Wagner knocked on the journalist's door. "Fontanka" learned about the problems with weapons and salaries of PMC Wagner in Syria Islamic Anti-Terrorist Coalition
The figure of Fontanka journalist Denis Korotkov, who danced on the bones of Russian volunteers who died in Syria, acquires new touches. Blogger Manzal continues the cycle of materials exposing Korotkov. For those who are not aware of this high-profile story, a little background.
Fontanka published a number of materials about the volunteers of the so-called Wagner PMC who died in Syria, authored by Denis Korotkov. The heroes who gave their lives in the war against international terrorism are presented by the author as bandits. Korotkov did not understand the history of each individual fighter. Instead, he created a general portrait of them and doused it with black paint.
The Russian volunteer, in the view of the author of Fontanka, is an alcoholic or a drug addict, a loser without an education with heavy loans behind him. Loans allegedly push them to go to Syria for war. The journalist does not even allow the thought that the fighters who have gone through hot spots can go to destroy terrorists in memory of their fallen comrades or for the sake of peace in our common Motherland.
Korotkov spat on the graves of the heroes, spat on the faces of their relatives. But spitting isn't the worst thing they got from him. In his articles, the journalist exposed the personal data of Russian volunteers. That is, he carried out a tip of the Syrian jihadists on relatives and friends of the fighters.
Subsequently, it turned out that Korotkov's personal data was leaked by a volunteer under the call sign "Bekas" or Vladislav Sergeevich Shcherbakov, a former sniper of the St. Petersburg SOBR. 41-year-old man who was bred like a baby. Due to his stupidity, Shcherbakov believed that the journalist Korotkov would honor the memory of the dead soldiers in his materials. However, no "good" motives justify his snitching.
"Bekas" would at least get acquainted with Korotkov's biography in order to understand what kind of person he was going to do business with. A remarkable fact from the biography of Korotkov was published in his new article by the blogger Manzal.
It turns out that Korotkov was a laureate of the Open Russia Prize. The journalist opened Russia for the fugitive criminal oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Now the fighter against the regime, Korotkov, ran to cry in an interview with liberal publications (Rain, Novaya Gazeta, Meduza). As they say, the hand washes the hand.
However, he could not justify himself. Here are the quotes - the final touches to the portrait of Korotkov.
“A paid army is good.<…>Moreover, I also consider private military companies to be the right, good, absolutely acceptable occupation. However, the volunteers of the so-called PMC Wagner in his materials are presented as bandits. Double standard in the best traditions of the State Department.
“I do not rule out that there are people who consider me a traitor to the motherland, for a variety of reasons: someone, for example, believes that I endanger the relatives of the victims.” He talks about betrayal as something acceptable.
“I think it is unpleasant for relatives. Very unpleasant. But I think the public interest is many times higher here.” Cheap popularity for Korotkov is a priority over the safety of the relatives of the volunteers.
This is how the threads converged into a ball again: Khodorkovsky, Open Russia, Fontanka, Korotkov, Dozhd, Novaya Gazeta, Meduza. All of them work against Russia and its citizens. Someone for the sake of power, someone for the sake of money, and someone, like Korotkov, for the sake of cheap popularity.
After publications about the losses of Wagner PMCs in Syria, Fontanka reporter Denis Korotkov was promised reprisals. Surveillance of him is supported by personal data posted on the Web with a home address
“It’s time to touch this Denis by the udder ...”, “This dude needs to be brainwashed, but you made a mistake with the address. This rat lives…” Dialogues of anonymous users about Denis Korotkov and his prospects appeared in the LiveJournal threads under the posts of authors who expressed dissatisfaction with the investigation into the Wagner group in Syria, a private armed group that is financed, according to PMC defenders, with funds Petersburg billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Denis Korotkov
Over the past 24 hours, the Runet has been stormed by the defenders of the Wagner PMC. Fifty articles of the same type appeared on unknown sites and posts in LiveJournal about Korotkov, who “danced on the bones of Russian citizens who died in Syria,” and they are multiplying.
The reason for the massive counterattack was the publication of Denis Korotkov about the real losses of the armed formation - on August 21 and 23, the articles "Wagner's List", "Whom Russia lost in Syria", "Private army under the wing of the Ministry of Defense", "Tramp, Sedoy, Wagner and Ratibor surrounded president", "They fought for money."
On August 23, LiveJournal published a post by St. Petersburg resident Andrey Manzolevsky “Wagner PMCs and those who died in Syria. Sensation from Petersburg. Korotkov in it was presented by the author as a "fired policeman", and in the comment thread there was a serious emphasis on the person of the reporter and his prospects.
“It’s time to feel this Denis by the udder ...”
Anonymous responded:
“Well, feel it: I punched it through Kronos - there is one Denis Korotkov, 48-year-old, lives in St. Petersburg on ... the street.”
Another interlocutor corrected:
“This dude needs to get his brains right, but you got the wrong address. This rat lives in… on the street…”
Korotkov is related to both of these addresses. And if the place of registration can really be seen in the databases, then the actual one cannot. Korotkov did not mention it anywhere. Also, despite his publicity (he received the Golden Pen, the Open Russia award, gave interviews), he never advertised his police past.
Fontanka contacted Andrey Manzolevsky and asked:
- How do you know that Korotkov was related to the police?
“A source told me this.
- Did you collect information about Korotkov?
- No. I have readers, they sent me an article, I reacted emotionally and released a post. In the discussions, certain information [about Korotkov] was sent to me.
Andrei quite sincerely said that he did not see the comments with the reporter's personal data.
“If they post comments with personal information, I delete them. I haven't seen these. Send me links, I'll remove them, of course. Nobody gave Korotkov's address to me personally.
“In today's world, it is difficult to imagine that individuals actively help the fight against terrorism. However, the St. Petersburg businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, like a true patriot, directs part of the profit to support volunteer formations in Syria,” writes the portal http://x-true.info. It was registered in 2014 in the United States.
There are many similar references to Prigogine. It is noteworthy that the media, closely associated with the businessman's media empire, this time ignored the topic of Syria and Wagner PMCs and did not enter into an absentee debate.
It is also noteworthy that Yevgeny Prigozhin’s entourage was noticed collecting information about Korotkov not even in 2016, when he released the material “Kitchen of a Private Army”. The publication was the first in which the name of the billionaire was associated with PMC Wagner (a few hours after the publication, the newspaper's website was subjected to a DDoS attack, and unknown persons artlessly tried to find out private information about the journalist).
Fontanka knows for certain that back in the summer of 2013, Prigozhin’s security service not only made inquiries about Korotkov’s creative plans, but also tried to recruit some editorial staff to spy on him and form a capacious dossier, up to the police record, of educational institutions that they visit. children, home address, traditional meeting places with sources and habits: what tobacco he prefers, what hours he drinks coffee, what lighter he lights his pipe with.
According to our information, after Korotkov's articles, a meeting was held in the structures associated with the Wagner group. Fontanka was informed of the essence of the decisions made, but we still hope for common sense.
Due to the fact that on the evening of August 23, unknown, but probably knowledgeable persons posted on the Internet the actual address of Korotkov’s residence (thereby the circle of persons with access to personal data was expanded to unlimited), and the anonymous people renewed their unhealthy interest in him, the editors of Fontanka ” asks the law enforcement agencies of St. Petersburg to consider the publication an official statement in order to take measures and prevent the onset of undesirable consequences.
P.S. We add that, for its part, Fontanka has taken security measures, including to protect information of interest to certain individuals.
The Ministry of Defense declared the Syrian losses of Wagner PMCs a myth, and reports of them a mockery. We also do not believe the rumors - we show the documents.
The personnel documentation of the informal military unit "Wagner Group" was at the disposal of the Fontanka editors. Our story is about who dies and for what in the Syrian Republic, not getting into the official statistics of the Ministry of Defense, and about why the words of the generals are cunning. And also about how the private war has changed after Syria signed a document with the Russian Euro Polis LLC.
PMC Wagner is an informal military organization that took part in the fighting in the Donbass (on the side of Novorossiya) and in Syria (on the side of the Assad government). About the activities of this PMC "Fontanka" for the first time Employees of PMC Wagner are not related to any official power structure of the Russian Federation, however, for their combat work.
Whom the Ministry of Defense despises
It is officially recognized that 39 Russian servicemen were killed during the operation in Syria. The Ministry of Defense should not include the killed and wounded fighters of the Wagner group in its statistics, considering these losses as "a myth about some dead "contract soldiers" from a "mysterious" organization." The Reuters publication, according to which Russia lost 36 people in Syria in 2016, and approximately 40 in seven months of 2017, was considered by the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov, to be “mockery”, worthy of contempt: “Again, some rumors are used as sources , social media data and fictitious conversations with allegedly "intimidated" anonymous "relatives and acquaintances" ”(quote from RIA Novosti).
If “data from social networks and conversations” is not enough, documents and photographs must be provided. The content of the documents at the disposal of the editors confirms the assumption that since the end of 2015, a private battalion has been operating in Syria in the interests of the structures of businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, and its fighters are being trained on the territory of the military unit of the Ministry of Defense in the Krasnodar Territory.
Unaccounted losses of Palmyra
Wagner's fighting in Syria can be roughly divided into two campaigns.
The first began in September 2015, when the companies arrived in Syria. Until the beginning of 2016, the units did not conduct large-scale actions. Serious fighting and losses began in February - March, during the operation to liberate Palmyra. In April-May 2016, according to our data, the main combat units of the group, having handed over heavy weapons and equipment, were withdrawn from Syria to Russia.
According to the lists, which we believe were compiled by the administration of the Wagner group, approximately 32 private fighters died during this campaign. About 80 fighters were seriously injured, requiring long-term inpatient treatment in hospitals. The approximation in our calculations is explained by the fact that not in all cases it was possible to establish the fate of the wounded who were in critical condition.
The second campaign started in early 2017. The documents available to Fontanka date back to June 2017. The main activity is Palmyra and the adjacent oil fields. Fontanka does not have such accurate evidence as for the period 2015-2016. Based on the analysis of available documents and the words of eyewitnesses, one can speak of losses ranging from 40 to 60 killed and two to three times as many wounded. We were also able to document the affiliation to the Wagner group of several fighters whose deaths in Syria were reported by Fontanka, RBC and the Conflict Intelligence Team in 2017.
In between the two operations in Syria, there were support units, as well as groups of specialists who participated in local skirmishes. During this period, mountainous Latakia, the oil fields of Shaer and Aleppo are mentioned.
The documents that fell into our hands - filled out application forms with our own hands, copies of passports from "personal files", photographs of candidates taken in the "security service" - allow us to confidently speak about the belonging of the fighters to the structure known as "Wagner PMC" and which in the documents is referred to as the "Wagner Group", "Battalion Tactical Group" Wagner "or simply" the company ".
The fact of the death of a fighter is more difficult to establish, but in most cases we succeeded. Comments of officials, reports in the media, especially in those media that can in no way be attributed to the opposition, photographs of burial places, messages from grieving relatives on social networks and condolences from friends, in our opinion, are sufficient confirmation.
The most difficult question is to confirm the place of death. Fontanka believes that in at least ten to fifteen cases it was able to convincingly prove this.
For example, in March 2016, photographs appeared on the Internet resources of the Islamic State (banned in Russia), which were allegedly taken from dead Russians who fought on the side of Assad. Among them are several photos of a fair-haired guy with a memorable face in Syrian landscapes. Video footage shows the mutilated body of the same man.
"Fontanka" established the name of the deceased. This is Ivan Vladimirovich Sumkin, born in 1987. Callsign "Varyag", Wagner's reconnaissance company. He is from a village in the Orenburg region. He served in the motorized rifle troops, then worked as an electric welder. In the spring of 2015 he came to Wagner. March 16, 2016 died. Where the grave of Ivan Sumkin is located, and whether he was buried at all, is unknown - according to Fontanka, his body was not removed from the battlefield. Ivan is survived by his wife and two-year-old son.
Ivan Sumkin
A video about the awarding of the Order of Courage to Alexander Karchenkov appeared on Channel 9 of Stary Oskol on November 3, 2016. It was reported that on September 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the posthumous awarding of Starooskol Karchenkov, who died during the liberation of Palmyra in the spring of 2016. The order was presented to the widow and mother of Karchenkov by the head of the district.
Lyudmila Karchenkova said that her husband went to Syria to serve under a contract in January 2016, and in March it was reported that he died "during the mission."
Alexander Karchenkov is not in the official lists of the dead published by the Ministry of Defense, which General Konashenkov suggests that the press be guided by. And of course, a 45-year-old unemployed, reserve foreman, could not be a secret officer of the Special Operations Forces.
As follows from the documents of the Wagner company, Karchenkov got a job there in December 2015, was part of a material support company and died on March 13, 2016. Indeed, near Palmyra. As evidence, there is a photograph of Karchenkov taken when signing up for service at the Wagner base in Molkino, a self-filled questionnaire, an agreement and a non-disclosure agreement.
Alexander Karchenkov
There are more than forty similar stories with only well-known surnames. Syrian martyrology "Fontanka" - these are documents, photographs, awards of the "Wagnerites". Each, when applying for a “job”, filled out a questionnaire, each was photographed and checked on a polygraph. These documents were made available to readers for the first time. We publish the stories of men who went to fight for 240 thousand rubles a month and found their death in the Syrian desert. Someone pointed out “patriotism” or “changes in the geopolitical position of Russia” as the reason for admission. The majority referred to loans and a desire to improve their financial situation.
Two Russian citizens who did not return from Syria were not included in this list. Fighters with the call signs "Altai" and "Bertolet" (their full details are known to the editors) are considered missing. They disappeared on the same day that Ivan Sumkin died, whose body was left on the battlefield.
The chances that Altai and Bertolet are alive and in captivity are minimal, but there is such a possibility, and Fontanka refrains from publishing their names and photographs.
How Wagner got lost in Molkino
The fact that the personnel formation and training of the Wagner group unit takes place on the territory of a military base in the village of Molkino, Krasnodar Territory, in the same place where the 10th separate brigade of the GRU Special Forces of the Ministry of Defense is deployed, was written by RBC, Wall Street Journal and Zeit. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of evidence on social networks that in order to join the PMC, one must go to Molkino and head straight to the checkpoint with a question about Wagner. But for the Ministry of Defense this is not an argument, because it is regarded as rumors and slander.
Having studied the photographs of the Wagner security service taken during the check of the candidates being hired, Fontanka believes that these photos convincingly prove that an armed structure, not provided for by any Russian law, is located precisely on the territory of the Molkino training ground. In the Fontanka investigation, you can see how the delinquent "Wagnerites" are treated and even see the head of the mysterious "company's security service." Read more by clicking on the banner.
Tramp, Gray-haired, Wagner and Ratibor surrounded the President
The commanders of the "mysterious organization" do not hide their faces. In December 2016, the group commander Dmitry Utkin and his deputy Andrey Troshev appeared on the footage of the protocol shooting of the ceremony. In January 2017, a photograph was found on the Web, apparently from the same reception where Utkin and Troshev, as well as two other men with high awards, were captured along with.
Fontanka found out who these mysterious cavaliers are next to the president. Their names are Tramp and Ratibor, in the world - Andrey Bogatov and Alexander Kuznetsov. One of them just before the Ukrainian events was released from the colony, where he was serving a term for kidnapping and robbery. The other had no violations worse than illegal parking.
Who received a reception in the Kremlin and why they are Wagner PMC, Fontanka shows on the example of documents. Read more by clicking on the banner.
Palmyra-2016 and Palmyra-2017
The Kremlin reception in December 2016 is the highest point of Wagner's takeoff. Then something went wrong. The fighting in Syria in 2016 and 2017, as veterans of both campaigns told Fontanka, are fundamentally different.
In 2015-2016, according to participants in the events, training in Molkino took up to two months, ammunition for study was allocated in unlimited quantities, including expensive shots for anti-tank missile systems. In Syria, the group received T-72 tanks, BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, and D-30 122-mm howitzers. The states of the spring 2016 model provided for 2349 personnel, including four reconnaissance and assault companies, a group headquarters, a tank company, a combined artillery group, reconnaissance and support units. There were 1.5-2 thousand fighters on the Syrian mission at the same time. Combat salaries and bonuses were paid on time, orders were not stinted.
At the end of that spring of 2016, the first misunderstanding came. The fact that, according to the initial agreement, five commanders of the Wagner group were presented to the title of Hero of Russia, Fontanka was informed by several informed interlocutors. Two passed through the filter of the awards department.
Before the withdrawal from Syria in April-May 2016, heavy weapons and military equipment were handed over. Most of the personnel was sent to the reserve - to sit at home and wait for a call on a business trip. When at the end of 2016 they began to assemble a team for a new expedition to the oil fields, it turned out that everything had changed.
Now, at the Wagner base in Molkino, allegedly, there are practically no weapons left, with the exception of a few machine guns, mostly at the guards.
Training is reduced to control firing, heavy infantry weapons crews (heavy machine guns, automatic mounted grenade launchers, mounted anti-tank grenade launchers) do not conduct practical firing from "regular" weapons.
Upon arrival in Syria at the beginning of 2017, according to the stories of those who returned, 20 rounds of ammunition were issued to the machine gun for zeroing weapons and four magazines and 120 rounds of ammunition as ammunition. Armament consisted of North Korean-made AK-47 assault rifles received from the Syrian side and several Kalashnikov PK and RPK machine guns. The second company got 1946 RP-46 company machine guns. In the Soviet army, these weapons in the troops were replaced by PCs and RPKs back in the 60s of the last century.
A couple of weeks later, several SVD sniper rifles and one or two AGS-17s entered service, which did not fundamentally solve the problem.
Instead of the T-72 tanks handed over in the spring of 2016, four or five T-62s were received. Instead of D-30 howitzers - about a dozen M-30 howitzers of the 1938 model, long removed from service in the Soviet army.
Fontanka does not have exact data on losses in the battles of January-May 2017. Based on fragmentary and undocumented stories, we can talk about 40-60 dead and three times the number of wounded. Seven Wagner fighters who died in 2017 are known by name, and all of them, apparently, did not return from Syria, since the group’s activities in the Donbass have been curtailed.
The number of losses exceeding the losses of 2016 at times, according to the participants in the events, is explained not only by the lack of weapons and military equipment, but also by the significantly reduced quality of personnel.
In 2017, the salary policy of the Wagner company changed. Now only a fighter of a reconnaissance and assault company involved in combat operations receives 240 thousand per month. The security of the Hayat plant, gunners, operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, and support units receive about 160,000 rubles a month. Unlike in previous years, there are delays.
They try to compensate for the decrease in quality with quantity. Two additional reconnaissance and assault companies have been deployed. Thus, the number of companies was brought to six, and the infantry personnel in the group - to about 2 thousand people. Today, four companies are working in Syria, two companies have been temporarily sent to the reserve.
"Spring" in Syria
An additional source of recruitment for Wagner is the population of Donbass. Until 2017, citizens of Ukraine (or the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics) were not accepted to Wagner. The exception was the group "Karpaty", formed mainly from ethnic Ukrainians. The composition of this group was planned to be used for sabotage and deep reconnaissance in the rear of the Ukrainian troops, but, as they say, due to the poor training of personnel, these plans failed.
In 2017, the group was deployed to the Vesna unit (by the call sign of the commander), its strength was increased to 100-150 people. In addition to Ukrainians, the group included residents of the Cossack regions of Russia and fifteen or twenty natives of Chechnya.
Oil, gas, Euro Polis
As of August 2017, according to Fontanka, the work of Wagner units in Syria is to protect and defend oil-bearing regions with the main object - the Khayan plant. If possible, advance and capture territory.
The main base is located on the tank track about 80 kilometers from Homs and 40 kilometers from the Hayan plant. In addition to Wagner, units of Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and similar units are based at the Tankodrome, including the showcase Syrian ISIS Hunters, the heroes of pretentious pr-videos. They are promised 500 US dollars for twenty days of a military operation, but the Syrians, judging by the stories of the Wagnerites, do not agree to fight on such conditions and often, having received military training, go into the armed opposition or into the very ISIS banned in Russia, for which they were supposed to hunt.
Fontanka has already talked about the agreements reached between Syrian government organizations and the Russian Euro Polis LLC, which is backed by people from the structures. LLC "Euro Polis" undertook to liberate and protect oil fields and factories for reimbursement of the costs of hostilities plus a quarter of the oil and gas produced. That is, to do exactly what the Wagner group is doing today (we talked about the probable connections of which with Yevgeny Prigozhin during the time of the “first Palmyra”). They say that now blue jackets with a white inscription "Euro Polis" are issued to all Wagner employees who depart on a Syrian business trip.
Judging by our information, since 2017, the financing of the Wagner campaign, its supply of weapons, equipment and ammunition has been carried out at the expense of the Syrian side and is accompanied by constant delays in payments and disputes over their amount.
Why did Sergey Kuzhugetovich quarrel with Evgeny Viktorovich
In 2016, the Wagner group clearly did not experience such problems. Now it has become bad not only with the supply: as eyewitnesses told Fontanka, interaction with army aviation and artillery (which was allegedly commonplace in 2016) has been reduced to almost zero, helicopters of the Russian group do not take part in the evacuation of the wounded of the Wagner battalion, which is significantly complicates their delivery to medical facilities. Military transport aviation allegedly no longer transports wounded Wagnerites, and they have to be taken out almost in the cargo compartments of charter flights of a Syrian airline flying to Rostov.
The reasons for the onset of cooling, according to Fontanka's sources, may be different.
Perhaps the conflict is caused by weak conspiracy in the activities of the quasi-military organization. If the army men were ready to tolerate an incomprehensible private structure on their territory, supply it with weapons, equipment and support it with fire as long as it remained a secret, then since the appearance of numerous information about Wagner and his team on the Web, the situation has changed. It is unlikely that the military command wants to bear responsibility for the actions of a detachment that is not bound by any formal laws and operates outside the boundaries of law. It is impossible not to note the coincidence: the time of the urgent withdrawal of Wagner from Syria with the actual disarmament and the suspension of recruitment and the time of the publication of Fontanka about Dmitry Utkin.
According to one version, the reason was not at all serious for statesmen: a dispute about the number and dignity of awards. Fontanka has reason to believe that the reason for the cooling is much more significant.
RBC, Novaya Gazeta, other media, the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation convincingly showed Yevgeny Prigozhin's almost monopoly position in government procurement of the Ministry of Defense and subordinated military structures. Legal entities associated with Prigozhin receive the lion's share of orders for the construction and maintenance of military camps, cleaning, occupy almost the entire military food market.
Judging by open information on the website of the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office, numerous claims and proceedings in cases of administrative offenses in arbitration courts and in courts of general jurisdiction, a wave of claims against companies associated with the name of Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Concord holding has been growing since 2016. Companies and officials are brought to administrative responsibility for violating license requirements and for non-compliance with labor law, army control bodies, after checking military canteens, identify and document cockroaches, products with traces of mold and decay, after which they resort to penalties. Military prosecutors fix the production of construction work without the relevant documents, permits, projects and react - within the limits of their authority.
At the same time, a situation has arisen where the same military supply system, for example, is completely closed to the Concorde structures, and its restructuring promises many problems. The situation is similar with the maintenance and construction of military camps. Apparently, the military department can no longer refuse the services of a monopolist, although the leadership of the Ministry of Defense is unlikely to be happy with this state of affairs.
Games with their own private army, when possible profits go to a corporation, and all the bumps fall on the military, who are responsible for the operation in Syria, could overflow the cup of patience.
Another issue is the level at which the decision is made about the use (and the very existence) of a private battalion. And whose word weighs more at that level: the Minister of Defense or the owner of the Russian Kitsch restaurant.
Denis Korotkov, Fontanka.ru
A meeting with Fontanka journalist Denis Korotkov was held by the St. Petersburg branch of the Open Russia movement, writes Anna Plotnikova on the website "Voices of America" . In 2017, Korotkov published a number of materials about the involvement of Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin in the activities of the private military company Wagner, which took part in hostilities in Ukraine and Syria.
In the article “A little business in the Syrian war”, Denis Korotkov reports that “Wagner” is the call sign of reserve lieutenant colonel Dmitry Utkin. Among his colleagues are Prigozhin's security officers. Korotkov also said that the fighters of Wagner PMC, not officially included in the personnel of the Russian army, were awarded military orders and medals for participating in hostilities, and that St. Petersburg ultranationalist Alexei Milchakov (call sign "Fritz" , "Serb"), known for his addiction to the symbols of the Third Reich and the habit of being photographed against the backdrop of the bodies of dead opponents.
Speaking at the office of the St. Petersburg branch of Open Russia, the journalist said that he had a chance to talk with many people who knew Utkin (Wagner) in one way or another, and with a number of people associated with Yevgeny Prigozhin. According to Korotkov, up to 95 percent of what he heard went “in the trash”, but gradually, as a result of comparing names, dates and facts, a picture began to emerge for him, described in a series of materials published on the Fontanka website.
Cover for PMC Wagner
After Denis Korotkov's speech and his answers to the questions of those who came to the St. Petersburg office of Open Russia, a correspondent of the Voice of America Russian Service spoke to the journalist.
When asked to comment on the phrase from the article “Russian nationalists on the Syrian contract” that the Wagner PMC “could be allegedly financed by the Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Denis Korotkov replied: “As far as is known, in December 2016, between the limited liability company Euro Polis and the Syrian government structures signed an agreement, according to which the commercial LLC was obliged to conduct military operations to liberate oil infrastructure facilities, protect them and defend them for a certain remuneration and a share in oil production. As our investigation showed, Euro Polis is a structure that is currently connected with the structures of Yevgeny Prigozhin in terms of the composition of its participants to the general director.
“We believe that Euro Polis is just a front to cover up the activities of the so-called Wagner PMC, which, of course, is not a private military company,” said Denis Korotkov.
He also stated that, based on the results of his journalistic investigations, he has reason to assert that business structures associated with Prigozhin occupy an almost monopoly position in the market for a significant sector of the military state order.
"Life is unpredictable"
After the publication of investigations into the activities of the private military company Wagner in Ukraine and Syria and about the connections of the military personnel of this PMC with the business structures of the "Kremlin chef", Denis Korotkov began to receive numerous anonymous threats, and his St. Petersburg address was publicly published on social networks.
Recently, several well-known Russian journalists have been forced to go abroad due to fears that threats against them could turn into real violence. In this regard, Denis Korotkov notes: “At the moment, I cannot imagine the circumstances that would force me to leave Russia. But life is unpredictable.”
Threats against him, according to the journalist, came with the help of "a well-established system of Internet trolls." According to the Voice of America's interlocutor, swearing on social networks poses no real danger to him, and Koprotkov did not receive phone calls with death threats. However, the journalist adds: “But I do not rule out that some actions can be taken by the organizers or leaders of the same Wagner group, for example. But while I'm alive and well, and I hope that it will continue to be exactly the same.
Took an article from chvk.info
After a series of publications about PMC Wagner - probably related to the restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin - journalist Denis Korotkov is forced to be more careful when entering the front door. Network trolls exchange his personal data on the Internet, including the address, and promise to straighten his brains.
For two days - August 21 and 23 - the Internet newspaper Fontanka published an investigation (5 materials) about the "Wagner private military company" that fought in the Donbass and Syria. Journalist Denis Korotkov spoke about the commanders of the armed formation, human losses, the deployment of the training base (coinciding with the location of military unit 51532 of the Ministry of Defense in the village of Molkino) and the motives of the Russians who went to kill as part of the semi-legal "Wagner group".
PMC Wagner is not officially registered and is not associated with the Ministry of Defense. She fought on the side of the separatists in Ukraine, and later the mercenaries were transferred to Syria. According to some reports, the group acts in the interests of Evro Polis LLC, associated with restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin. Fontanka reported that the company had entered into a memorandum with the Assad government under which it was obliged to liberate oil fields and oil infrastructure from opponents of the regime and protect them. For this, a Moscow Region company with an authorized capital of 10,000 rubles is entitled to a quarter in oil and gas production and reimbursement of expenses for military operations.
In early August, the leadership of the Ministry of Defense once again dismissed the information about the Wagner PMC. “Some kind of rumors given by social networks and fictitious conversations with supposedly intimidated anonymous “relatives and acquaintances,” commented Igor Konashenkov, official representative of the Ministry of Defense, on a Reuters publication about unaccounted victims among Russians in Syria.
It will be more difficult to say the same about Korotkov's materials. Fontanka's publications contain many documents: photographs of mercenaries at a training base in the Krasnodar Territory (the village of Molkino), copies of the passports of the dead, and questionnaires filled out by future mercenaries. Perhaps this is the reason for the interest of Internet trolls in the figure of Denis Korotkov.
On August 23, a LiveJournal user with the nickname @manzal said in his post that Denis Korotkov is a former police officer, although Denis himself did not advertise this information anywhere. After the comment that the journalist "it's time to feel the udder," the anonymous people began to discuss the addresses where Korotkov could live.
The Fontanka editors believe that if the place of registration can be found in the databases, then the real place of residence is only as a result of surveillance. The blog author deleted comments with addresses at the request of Fontanka. The editors also believe that the threat to their author comes not only from the network - the decision could have been made at a much more serious level: “According to our information, after Korotkov's articles, a meeting was held in structures associated with the Wagner group. The essence of the decisions made was conveyed to Fontanka, but we still hope for common sense.”
Denis Korotkov told Novaya Gazeta that this is the first time he has received direct threats. “I had to write a lot about not the most pleasant people,” he says, “but for someone to have the brains to make direct threats, I don’t remember that.” The journalist’s fears are related to the fact that the address published on the network sprays the circle of those responsible for a possible attack: “If I now get hit on the head with a pipe in the entrance, they will say that some anxious patriots read it and hit it on the head.”
It is possible to interpret threats in a non-standard way, the journalist believes. “I would consider it as a provocation - for us to publish even more materials. Despite the obvious negative. - Ed.) my attitude towards illegal armed formations, we did not publish the data of relatives and living fighters of this formation. And despite such a flow of shit, we will not allow ourselves this in the future, ”said Korotkov.
Denis himself and the Fontanka editors took reasonable precautions. Korotkov is still working, the threats will not affect the tone of future materials in any way. “This is an inevitable part of the work of journalists all over the world if they deal with serious topics,” says Fontanka editor-in-chief Alexander Gorshkov. - Such topics should not please everyone - this is not a copper penny. It's not that we're used to it, we don't want to get used to it."
According to Gorshkov, the police have already dealt with the incident. Deputy Boris Vishnevsky (Yabloko) sent an appeal to the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the region with a request to ensure the safety of Korotkov and identify those who threatened him. “The maximum publicity of this story is one of the few means that we have in our arsenal,” Alexander Gorshkov concluded.
Restaurateur Evgeny Prigozhin became a widely discussed person in 2013. Novaya Gazeta then spoke about the "troll factory" - Internet Research Agency LLC - whose employees received salaries for pro-Kremlin posts and comments on social networks. Investigations by several media have shown that the "factory" was sponsored by Prigozhin's Concorde company and is linked to attacks on online critics of the Russian authorities.