The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
The PMC Wagner Center office in Saint Petersburg
Wagner Group graves among other military graves in the Kurgan cemetery, Sovetsky City District, Kazan
Prigozhin was in a public feud with Russian defense minister Sergei Shoigu.
Wagner Group mercenaries in Koundjili, Central African Republic, May 2019
A private military company (PMC) or private military and security company (PMSC) is a private company providing armed combat or security services for financial gain. PMCs refer to their personnel as "security contractors" or "private military contractors".
Ugandan nationals contracted to Triple Canopy during training in Iraq, 2011
David Stirling, founder of the SAS, founded a PMC in the 1960s.
Armed contractors aboard a merchant ship to deter piracy.
Iraqi contract security in the International (Green) Zone of Baghdad