramilitary groups similar to the infamous Wagner Group, which Evgeny Prigozhin ran until he was assassinated last year. The groups are funded, trained, and sent off to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia’s own bumbling army to establish “front creds.”
One of the most noticeable of late, and which has been in operation since almost the beginning of the war, is a group called the “Espanhola battalion.” Espanhola is funded by the Rotenberg brothers, Arkady and Boris, whose billions were “earned” from lucrative state contracts with Russia’s railways, among other things. What makes Espanhola especially interesting is the source of its killers: Russia’s soccer hooligans.
Many Russians, like many people on Earth, love soccer. The overwhelming majority of fans love the sport and come out to support their clubs peacefully and respectfully. Then, however, there are the hooligans. They exist in all countries, and one of the main reasons they show up on game day is to viciously fight with anyone opposing their mob presence. Any time the Spartak fans from Moscow came to St. Petersburg for matches with Zenit, their echelons of drunken, tatted, singing fanatics would be escorted by riot police wherever they went. Nevertheless, brawls always kicked off.
The Rotenberg brothers, however, realized that such clans of unemployed, poorly educated young men existed in all cities in Russia. In St. Petersburg, the hooligans were called “Nevsky Front,” they usually brawled with the Spartak hooligans. When Russian soccer hooligans set off for Europe in 2016 to support the Russian national team, the brawling, like the one seen above, was constant.
They came not to support their team but to show the world Russia was Russia — a backward and potentially violent place. Hundreds of fans were deported from France. The chaos, however, did not go unnoticed, and now Espanhola exists to channel that ultra-patriotic, fascist energy, and thanks to the Rotenbergs, these stupid, aimless thugs are getting military training and experience on a live battlefield.
These groups are being established to seek immediate favor with the Kremlin. Given the number of such groups rising throughout the country, however, it is beginning to look like some oligarchs are creating these personal armies with an eye on a post-war/post-Putin Russia.
When Putin is finally dead and buried — candles in churches all over the planet flicker in anticipation of this glorious moment — the power struggle that will ensue will beckon forth the chaos of the greed-driven Russian soul. A lot of thug-like individuals with no qualms for killing their fellow humans will be positioning themselves to stake their claim to Putin’s wealth. The Russian mafia is again making its presence felt throughout Russia, and when “grandpa” is no longer able to punish people, the private armies will serve to both protect oligarchs and help them seize Russia’s (Putin’s) wealth at will.
Russian companies and state agencies have financed dozens of pseudo-mercenary groups that are now fighting in Ukraine, reported Meduza, an independent Russian- and English-language news outlet. This includes the Uran battalion, which is supported by Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, and the Soyuz unit, which is funded by state-owned firms Sberbank and Rosatom.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry Intelligence Directorate has also said that Gazprom, a state-owned monopolist energy company in Russia, is working to develop a private military company. It said Gazprom’s plans were inspired by the “example” set by the Wagner Group, a private military company founded by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a failed mutiny and march on Moscow before his death last summer (Privately Gathering Private Armies).
Even as I write this, my head spins at the thought of the state bank (Sber Bank), which has one of the best and most user-friendly online banking apps I have ever used, is creating an army of economically needy Russians for the immediate purpose of genociding Ukrainians. The latter purpose will then ensure that no form of democracy ever takes hold in Russia.
The potential that Russia will be the kind of societal mess that Brazil is post-Putin rises daily. These private armies will not just suddenly disappear. The first time a business deal goes bad and the use of an army “makes it good again,” more armies will be created. When a million or so sick and psychologically devastated men and boys return to post-war/post-Putin Russia in search of jobs and help, the armies will be waiting for them.
Russia’s full tilt to fascism is a danger that few fully fathom. All of those blissfully ignorant Russians packing the theaters and pretending all is glorious have no idea the hell that awaits them when this whole war of genocide is ended, and Russia is left to rot on its own. Anyone with half a brain or a desire to love someone of the same sex should be planning their exit from the fermenting hell that Russia will become when Putin is rotting six feet under.