What is the Wagner Group?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2019
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In recent years, in trouble spots and war zones around the world – places such as Syria, Eastern Ukraine and Central African Republic – The Wagner Group has been active. They are fighters for hire. But very little else, for certain, is known about them. Are they mercenaries working for the Russian intelligence service? Or are they muscle men securing the financial interests of powerful oligarchs? The Inquiry traces the history of the group; why they emerged and how they operate now. It is a story that twists and turns and leads to surprising – and dangerous - places.
Presenter: Kavita Puri Producer: Jordan Dunbar
Picture Credit: Valentin SprinchakTASS via Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, Kavita Puri. |
| 0:05.0 | Each week, one question, four expert witnesses and an answer. |
| 0:10.0 | Is February? It's February of last year in a remote area of eastern Syria. |
| 0:19.1 | From inside a gas plant, Kurdish fighters and U.os, see hundreds of people approaching. |
| 0:25.0 | Some are in tanks and armoured personnel carriers. |
| 0:29.0 | Many are well armed. |
| 0:32.0 | Over the radio airwaves, Russian... armed. |
| 0:33.0 | Over the radio airwaves, Russian voices are heard amidst the advancing masses. |
| 0:39.0 | The US military call their counterparts in Moscow and ask, |
| 0:43.0 | What's happening here? |
| 0:45.0 | The Russians say, we have absolutely no idea. |
| 0:50.0 | The men are coming closer and closer. Conflict is now inevitable. |
| 0:57.0 | So what's going on? Who are the rogue Russian fighters moving towards the gas plant. |
| 1:04.0 | And what on earth are they doing in the middle of Syria? |
| 1:07.0 | This was the most serious confrontation between the United States and Russia since the Vietnam War. |
| 1:17.0 | American military ended up directly firing on the Russians. |
| 1:21.0 | Hundreds of people were killed. |
| 1:24.0 | Trying to get to the bottom of the battle, Western government security services and journalists |
| 1:30.0 | investigated. |
| 1:32.0 | One name kept coming up. |
| 1:35.0 | The Vargna group. |
| 1:38.0 | And they're not just in Syria, but trouble spots all around the world. |
... |
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