Is Russia's Wagner back, who controls it and are its fighters returning to Ukraine war?
Putin was on Friday shown meeting one of the most senior former commanders of the Wagner mercenary group, Andrei Troshev, and discussing how best to use «volunteer units» in the Ukraine war.
Is Wagner back, who controls it and are its fighters returning to the Ukraine war?
WHAT IS WAGNER?
Wagner, one of the world's most battle-hardened mercenary groups, was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin and Dmitry Utkin, a former special forces officer in Russia's GRU military intelligence.
Cast as a private army, Wagner enabled Russia to dabble in wars in countries including Syria, Libya and Mali with deniability. Opponents such as the United States cast Wagner as a brutal crime group which plundered African states and meted out sledehammer deaths to those who challenged it.
Wagner also fought in Ukraine and took the city of Bakhmut in May after the bloodiest battle of the war. After the fall of Bakhmut, Wagner fighters were withdrawn from the front.
At its peak, Wagner had tens of thousands of men — at least 50,000 convicts were offered their freedom if they survived the battles in Ukraine — and tens of thousands of Russian volunteers, including many former special forces troops.
Salaries were high and Prigozhin said the command structure was responsible and lacked the bureaucracy of the Russian army.
But Prigozhin, angered by what he said was the stupidity and incompetence of Russia's top military brass, took control of the military headquarters of the southern city of Rostov and then marched on Moscow in a June 23-24 mutiny.
Putin initially said he would crush the mutiny, comparing it to the wartime turmoil that ushered in the revolutions of 1917, but hours later a deal was clinched to defuse the situation. The full details
