….and now the Wagner group has a new commander. They aren’t going away. In fact, they appear to recruiting again.
The Ukies are press ganging their population into service, while Russia’s mercenary group is growing.
“It is known that Anton Elizarov was born in 1981 in the Rostov region, graduated from the Suvorov Military School in Ulyanovsk and the Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School named after General of the Army V.F. Margelov. Since 2003, Elizarov served in the Airborne Forces, was forced to leave the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 2014.
After leaving the army, Elizarov joined the Wagner PMC, took part in the fighting in Syria, was a military instructor in the Central African Republic, and then commanded a detachment in Libya.
Since 2022, he participated in a special military operation, personally commanded the forces of the Wagner PMC, which stormed and liberated the city of Soledar. In 2022, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, by a closed decree, reportedly conferred on him a high state award - the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. He is also a Hero of the DNR and LNR...”
It appears the Wagner officer you mention will be managing those Wagners who chose to join the regular Russian Army or perhaps there will continue to be a unit or separate group still called Wagner approved by Putin.
However given that Prigozhin’s cemetary for dead Wagners is being destroyed, and possibly even being paved over, it will be interesting to see how all the unjoined Wagners running around loose for the moment will react. Will they meekly join up with Putin’s army, or will they accept the invitation to join the Russians who are fighting alongside Ukraine troops against Putin’s Russia.
I wonder if the timing of Ukraine’s announcement of a “super-Arlington” is to contrast Putin’s treatment of the Wagner cemetary. I believe one reason for Prigozhin’s creation of this cemetary is the fact that Russia has been making minimal efforts to collect their dead and return them to their families. Part of Wagner loyalty to Prigozhin is that he tried to give all his dead a decent burial. For former prisoners, most of whom have already had miserable childhoods and adulthoods, the promise of an Orthodox burial in company of dead comrades was an important promise. For Putin to approve destruction of this cemetary shows what an absolute fake Orthodox Chrisian he actually is. He is no more Christian than his murderous Commie role model Stalin.