Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and vocal supporter of invading Ukraine, praised the mercenary Wagner Group on Sunday and said he plans to create his own private military force.
The Wagner Group was founded in 2014 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, another close associate of the Russian president who has been dubbed “Putin’s chef” because his restaurants and catering companies have won countless government contracts.
Before deploying to Ukraine at the start of Putin’s invasion last year, the Wagner Group was active in the Middle East, Africa and even Venezuela.
In this file photo taken on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, meets with Chechnya’s regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo via AP)
“We can confidently say that Wagner has shown his mettle in military terms and has drawn a line in discussions about whether or not such private military companies are needed,” wrote Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007, in a post on the app. of social media. Telegram Sunday.
“When my service to the state is completed, I seriously plan to compete with our dear brother Yevgeny Prigozhin and create a private military company. I think everything will work out.”
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About 50,000 Wagner forces are active in Ukraine. The vast majority of them are convicted criminals who were released from prison to join Putin’s war, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last month.
The Russian defense ministry has long denied any links to the Wagner group and US intelligence suggests there is a growing rift between senior Russian military officials and Prigozhin, Kirby added.
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The Treasury Department last month designated the Wagner Group as a transnational criminal organization, saying “Putin resorted to the Wagner Group to continue his pet war.”
“Wagner personnel engaged in an ongoing pattern of serious criminal activity, including mass executions, rape, child abduction and physical abuse in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali,” the Treasury Department said on 26 January.
Reuters contributed to this report.
