Wagner Group: new leader, soldiers… what has become of the Russian militia since the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin ?

Le logo du groupe Wagner avec la tête d'Evgueni Prigojine, ancien chef de la milice. MAXPPP – MAXIM SHIPENKOV

This March 23, 2024, it will be seven months since Yevgeny Prigozhin, former head of Wagner, died in a plane crash. But what happens to the paramilitary group ?

Wagner is reborn from his ashes. In June 2023, thousands of soldiers from Wagner, a private militia led by the former collaborator of the master of the Kremlin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, attempted a coup d'état in Russia. But after this failed rebellion, the leader of the paramilitary group died in a plane crash. Seven months later, what has become of the Russian militia and is it still dangerous??

A new leader

Since the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner's military arm has come under the command of Rosgvardia, which is the national guard of the Russian Federation. As far as the foreign part is concerned, it is the GRU, the General Directorate of Intelligence which controls, reports the media 7 out of 7.

The influence of Vladimir Putin is therefore still active within the militia. Although Rosgvardia is still fighting in Ukraine, it has transformed what remained of the Wagner group into a volunteer corps . This name is confusing because of another Russian group, but this time anti-Kremlin. But the pro-Russian group would have seen a new leader at its head, who is not unknown, since it is Pavel, the son of Yevgeny Prigojine. However, its exact location is not known.

Number of fighters

The number of fighters still active within the group is difficult to quantify, but according to Ukrainian intelligence services there were 18,000 fighters from the pro-Russian volunteer corps who participated in the battle of the Russian Federation. Avdiïvka.

A significant number of Wagner veterans are undergoing intensive training with the Akhmat special forces, Ramzan Kadyrov indicated last November in a message broadcast on Telegram, without specifying the exact number of fighters nor if they would join his troops afterwards.

Nearly a thousand of these fighters are still believed to be in the country of Alexander Lukashenko, in the north of Ukraine. This information, dating from February, comes from the British Ministry of Defense relayed by the Belgian media RTBF. In Belarus, the latter would have become trainers and trainers of the Belarusian military and security forces.

Other fighters want to be deserters and no longer really know where to go. This is the case of Andreï Medvedev who was denied asylum by Norway, according to his lawyer, quoted by a Norwegian newspaper, relayed by 20 Minutes. If his future in Norway is uncertain, Andreï Medvedev says he is ready to testify about the actions of the paramilitary group, which could be in his favor.< /p>

Still in Africa

On the western part, Wagner's movements still remain uncertain, but his activity in Africa is very real, even now. The paramilitary group is under the command of Russian military intelligence services, specifies the Belgian media.

At the time of Yevgeny Prigozhin, there were a maximum of 6,000 soldiers in Africa. Now the Wagner mercenaries should be pushed to the number of 20,000, according to Russian orders.

But it's a new name that the militia has: "Africa Corps". Job offers appear on many Facebook groups with this name. What shows a new divide with the Prigozhin era is the mention of remuneration by the Russian army.