The redoubt was created to protect the factories of Russian businessman and billionaire Gennady Timchenko Photo: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty
Group of mercenaries controlled by Russian military intelligence is one of the most likely successors to Wagner, since the group of Yevgeny Prigozhin was left without a leader.
Wagner occupied a unique position among the private «security» firms in Russia.
Although it was funded by the Russian state and dependent on the Ministry of Defense for ammunition, it grew to enormous size and achieved a degree of autonomy , fame and success on the battlefield, which only a few private armies can boast.
Under Yevgeny, Prigozhin also amassed a sizable business portfolio, taking over oil, gold, and other mining concessions in almost every country he operated in. After Prigozhin's death, a host of competing Russian mercenary factions will seek take over his combat missions and business assets.
The most famous of these is the Redoubt, or Redoubt, a military intelligence-controlled group that began life as a convenient arrangement between Kremlin-affiliated oligarchs and senior army officers.
“The redoubt was created to protect the factories that came under the control of [Gennady] Timchenko [a Russian oligarch and former KGB officer close to Putin’s structures],” the former high-ranking Russian army officer and Wagner operative wrote in testimony presented to the House of Commons. foreign affairs committee last month. «The godfather of this project was Timchenko, proposed by the Russian military.»
The operation was not massive. In Syria, according to the source, Redut is represented by two detachments of 55 and 65 people and relies on the Russian armed forces for weapons, equipment, ammunition and transport.
Everything changed when the military decided that they it will take its own mercenary forces to reduce dependence on Prigozhin during the invasion of Ukraine.
On the eve of the war, Deputy Chief of the GRU, General Vladimir Alekseev, developed a plan according to which Redoubt would play a key role in the attack, including the assassination of Vladimir Zelensky .
He hired Anatoly. Karazi, Wagner's former intelligence chief, is poaching fighters from Prigozhin's company to replenish his ranks, Russian investigative outlet Insider reported in a joint investigation with Bellingcat and der Spiegel in May.
The move is reported to have provoked a physical confrontation between Alekseev and Prigozhin, who was forced to retreat.
When the invasion went wrong and the Redoubt suffered huge losses, the Kremlin was forced to call in Prigozhin and Wagner.
But Alekseev's ambitions have not gone away. Redoubt resumed recruiting Wagner fighters after Prigozhin's rebellion two months ago.
Andrei Troshev, Wagner's most prominent surviving commander after Tuesday's plane crash, has reportedly already taken a job with a rival organization.
Redoubt aren't the only ambitious players on the scene.
Sometime in 2022, Sergei Aksyonov, the Kremlin-appointed governor of annexed Crimea, set up his own private military company called Convoy.
Aggressive social media play
The existence of the group became known in March, when an aggressive game for social networks, emphasizing Cossack symbols, became known about it.
It got its name from the Imperial Escort, the Cossack bodyguard of the tsars.
She fought in the Kherson region of Ukraine and is led by Konstantin «Mazay» Pikalov, a former henchman of Prigozhin who was active in Wagner's operations in the Central African Republic.
It is believed to be relatively small. fielding 200-300 men, and some sources describe it as an elite «reconnaissance company» of a larger volunteer battalion called Livadia, believed to be funded by Mr. Aksyonov and linked to a Russian army unit.
Although in theory Convoy was supposed to protect the Crimea, he recently began posting advertisements for work in Africa on his Telegram channel.
“Russia is opening a second front to deprive the West of resources. Unprecedented measures have been developed to liberate African countries from colonial dependence,” Pikalov told the Russian edition of iStories, answering a question about advertising.
“The era of Zulus with a bare ass and a Kalashnikov assault rifle is over. . We will give African soldiers new weapons and teach them how to use them,” he added.
On August 21, two days before Prigozhin’s death, the company announced on its Telegram channel that it was recruiting “navigator pilots” for drone control in Africa.
The origin of «Konvoy» makes it difficult to determine whether it is a private enterprise. , a GRU cover, Wagner's rival or offshoot. Perhaps all at once.
The Dossier Center, an investigative organization funded by former oligarch and political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, earlier this year tracked financial donations to Konvoy from VTB Bank and Arkady Rotenberg, a close associate of Vladimir Putin.
These payments are made through the St. Petersburg-based company Cossack Association Konvoy, established in 2009 and partly owned by the same Pikalov, who now commands the reconnaissance company.
Pikalov himself is linked to several apparent Russian covert operations in Bosnia, Ukraine and Africa.
In 2018, he arrived in the Central African Republic three weeks before Russian journalists investigating Wagner there were killed, according to a 2020 investigation by Bellingcat.
“This is Aksenov's PMC, but all the commanders are former Wagnerites. They’ve all known each other for a long time,” a former Convoy member told iStories.
There are also corporate battalions.
Gazprom, the Russian state-owned oil giant, is known to fund at least two battalions called «Torch» («torch») and «Potok» («stream»).
Bonus payments
According to independent Russian media, the battalions are recruiting existing Gazprom employees and security guards with the promise that they will be able to return to their regular positions after the war. The company also pays bonuses on top of regular army salaries.
Some reports say that Gazprom battalions, whose existence the company does not acknowledge, were incorporated into Redut as part of the company's expansion.
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Corporate divisions may have been part of the Kremlin's strategy to shift the costs of the war onto business and regional governments, as well as attract more workforce without an official announcement of general mobilization.
There are even units tied to specific cities and regions.
An investigation by the Latvian Russian news agency Meduza revealed the existence of a unit unofficially known as the Sobyanin Regiment after Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
A Meduza correspondent who inquired about conscription was told that recruits receive a 200,000 ruble (more than £1,600) bonus from the Moscow city budget on top of the regular army salary.
< p>Moscow mayor's office did not recognize the existence of the regiment.
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