Andrey Troshev was called Gray because of the color of his hair. In 2017, the St. Petersburg hospital looked through the belongings of a paralyzed drunk who had just been brought by doctors, they were amazed.
A comatose, stocky middle-aged man with a mop of gray hair was carrying five million rubles. (£42,250) and $5,000 in cash, military maps of Syria, receipts for new weapons and electronic plane tickets.
This was Andrey Troshev, a former artillery colonel in the Russian army whom, according to Vladimir Putin, he chose to replace Yevgeny Prigozhin as commander of Wagner's mercenaries three weeks after they mutinied.
In June 2017, when he was admitted to a St. Petersburg hospital, Troshev had already been awarded a Hero of Russia title by Putin for helping to carry out the Wagnerian attack against the Islamic State in Syria last year, which liberated the ancient city of Palmyra. /p>
Reports of the battle on Wagner-linked Telegram channels described him swearing at Russian army commanders, demanding more artillery shells for him. His leadership was said to have helped win Wagner's victory and impressed Putin.
Troshev helped found Wagner in 2014 and has played a prominent role ever since, directing its largest military operations in Syria, Africa and Ukraine .
“Troshev is the executive director (chief of staff) of the Wagner Group,” the EU said in 2021 when it imposed sanctions on him.
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The 62-year-old's dreary call sign «Gray Hair» masks a career built on gang violence. Troshev is a veteran of both the Soviet Union's war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and Russia's wars in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s.
They were especially cruel. Thousands of people were killed, Chechnya was destroyed, and soldiers on both sides were psychologically traumatized for life.
From there, he followed many of his colleagues to the Russian Omon, a unit that combines paramilitary and police functions in protection of public order. His main task is to forcibly disperse anti-government protests.
Since then, Troshev has played a key, but shadowy role in Wagner.
The Russian opposition website Verstka is not only its executive director, but also named Troshev the head of the «internal security service» of the group that imposes punishments. Sergei Shoigu, Russian Defense Minister and Wagner's nemesis, as a «wood carver».
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However, Troshev likes to be in the thick of things. He was reportedly involved in decisions made by Wagner in Syria in 2018 to try to take over the oil field. US missiles destroyed the attacking group, killing up to 300 people.
After the Wagner was transferred to Ukraine in 2022, Troshev led its capture of Bakhmut. Once again, he kept a low profile, and the Wagnerian telegram channels basically called him the chairman of the “League for the Defense of the Interests of Veterans of Local Wars and Military Conflicts.”
While Prigozhin was “Putin’s chef” with an instinctive flair in the media and a flair for a PR stunt, Troshev is a stern «Gray» military man who has served the Kremlin in its most troubled spots throughout his career.
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