Former Vagner Mercenary: Prigožinas makes a big mistake

After five years in the Russian Air Force, Marat Gabidulin joined Vagner’s private military organization in 2015. He has signed an agreement with Euro Polis, a Russian company linked to billionaire oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, which has joined the ruling Syrian regime. to liberate and protect Syrian oil fields.

“His frankness and simplicity were immediately very acceptable to me. No one tried to hide the possible consequences, he did not wrap the words in cotton wool: boys, you will fight where your state matters. Prepare for possible painful consequences. For the dead ”, says the author of the memoirs.

The former mercenary claims that Vagner worked for the company for four years, during which time he rose up the career ladder from a regular fighter to the commander of an intelligence company. The memory book was written under the pseudonym “Viejo Martín”. As Gabidulin himself explains, Martin is the alter ego of his book, and Senis is the nickname Vagner gave him because he was the head of his department.

The pseudonym “Old Martin”, according to M. Gabidulin, was given to him by the businessman Jevgenijus Prigožinas, a well-known owner of this private military company.

According to a former mercenary, J. Prigožinas read the drafts of the book in 2017. According to Gabidulin, the businessman then asked to include in the memoirs a story of how a Russian mercenary “defeated the Cossacks”: to “give the impression that these mercenaries did not they are so bad. “

Furthermore, J. Prigožinas, according to M. Gabidulin, himself published two or three copies of this book under his own invented title: “Vagner. Faust Overture.

The author received one copy and the other, the businessman, allegedly planned to donate it to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The latter “Meduzai” admitted that J. Prigožinas actually gave him a book, but not in 2017, but before, and not about “Vagner”, but about oriental cuisine.

The businessman himself did not want to respond to journalists’ questions, and representatives of his company Concord Management and Consulting said that he had nothing to do with Vagner.

M. Gabidulin says that J. Prigožinas asked him to publish his memoirs no earlier than 2022, but did not indicate the reasons for such a request.

“So, probably, no one yet foresaw that the Constitution would be changed. And now it is not 2022, but 2032, which is named after that date,” the former mercenary explained to Meduzai.

However, Gabidulin decided to complete the book in 2020. On the Internet, he found the publishing house Najemnik in Siberia, the owner of which praised the author’s work quite well: the dynamics of the story are said to include, so the first edition will be fifty copies.

Representatives of the publisher explained to Meduza journalists that it was not a mass publication, but called M. Gabidulin’s book “a quality publication that is truly inspiring.” For social purposes, the memoirs of the “former mercenary” would be sold for around 1.5 thousand. rubles.

Gabidulin told reporters that Prigozin was making a big mistake and, more importantly, that the author of the memoirs “understood that the book would lead him to reform Vagner.”

“Because you should not play with the mystery: why fool yourself, why give in, if everyone knows it anyway?” Says the former mercenary. According to the man, “through those four fools” all of Vagner’s fighters are considered “sadistic bloodsuckers.”

Gabidulin calls “mercenaries” the mercenaries accused of the death of a prisoner of war, a deserter from Syria. Previously, a video of his execution appeared on the Internet: he recorded a man brutally crushed at first, then his arms and head were cut off, he was hung by his legs and finally burned. Novaja Gazeta provided details of the gruesome execution.

Gabidulin claims that Wagner himself, the head of the company Dmitry Utkin, ordered the Syrians to be killed. According to the mercenary, it was he who ordered the shooting of the execution and the publication of the recording on the Internet, in order to dissuade Syrian fighters from resisting.

“Prigožin must not forget that all this was ordered by his beloved boss. And that we have created that situation ourselves, with our own hands. Now those four sadists must be prosecuted, and on what basis could this be done? After all , just told everyone that “they are not”, M. Gabidulin is convinced.

The former mercenary also revealed that Vagner was “having fun” by behaving like a true hooligan during military campaigns. The man says that after liberating the ancient city of Palmyra from the Islamic State terrorists, the mercenaries seized ancient stones: “I was once involved in the takeover of a building with an impressive bas-relief on a shelf. It was probably broken from the top of one of the columns, there (in that bas-relief) some characters. Perhaps some kind of written legacy ”, speculates M. Gabidulin.

According to the mercenary, since 2017, there has been an award exchange within Vagner. The soldiers, according to the mercenary, negotiated with the commanders for the medals, and also awarded the marauders, who shared their prey with the elders and thus won their favor.

“Vagner” also includes a special “Islamic State Hunters” battalion, which is made up exclusively of Syrians, admitted M. Gabidulin, adding that in 2018-2019 he was responsible for its preparation. “The main task of the” Hunters “was very clear: to assume the burden of agitation,” says the author of the memoirs.

When asked if it was true that this battalion was necessary to cover up Vagner’s actions, the mercenary had a very concrete and firm answer.

“Yes, everything with us is based on that: public relations and plagiarism. For example, in 2017 he did the following: when we took over Palmyra for the second time, as if the ‘Hunters’ had come out of nowhere, he started taking photos and filming We were already at the Syrian military airfield near Palmyra, and they came to make their own movie. Beautiful movie: I remember there were shots of how our tank was moving, following in our footsteps. Later, he gradually participated in battles. At first, Akerebate he helped clean something, then shot somewhere, listening to the instructions of the Russian instructors. And on the Euphrates, we have already agreed with the instructors who will accompany us to attack. Then many of them perished with me. The biggest losses, “he says the author of the memoirs.

According to a former Vagner mercenary, regular Russian army units, specifically paratroopers and marines, are also involved in military operations in Syria: He returns from a military mission fat, tanned, and with a certificate of participation in military operations. Meanwhile, Russia’s main intelligence board is escorting high-ranking Syrian individuals, such as Brigadier General Suheil al-Hassan, whom the media calls “Putin’s favorite Syrian commander.”

“I saw the formations of the Supreme Intelligence Council of Russia just to accompany the politicians. For example, General Suheil of the Syrian army, that parasite, is protected by none other than the GRU. He was never seen acting at the front to carry out various intelligence missions. And even if they organize sabotage, it is only together with the local security services, and it does not work, “says the former mercenary.

And on the front lines at that time, the Russian special forces are fighting, says M. Gabidulin, and specifically the Special Operations Forces unit.

“It just came to our knowledge then. As far as I know, their snipers performed very well in Alepe. Only as Special Operations Forces they do poorly: they do not participate in raids, they do not go to the front, they do not train ambushes,” complained the mercenary.

He also named his worst battle: In February 2018, US military aviation destroyed hundreds of fighters working for the private military company Vagner.

The Russian Defense Ministry at the time claimed that only Syrians were killed in the attack and that there were no Russians among the dead.

“Of course, the worst was the battle of the Euphrates on the night of February 8, 2018. I felt the hairpins myself (hell). It doesn’t help. What to fight against? I haven’t seen that opponent! The opponents were American helicopters Then I had a short-barreled machine gun, a small one for close combat. But even if I had a real automatic rifle, I wouldn’t have fired at that helicopter. I would be opposed to something invisible, someone who would fly away soon and hit my brain. ” says M. Gabidulin.

Read more about what Gabidulin said about this battle here.

On December 2, Snob reporter Aleksandra Vigraizer tried to reserve the book, but was informed by Najemnik that the book would not be available because the author “said to stop.”

MBH Media correspondents, who contacted the publisher about it, were informed that “the author called today and refused to publish the book, which is said to be his right.”

Meduzai also confirmed in the publishing house that the book “To the same river – twice” will not be published because the author “canceled the circulation”. “Without comment”, a representative of the publishing house responded to the question of the correspondent of Meduza, with whom such decision of the author of the book could be related.