More details have emerged of the scale and the money used to recruit Russians willing to fight Russia’s undeclared wars in Ukraine and Syria. The new documents about people fighting in the so-called Wagner Private Military Company give the lie to Moscow’s claims that all Russians fighting against the Ukrainian army in Donbas are there as ‘volunteers’, and this is not only because of the money they earn. Several men have received fully-fledged Russian military awards for their part in key battles, they use weapons only available to the military and train at a base adjacent to one run by the Defence Ministry. The trail also clearly leads to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire who owes his wealth to his close connections to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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