everyone peter zion here coming to you from america's pacific coast uh the new news in ukraine
is that the russians are redeploying a large force of wagner organization peacekeepers
now wagner's kind of an interesting group they were formed originally
roughly about nine years ago for the ukraine war and they serve as sort of a para military
arm of the kremlin that reports directly to cronies who are in putin's inner circle
now they are usually used in places where the russians would like a degree of separation
between formal russian forces and where they know they're going to have to be particularly brutal
so wagner was used extensively in syria as well as a number of conflicts throughout the middle
east and especially in africa they do very well in places where central control is thin
and reporters are hard to find as a result they've been implicated in any number of war crimes
and so far wagner has been involved in the ukraine conflict already uh and uh there it
looks like they're going to be concentrated in moving forward in places like mirapool
specifically so that the russians can kill as many people as possible especially civilians
uh while also saying that these folks are not part of the russian government i'm not quite sure why
the window dressing is continuing but i guess it helps with propaganda at home uh the bigger point
for my from the angle that i'm seeing however is every time that the russians pull forces like
wagner from other theaters to throw into ukraine it means that there's fewer russian theaters
that i'm sorry there's fewer theaters that have enough russian troops to achieve russian goals
so at first the russians were pulling troops from the far east because they didn't believe that they
needed to guard against the chinese safari is pretty much open right now we also know that the
russians have pulled forces from the former soviet republic of georgia which is a country that they
threw troops into in a 2004 war and those russian troops have been largely responsible for keeping
a couple of semi-independent enclaves under the russian thumb by pulling wagner it's going to be
much more difficult for the russians to control or even contribute to any sort of russian goals
throughout the overall spaces where wagner normally works especially sub-saharan africa so as
the war continues to grind on and as russia's expeditionary capabilities focus more and more
and more on ukraine russia's ability to intervene decisively or even marginally
in large parts of the world is going to zero so a few months from now i can see
it being very feasible for countries who are on the other side of the russians
everywhere to be able to move and roll up any russian games so this war is still big this war
is still hot this war is still ongoing this war is going to last months but every decision that
the russians make is now coming at a cost and the strategic implications of that are going to vary
region by region decade by decade but it does mean the large-scale melon scooping of russian power
out of large portions of the world this general expansion of russian reach that we have seen
under vladimir putin is now in screaming retreat okay that's it for now until next time what is
russia's wagner group many call it a private military company but that's misleading wagner
is not truly private or commercial it is linked to the kremlin and its foreign policy ambitions
its commander is dmitry utkin a retired veteran of the special operations troops of russia's military
intelligence moscow first deployed utkin and his off the book fighters to help wage a covert war
in ukraine later they became the kremlin's hidden boots on the ground in syria the man behind wagner
is yevgeny pragosian a businessman with strong ties to president vladimir putin's inner circle
under progosian's leadership the mercenaries now have a second role to build russian influence
once dubbed putin's chef pragosian started in the restaurant business he went from catering the
kremlin's events to steering the internet research agency known as the russian troll factory accused
of meddling in the 2016 u.s presidential elections with no military background progosian is an odd
choice to control up to 5 000 fighters but the job offers both him and the kremlin clear advantages
as a loyal servant to putin pragosian receives hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts
he also profits from deals in syria sudan and the central african republic in exchange
for wagner's security and training progosians front companies gain access to natural resources
such as oil diamonds and gold the kremlin gets a combat force it can deny responsibility for
and a cheap way to extend russia's political and economic influence how far wagner has
ventured is unknown but some reports place it in madagascar venezuela and libya progosian has
been spotted with russian military leaders and libyan militia commander khalifa haftar
should the united states be worried wagner was designed to be an expendable force more than an
elite one when its fighters advanced on a u.s protected natural gas plant in syria in 2018
they had no backup and suffered heavy losses fighters range from former soldiers to convicts
with no prior experience training is limited many joined for the money under short contracts
but in a war wagner could mask russian military actions and so confusion and
off the battlefield it could help the kremlin prop up authoritarian rulers
while perpetuating corruption and human rights violations
meanwhile putin offered a rare public view of the situation in ukraine
the russian president complained that the west isn't listening to russia's demands
the kremlin wants the u.s and the west to agree to stop the expansion of nato in countries that
were once in the russian sphere of influence we're told every country has the right to choose their
own means of security we agree with that but it seems to me that the united states does not
care that much about ukrainian security maybe they think about it somewhere in the background
but their main task is to restrict the development of russia putin said
the russian leader went further and asked what would happen if ukraine was a member of nato
and sought to start military operations in the next crimea let's imagine that
ukraine is a member of nato is stuffed with weapons and begins an operation in the crimea
do we have to fight with the nato bloc anyone thought anything about it it seems not he said
however the russian leader conveniently brushed over the fact
that crimea was ukrainian territory until 2014 when his forces invaded the peninsula
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