NPR. A little over a year ago something mysterious happened in the skies over Russia.

Caught on camera, unverified footage of the plane tumbling from the sky with a missing wing then bursting into flames north of Moscow

and believed to be on board that plane a man named Yevgeny Progosian the head of a company a private

military contractor hired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ten bodies have been recovered.

President Putin didn't confirm Progiorgion's death, but spoke of him in the past tense.

I knew Progiorion for a very long time.

He was a man with a complicated fate and he made serious mistakes in life.

This ominous sequence of events may have been the end of

progosion, but it wasn't the end for the private army he built,

the Wagner Group. This is the indicator for Planet Money.

I'm Adrian Ma.

Today on the show, I talked to Sean Mc Fate

who studies mercenary groups, and he explains how the Wagner group was rebranded,

why he's called it the world's most dangerous private army,

and how Wagner's business model creates a blueprint for others to follow. Every weekday, MPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics Podcast

to explain the big news coming out of Washington,

the campaign trail, and beyond.

We don't just want to tell you what happened,

we tell you why it matters.

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