Wagner Group

Jack Margolin is an independent researcher who has studied private military contractors and Russian criminal networks since 2014. He previously led conflict finance investigations at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a non-profit investigating crime and conflict. His investigations have been cited by the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Economist, the Financial Times and Politico. He lives in Washington, DC.

• IntroductionPart One: A Prehistory of Violence1 Atrocity Exhibition2 Sous Chef3 OriginsPart Two: Freelancers4 Ukraine, 2014–15: The First Campaigns5 Syria: Blood and Treasure6 Sudan and the car: The Next Frontier7 Libya: Blueprint for Contemporary War8 The Sahel: Crisis and Opportunity9 PillagePart Three: Blowback10 Cry Havoc11 The Meat Grinder12 Mutiny13 The End and the BeginningReferencesAcknowledgementsPhoto AcknowledgementsIndex

A riveting account of the group’s ascent and fall. - Joshua Hammer, New York Review of BooksIn The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army, Jack Margolin, an investigative journalist, tells the full story, offering portraiture and political context and taking us from Leningrad to Moscow, from the killing fields in Syria to the burned-out cities of Ukraine, from the louche underworld of post-Cold War Russia to the upper reaches of the Kremlin. Along the way, he describes the ever-growing role of private military and security companies—so-called PMSCs. It’s a tale of violence and political intrigue that reads like a Tom Clancy novel written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. - Arthur Herman, Wall Street JournalChronicle[s] his extraordinary, villainous career and how Wagner came to be. - The EconomistMeticulously researched . . . Margolin’s gripping narrative describes how this power struggle [between Prighozin and Putin] led to Wagner’s aborted mutiny in June 2023, after which Prigozhin acted as if he could avoid the normal fate of traitors. In August 2023, his aircraft exploded in the sky. - Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign AffairsJack Margolin, an independent researcher and expert on modern mercenaries, provides a deeply reported history of the Wagner private military company. - Miles Johnson, Financial TimesMargolin builds to a fascinating portrait of a modern Russian political sphere governed by symbolism and performance (Prigozhin’s dramatic killing in a private jet explosion was meant as a response to his “theatrical statements”) and a global order in which violence easily permeates civil society by posing as mere business. It’s a vital window onto the weird world of secretive, privatized modern warfare. - Publishers WeeklyJack Margolin takes the reader through an extensive array of leaks, first-hand accounts and original documented evidence to reveal the inner workings of Russia’s infamous mercenary army . . . Margolin demonstrates that Wagner is not an aberration, but a manifestation of the new geopolitical order of global capital, global crime and the entrepreneurs that thrive in it. - History of War MagazineInvestigative researcher Jack Margolin tells its story, from the group’s inception to the fiery death of its leader in a jet plane ‘accident’ . . . as riveting and as exciting as any thriller. - Michael Glitz, ParadeMargolin shines a bright light onto the shadowy Wagner mercenary group, at once deeply-researched and as readable as a thriller. - Mark Galeotti, author of Putin's WarsWith an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of all things Wagner, Margolin takes readers deep into the shadowy underworld of the notorious mercenary group. A must read for anyone interested in understanding the history of the “Orchestra” and its most important “musicians.” - Clarissa Ward, CNN Chief International Correspondent and author of On All Fronts: The Education of a JournalistAn important book about the world’s most dangerous mercenary outfit. Margolin unearths new details that will surprise readers. - Sean McFate, National Defense University and author of The New Rules of WarIn this gripping and meticulous guide to Russia’s most notorious mercenary group, Margolin charts Wagner’s heady rise and Prigozhin’s calamitous fall with an eye to an international context and the West’s own complicity. - Jade McGlynn, author of Russia's WarThis fascinating history of the Wagner Group (and of the connected but competing group Redut) is filled with details not reported elsewhere, based on the author’s own interviews and extensive research of Russian-language blogs, social media posts, and leaked documents. It will appeal to anyone interested in the criminality, violent military exploits, and political infighting of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. - Kimberly Marten, Barnard College, Columbia UniversityThe Wagner Group, by Jack Margolin, sheds valuable light on Putin's patronage-based regime and its use of paramilitary proxies by situating adeptly Wagner's story in its broader historical and international context. - Amy Knight, Times Literary Supplement