“I AM Roman Sergeyevich Zabolotny, born in 1979, and I have been taken prisoner,” says a Russian-speaking man in a video released last month by the jihadists of Islamic State (IS). A second soldier, his right eye swollen shut, sits silently in grey robes. Both were reportedly captured during a battle near Deir ez-Zor, a city in Syria’s east and the site of a recent offensive by Russian and Syrian government forces. Yet the Russian defence ministry denied that any of its soldiers had gone missing. Friends and relatives told Russian media that the men had gone to Syria not with the Russian army, but as part of a shadowy mercenary force known as “Wagner”.
The group has come to play a key role in Russian operations in Syria. Though Russian law officially bans private military companies (PMCs), a St Petersburg-based independent news site, Fontanka.ru, reported in late 2015 that ex-soldiers were being recruited to serve in Wagner by a former special-forces officer, Dmitry Utkin. Numbering as many as 2,500 men, the group is...Continue reading
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