Cult of the Wagner Group’s Sledgehammer-encapsulates brutality-time to call Russia a terrorist enabler and not a civilized nation

hyper violence directed at the EU, at prisoners of war and the Russian Federation citizens

All hunky dory to the Russian Duma

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IN THE LONG,?terrible history of the Syrian civil war, a 2017 video of a war crime committed by Russian mercenaries still stands out for its horror. The?videotaped torture and murder of Hamadi Bouta, a Syrian Army deserter, by members of the notorious Russian-led Wagner Group generated global outrage as well as a legal case against the paramilitary organization. The footage of Bouta being beaten to death with a sledgehammer before his body was beheaded and set on fire rivaled the worst atrocities publicized by the Islamic State. Yet the film did not horrify everyone who saw it.Among members of the Wagner Group and its supporters, the video of Bouta’s murder has given rise to a culture glorifying violence against noncombatants that is explicitly centered on the symbol of the sledgehammer

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A video showing the transfer of this so-called briefcase appeared in Russian Telegram channels; there was the "blood-stained" sledgehammer in the violin case.

The channels have reported that Prigozhin’s lawyer has brought the briefcase with the sledgehammer to a meeting with bloggers who call themselves "Russia’s information troops".

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Allegations of brutal interrogations, where Ukrainian men were shot and threatened with rape, have been made by a former Russian military officer.

Konstantin Yefremov, the most senior officer to speak openly, told the BBC in an exclusive interview Russia now sees him as a traitor and defector.

At one site in southern Ukraine, he said "the interrogations, the torture, continued for about a week".

"Every day, at night, sometimes twice a day."

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President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization?in late September after Russia suffered a series of major setbacks on the battlefields. Officials said the draft’s target of recruiting 300,000 personnel was met in November.

Yefremov said that "nearly everyone" in the Russian forces knows the mission is wrong. "They truly do not believe Putin's fables about Ukraine's threat of invasion," he said.

Instead, they are in Ukraine because they have no choice. "It's either their family and children end up on the streets or they have to be in the trenches," Yefremov told CNN's Erin Burnett.

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A. Time to brand Russia as an enabler of hyper violence and of terrorism

B . The Russian Duma celebrates the Sledge hammer meme

C. This is on par with the violence of Dachau, in Nazi occupied Europe in the 1940s

We need to confront this evil by generalized mobilization and END IT

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Chief of Wagner Group hands over "blood-stained" sledgehammer to EU Parliament

Ukrainska Pravda

November 24, 2022·4 min read

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Chief of the Wagner Group [a Russian private military company, loyal to the government - ed.], has proposed to hand over a sledgehammer with fake blood stains to the European Parliament in response to a possible recognition of his group as a terrorist organisation. The "Wagners" representative has already given the sledgehammer to propagandist bloggers.

Source: Latvia-based Russian outlet?Meduza; press service of Prigozhin’s company?Concord; videos from Russian Telegram channels

Details: On 22 November, when Politico news outlet reported that members of the EU Parliament wanted to list?the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation, Concord’s press service posted Prigozhin’s comment on this matter on VKontakte and Telegram.

Quote from Prigozhin:?"Today, I held a meeting of commanders of the Wagner Group and informed them of this sad news. I do not know by which law the EU Parliament is governed, but we declare the EU Parliament to be dissolved starting today by our law. But before this procedure enters into force, I have been instructed to submit an information briefcase to the EU Parliament. If you have their contacts, I am proposing to do this together, to prepare and send it."

Details:?Later, Concord has invited the media outlets and bloggers "to take part in sending an information briefcase to the EU Parliament".

Prigozhin’s press service stated on the evening of 23 November that "the information briefcase is given to a representative of CYBER FRONT Z in order to be sent to the EU Parliament".

ScREENSHOT FROM VIDEO

ScREENSHOT FROM VIDEO

A video showing the transfer of this so-called briefcase appeared in Russian Telegram channels; there was the "blood-stained" sledgehammer in the violin case.

The channels have reported that Prigozhin’s lawyer has brought the briefcase with the sledgehammer to a meeting with bloggers who call themselves "Russia’s information troops".

Why this is important:?Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate who was recruited by the Wagner Group and sent to the war in Ukraine, where he surrendered,?was murdered exactly with a sledgehammer. According to the media, he went back to Russia as a result of a prisoner swap, and he was executed there by having his head smashed in with a sledgehammer.

Atrocities of the Wagner Group is a long-known fact. Prigozhin’s mercenaries have been using murders with sledgehammers since the war in Syria. On the Internet, there is evidence of "Wagners" beating a person to death, quartering the body, and then burning it in 2017.

Background:

• On 13 November, it?became known?that a Russian citizen was cruelly executed without any trial by having his head taped to a concrete block and smashed in with a sledgehammer. Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chief of the Wagner Group, hinted that this was his mercenaries’ doing. It is possible that they try to suppress a wish to surrender among Russian conscripts with such a video.
• Later,?a video showing the arrest procedure of two soldiers who refused to go to war?was published on Telegram channels; the soldiers were demonstratively detained right during the formation.
• On 20 September, the Russian State Duma [the lower house of the Federal Assembly, the national legislature of the Russian Federation - ed.] introduced the concepts of mobilisation and wartime into the Criminal Code and?approved amendments?to the penalty for desertion during mobilisation or wartime.
• On 24 September, Russian President Vladimir?Putin signed a law amending the Criminal Code?of the Russian Federation to specify harsher penalties for desertion, looting and surrender.
• It is established by this law that the?failure of subordinates to comply with a superior’s order?issued in the established procedure during martial law, in wartime, or in conditions of armed conflict or combat operations, and the?refusal to participate in military or combat operations,?are punishable with two to three years’ imprisonment (part 2.1 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code).
• After a video showing the?execution of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former inmate of Ryazan Penal Colony No. 3 and a member of the Wagner Group with a sledgehammer, recruiting convicts in colonies of Siberia and Far East has only?intensified. The Wagner Group has "conscripted" convicts from at least six regions beyond the Urals over November: 150-200 people were taken from each colony.
• In addition, Konstantin Kiselyov, who had been imprisoned for a double murder and later recruited to fight in Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group, has been awarded the?Order of Courage in the Russian Federation.

Journalists fight on their own frontline.?Support?Ukrainska Pravda or become?our patron!

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Russian army officer admits: 'Our troops tortured Ukrainians'

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• Russia-Ukraine war

By Steve Rosenberg

Russia Editor

Allegations of brutal interrogations, where Ukrainian men were shot and threatened with rape, have been made by a former Russian military officer.

Konstantin Yefremov, the most senior officer to speak openly, told the BBC in an exclusive interview Russia now sees him as a traitor and defector.

At one site in southern Ukraine, he said "the interrogations, the torture, continued for about a week".

"Every day, at night, sometimes twice a day."

Mr Yefremov tried to resign from the army numerous times - but he ended up being dismissed for refusing to return to Ukraine. He has now fled Russia.

Using photographs and military documents supplied by Mr Yefremov, the BBC has verified he was in Ukraine early in the war - in the Zaporizhzhia region, including the city of Melitopol.

This article contains graphic descriptions of torture.

Konstantin Yefremov's face flickers into view on my computer screen and we start to talk. He is a man with a story to tell. Until recently he was a Russian army officer.

Deployed to Ukraine last year, the former senior lieutenant has agreed to tell me about the crimes he says he witnessed there - including torture and mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners. He will talk about his comrades looting occupied areas of Ukraine, and describe brutal interrogation sessions, led by a Russian colonel, in which men were shot and threatened with rape.

On 10 February 2022, Mr Yefremov says he arrived in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia nine years ago. He was the head of a de-mining unit of the 42nd Motorised Rifle Division - and was usually based in Chechnya, in Russia's North Caucasus. He and his men were sent to take part in "military exercises", he says.

"At the time no-one believed there would be war. Everyone thought this was only a drill. I'm sure even senior officers didn't know."

'I was scared of quitting'

Mr Yefremov recalls seeing Russian troops taping identification marks on their uniforms and painting the letter "Z" on military equipment and vehicles. Within days, "Z" had become the symbol of what the Kremlin was calling its "special military operation".

Mr Yefremov claims he wanted nothing to do with it.

"I decided to quit. I went to my commander and explained my position. He took me to a senior officer who called me a traitor and a coward.

"I left my gun, got in a taxi and drove off. I wanted to return to my base in Chechnya and resign officially. Then my comrades telephoned me with a warning.

"A colonel had promised to put me in prison for up to 10 years for desertion and he'd alerted the police."

Mr Yefremov says he called a military lawyer, who advised him to turn around.

"I realise now I should have ignored that and driven on," he says. "But I was afraid of being put in jail."

He went back to join his men.

Mr Yefremov insists he is "anti-war". He assures me he did not participate in Russia's annexation of Crimea, or fight in eastern Ukraine when war first erupted in the Donbas nine years ago.

In 2014, Russia was not only accused of orchestrating a separatist uprising there, but of sending in its own troops. Konstantin also tells me he has not taken part in Russia's military operation in Syria.

"For the last three years I had been involved in mine clearance in Chechnya, a place that had experienced two wars. I think the work I've done there has benefited people."

Looting bicycles and lawnmowers

Mr Yefremov was placed in temporary charge of a rifle platoon. On 27 February, three days after the Russian invasion, he says he and his men were ordered to move north from occupied Crimea. They headed for the city of Melitopol.

The next 10 days were spent at an airfield which had already been captured by Russian troops. He describes the looting he witnessed.

"Soldiers and officers grabbed everything they could. They climbed all over the planes and went through all the buildings. One soldier took away a lawnmower. He said proudly, 'I'll take this home and cut the grass next to our barracks.'

"Buckets, axes, bicycles, they bunged it all in their trucks. So much stuff they had to squat down to fit in the vehicles."

Mr Yefremov has sent us photographs he says he took at Melitopol air base. They show transport planes and a building on fire.

They are among a number of pictures and documents he has shared - and which we have verified - to confirm Mr Yefremov's identity, rank and his movements in Ukraine in the spring of 2022.

Online mapping tools confirmed the images of Melitopol air base.

For a month and a half, he and eight soldiers under his command guarded a Russian artillery unit there.

"The whole time we slept outside," he recalls. "We were so hungry we started hunting for rabbits and pheasants. One time we came across a mansion. There was a Russian fighter inside. 'We're with the 100th Brigade and we live here now,' the soldier said.

"There was so much food. The fridges were packed. There was enough food to survive a nuclear war. But the soldiers living there were catching the Japanese carp in the pond outside and eating them."

'I saw interrogation and torture'

Konstantin Yefremov's group moved to guard what he describes as a "logistics headquarters" in April - in the town of Bilmak, to the north-east of Melitopol. There, he says he witnessed interrogations and mistreatment of Ukrainian prisoners.

He recalls a day when three prisoners were brought in.

"One of them admitted to being a sniper. On hearing this, the Russian colonel lost his mind. He hit him, he pulled the Ukrainian's trousers down and asked if he was married.

"'Yes,' the prisoner replied. 'Then someone bring me a mop,' said the colonel. 'We'll turn you into a girl and send your wife the video.'"

Another time, says Mr Yefremov, the colonel asked the prisoner to name all the Ukrainian nationalists in his unit.

"The Ukrainian didn't understand the question. He replied that the soldiers were naval infantry of the Ukrainian armed forces. For that answer they knocked out some of his teeth."

The Kremlin wants Russians to believe that, in Ukraine, Russia is fighting fascists, neo-Nazis and ultra-nationalists. This false narrative serves to dehumanise Ukrainians in the eyes of the Russian public and the military.

Mr Yefremov says the Ukrainian prisoner had a blindfold on.

"The colonel put a pistol to the prisoner's forehead and said 'I'm going to count to three and then shoot you in the head.'

"He counted and then fired just to the side of his head, on both sides. The colonel started shouting at him. I said: 'Comrade colonel! He can't hear you, you've deafened him!'"

Mr Yefremov describes how the colonel gave orders that the Ukrainians shouldn't be given normal food - only water and crackers. But he says: "We tried to give them hot tea and cigarettes."

So that the prisoners didn't sleep on bare ground, Mr Yefremov also recalls how his men tossed them hay - "at night, so that no-one saw us".

During another interrogation, Mr Yefremov says the colonel shot a prisoner in the arm - and in the right leg under the knee, which hit the bone. Konstantin says his men bandaged the prisoner up and went to the Russian commanders - "not to the Colonel, he was crazy" - and said the prisoner needed to go to hospital, otherwise he would die from blood loss.

"We dressed him up in a Russian uniform and took him to hospital. We told him: 'Don't say you're a Ukrainian prisoner of war, because either the doctors will refuse to treat you, or the injured Russian soldiers will hear and shoot you and we won't be able to stop them."

The UN's Human Rights Office has been documenting cases of mistreatment of prisoners in the war in Ukraine. It has interviewed more than 400 POWs - both Ukrainians and Russians.

"Unfortunately, we've found there is torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war happening on both sides," says Matilda Bogner, head of the UN's Ukraine-based monitoring team.

"If we compare the violations, the torture or ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war tends to happen at almost every stage of confinement. And, for the most part, the conditions of internment are worse in many areas of Russia or occupied Ukraine."

The worst forms of torture or ill treatment for Ukrainian prisoners of war usually occur during interrogation, says Ms Bogner. They can be subjected to electrocution and a whole range of torture methods - she says - including hanging people up and beating them.

"When they arrive at places of internment there are often so-called welcoming beatings. They also often face inadequate food and water," she adds.

Russian prisoners of war, too, have reported beatings and suffering electrocution.

"Any form of torture or ill treatment is prohibited under international law," says Ms Bogner. "It is unacceptable for either side to do this."

The BBC was unable to independently confirm Konstantin Yefremov's specific allegations of torture, but they are consistent with other claims of abuse of Ukrainian prisoners.

Russia's Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Denounced as a traitor and defector

Mr Yefremov would eventually return to his de-mining unit, but not for long.

"Seven of us had taken the decision [to leave the army]," he tells me.

At the end of May, back in Chechnya, he wrote his letter of resignation. Some senior officers were not happy.

"They started threatening me. Officers who hadn't spent a day in Ukraine were telling me that I was a coward and a traitor. They wouldn't allow me to resign. I was dismissed."

Mr Yefremov shows us letters from the military.

In the first document, he is accused of "shirking his duties" and disregarding an order to return to Ukraine. It is described as "a serious breach of discipline".

The second letter refers to Mr Yefremov's "early dismissal from military service… for breaking his contract".

"After 10 years of service I was denounced as a traitor, a defector, just because I didn't want to kill people," he says. "But I was glad that I was now a free person, that I wouldn't have to kill or be killed."

Mr Yefremov was out of the army. But not out of danger of being sent back to the war.

In September 2022, President Putin declared what he called "partial mobilisation". Hundreds of thousands of Russian citizens would be drafted into the military and sent to Ukraine.

Mr Yefremov says he knew - because he had already served with the military in Ukraine - he would not be left alone. He came up with an escape plan.

"In the house where I was living I made a hatch in the attic ceiling… in case police and enlistment officers broke in to deliver call-up papers.

"Enlistment officers were driving to my house and waiting for me in their cars. So, I rented a flat and hid there.

"I hid from the neighbours, too, because I'd heard of cases when neighbours told police about young men who'd been drafted and were hiding. I found this situation humiliating and unacceptable."

Mr Yefremov contacted Russian human rights group Gulagu.net, which helped him leave Russia.

What does Mr Yefremov think about those Russians - and there are many - who express support for Vladimir Putin's decision to invade Ukraine?

"I don't know what's going on in their heads," he says. "How could they allow themselves to be fooled? When they go to market, they know they could be short-changed. They don't trust their wives, their husbands.

"But the man who has been deceiving them for 20 years, he only has to give the word and these people are ready to go and kill and die. I can't understand it."

As we end our chat, Mr Yefremov says sorry to the people of Ukraine.

"I apologise to the entire Ukrainian nation for coming to their home as an uninvited guest with a weapon in my hands.

"Thank God I didn't hurt anyone. I didn't kill anyone. Thank God I wasn't killed.

"I don't even have the moral right to ask for forgiveness from the Ukrainians. I can't forgive myself, so I can't expect them to forgive me."

Producer: Will Vernon

Open source analysis: Joshua Cheetham

With help from Gulagu.net

Follow?Steve Rosenberg on Twitter

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Former Russian fighter: Most troops in Ukraine know war is wrong and don't believe "Putin's fables"

The circumstances for Russian troops fighting in Ukraine are dire with many unprepared for what awaits them on the battlefield, a former lieutenant told CNN.

"They have not been trained and?they are not even aware of what?kind of horror is awaiting them?there," said Konstantin Yefremov, describing the soldiers are handymen, not servicemen.?

President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization?in late September after Russia suffered a series of major setbacks on the battlefields. Officials said the draft’s target of recruiting 300,000 personnel was met in November.

Yefremov said that "nearly everyone" in the Russian forces knows the mission is wrong. "They truly do not believe Putin's fables about Ukraine's threat of invasion," he said.

Instead, they are in Ukraine because they have no choice. "It's either their family and children end up on the streets or they have to be in the trenches," Yefremov told CNN's Erin Burnett.

And because the troops were drafted, many cannot resign or they will face imprisonment, he said. "So, basically, there is no choice. They either have to remain there or find ways to flee. So, like I have already said, the circumstances are dire," he said.

Sexual violence:?Yefremov also told CNN he witnessed a deputy commander?torturing?and?threatening?sexual violence on prisoners of war –, but no one dared to speak out against him for fear he would attack them too.

"Just like he shot that Ukrainian prisoner of war, he could have easily shot me or anyone else who said that they didn't agree with this," he said.

Yefremov fled Russia in January and he is hoping for asylum in the United States.

7 hr 14 min ago

CIA director says the next 6 months will be critical for the outcome of the war in Ukraine

From CNN's Katie Bo Lillis

The CIA assesses that the next six months will be “absolutely crucial” in determining the final outcome of the war in Ukraine, agency Director Bill Burns said Thursday.?

“I think what’s going to be the key — because we do not assess that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) is serious about negotiations — the key is going to be on the battlefield in the next six months, it seems to us,” Burns said, addressing an audience at Georgetown University. That includes “puncturing Putin’s hubris, making clear that he’s not only not going to be able to advance further in Ukraine, but as every month goes by, he runs a greater and greater risk of losing the territory he’s illegally seized so far.”

The Russian leader, Burns said, is “betting that he can make time work for him.” Putin believes that he can “grind down” Ukraine, while political fatigue will grip Europe and the United States will become distracted, Burns said.

But Burns said he told one of his Russian counterparts, Sergey Naryshkin,?in November?that “that Russian calculation is as deeply flawed as the original decision to go to war last Feb. 24 was.”

8 hr 8 min ago

Ukraine forming assault brigades to liberate territory, minister of internal affairs says

From CNN's Katharina Krebs

Ukraine has started putting together assault brigades with the goal of liberating territory taken by Russia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said in a statement.

"The decision to create assault brigades was made by our workers who have enough fury to beat the enemy. Many of our servicemen, who defended and defend our country, took the initiative to recruit people into such units. Therefore, it was decided that all those who have the desire, who are patriots, who lost their homes or relatives due to the war, should be united in such brigades. We have already begun to form units aimed at liberating our territories," Ihor Klymenko, acting Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, said in the statement Thursday.

According to Klymenko, the units will consist of "active policemen, border guards, and national guardsmen."?

"The units will consist exclusively of volunteers who are motivated by patriotism and there are a lot of such people in our country," he added. The candidate must pass a military medical board and psychological and physical test, the statement said, and the training will last several months.?

"At first it will be individual, later — as part of a unit. When the commander sees that the unit is ready, they will proceed to combat missions," the statement added.?

8 hr 10 min ago

Poland and Baltic states condemn efforts by IOC to allow Russian and Belarus athletes to compete

From CNN's Victoria Butenko and Lindsay Isaac?

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland have condemned efforts by the International Olympic Committee to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes back into international competition after banning them when Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago.

In a joint statement Thursday, the sports of ministers of the four nations accused the IOC of precipitating special exemptions to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in “international sports competitions including the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, allowing sport to be used to legitimize and distract attention from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.”

“Efforts to return Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sports competitions under the veil of neutrality legitimize political decisions and widespread propaganda of these countries also through the use of sport as a distraction from the illegal aggression against Ukraine,” it added.?

The ministers are calling on international sporting bodies to follow their lead. “We highly appreciate all international sport organizations and federations that have removed athletes and representatives of Russia and Belarus from international competitions and organizations and we urge them not to change their position until Russia and Belarus stop their aggression against Ukraine.”

UN experts however have commended the IOC for considering allowing individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports competitions as “neutral athletes.”

“We urge the IOC to adopt a decision in that direction, and to go further, ensuring the non-discrimination of any athlete on the basis of their nationality,” the office of the high commission of Human Rights said in a statement.

On Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the US administration?does not object?to allowing athletes from Russia or Belarus from taking part in the 2024 Summer Games and 2026 Winter Games — as long as it is "absolutely clear" that they are not representing their home countries,

She reiterated that current sanctions against Russia and Belarus must remain in place.?

8 hr 19 min ago

Senators call on Biden to delay F-16 jet sale to Turkey until Finland and Sweden allowed into NATO

From CNN's Haley Britzky

A bipartisan group of senators urged President Joe Biden to delay the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until Ankara agrees to allow Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sweden and Finland are waiting for Turkey to approve their admission to NATO, of which Turkey is a member. Congressional sources previously told CNN that the Biden administration was preparing to ask lawmakers to approve the sale of F-16s to Turkey, which would be among the largest arms sales in years.

The group of 27 senators wrote in their letter on Thursday, however, that Congress "cannot consider future support for [Turkey]," including the sale of the F-16 jets, until Turkey "completes ratification of the accession protocols."?

"Failure to ratify the protocols or present a timeline for ratification threatens the Alliance's unity at a key moment in history, as Russia continues its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine," the letter says. "A productive and mutually beneficial bilateral security relationship with [Turkey] is in the interest of the United States, and we are awaiting the government's ratification of the NATO accession protocols for Sweden and Finland."

Some background:?Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO last summer, just months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an said at the time that he would reject the effort, accusing the two countries of being "like guesthouses for terror organizations."

Those tensions have continued. Just last week, Turkey called for a meeting between the three countries to be postponed after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt ?avu?o?lu said the Swedish government was complicit in the burning of the Quran during a protest in Stockholm. A Turkish state news agency reported that the meeting was canceled due to an "unhealthy political environment."

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https://theintercept.com/2023/02/02/wagner-group-violence-sledgehammer/

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The Grisly Cult of the Wagner Group’s Sledgehammer

The tool Russian mercenaries used to kill a Syrian army deserter and others has become a violent meme, similar to the Punisher logo in the U.S.

Murtaza Hussain

February 2 2023, 9:54?a.m.

BECOME

A MEMBER

Wagner Group mercenaries gesture to the video camera filming the brutal torture and killing of Hamadi Bouta, a Syrian Army deserter in 2017 in Syria.?Still: Wagner Group propaganda video

IN THE LONG,?terrible history of the Syrian civil war, a 2017 video of a war crime committed by Russian mercenaries still stands out for its horror. The?videotaped torture and murder of Hamadi Bouta, a Syrian Army deserter, by members of the notorious Russian-led Wagner Group generated global outrage as well as a legal case against the paramilitary organization. The footage of Bouta being beaten to death with a sledgehammer before his body was beheaded and set on fire rivaled the worst atrocities publicized by the Islamic State. Yet the film did not horrify everyone who saw it.Among members of the Wagner Group and its supporters, the video of Bouta’s murder has given rise to a culture glorifying violence against noncombatants that is explicitly centered on the symbol of the sledgehammer. This cult is now being embraced by leaders of the group, including its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, who have turned the sledgehammer into part of its brand. T-shirts and other merchandise depict sledgehammers alongside the Wagner logo, while both supporters and members of the group have taken to?picturing themselves?holding both real sledgehammers and replicas in?photographs shared online, often while dressed in imitation of the killers from the footage.

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s bloody sledgehammer in a violin case sent to the European Parliament.?Photo: Screenshot from Telegram video

Wagner now seems to be making the sledgehammer its official calling card. Last November, on the heels of a symbolic European Union resolution designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, Prigozhin sent a sledgehammer?smeared with fake blood?to the European Union Parliament. That was followed by another incident in which a group of Russian ultranationalists?threw sledgehammers?at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow. Last month, Sergei Mironov, a Russian parliamentarian who heads an ultranationalist party,?posted a photo of himself?posing with a sledgehammer branded with Wagner’s logo atop an engraving of a pile of skulls, in yet another visual tribute to the group.

Sergei Mironov shows off a sledgehammer given to him by the Wagner Group on Jan. 20, 2023.?Photo: Sergei Mironov via Telegram

The macabre culture around Wagner Group comes at a time when it is ascendant within the Russian state and is making a strong recruiting push, appealing to foreign volunteers,?including Americans, to join the group.

“A lot of the content that I see on Telegram and elsewhere is eerily reminiscent of neo-Nazi propaganda, which is an aesthetic that they seem to have copied,” said Colin P. Clarke, the director of policy and research at the Soufan Group, a global intelligence and security consulting firm that monitors Wagner activity online. “It makes sense given the audience they are trying to recruit, who are, essentially, for lack of a better word, sociopaths.”

Clarke said that Wagner’s recruiting pitch was in many ways reminiscent of the Islamic State, which had its own distinctive methods of carrying out executions and promised its fighters similar spoils — including sex slaves and property confiscated from minorities in Iraq and Syria — in exchange for their service. Similarly to the Islamic State, Wagner fighters have been accused of?torture, murder, sexual violence, and looting?in many areas where the group operates. Its brutality is increasingly seen as part of its sales pitch to potential clients, particularly in weak and failing states where governments are unconcerned with human rights abuses.

“As long as you go in and get the job done, no one is going to ask any questions about how you behave,” Clarke said, commenting on the culture promoted to recruits of the group. “That’s part of their brand right now.”

THE CREATION OF?a cult of violence?in wartime is not a uniquely Russian pathology. During the U.S.-led global war on terrorism, certain weapons,?including tomahawks?used by U.S. special forces to bludgeon enemies, became part of a culture glorifying death that took root among some members of the military and on the right-wing fringes of American society. The ubiquity today of the?Punisher logo, popularized during the wars and now common among police officers domestically, is yet another legacy of the war’s cultural impact at home.

The mercenaries enforce Russian foreign policy goals even as their private military contractor status provides a measure of plausible deniability.

The U.S. also employed private military contractors during its conflicts, most notoriously the company formerly known as?Blackwater, and many of them also?engaged in crimes?during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite their brutality, however, none of them matched the political prominence of Wagner, which is rapidly becoming an integral part of Russian foreign policy. In addition to?its role in Ukraine, where the group is said to field thousands of fighters, including prisoners convicted of?serious crimes like rape and murder?who have been?offered?a chance to fight in exchange for their freedom, Wagner mercenaries are now active across Africa and the Middle East. In those regions, the mercenaries enforce Russian foreign policy goals even as their private military contractor status provides a measure of plausible deniability. In countries like Mali, Libya, and the Central African Republic, Wagner mercenaries have been accused of participating in?war crimes and exploiting natural resources?as part of lucrative security arrangements with local leaders.

Yevgeny Prigozhin attends Russian-Turkish talks in St. Petersburg, Russia on Aug. 9, 2016.?Photo: Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

In a system where power is largely centralized around President Vladimir Putin, Prigozhin, an ex-convict who formerly worked as contractor providing lunches for Russian schools, has?emerged as a political force in his own right, becoming the focal point for ultranationalist sentiments even more extreme than those represented by Putin and?feuding with members?of the military elite. In some quarters, Prigozhin and his group are even rumored to be possible challengers for power.

“The post-Soviet Russian state has always had two facets: the criminal element which Prigozhin represents, and the intelligence and military bureaucracy,” said Chris Elliott, a Ph.D. researcher at King’s College London focused on the study of political violence and war crimes. “Wagner becoming a more important tool of Russian foreign policy is really about the increased importance that criminal element has in pulling the levers of the state.”

In that light, the culture of the Wagner Group and its embrace of ultraviolence, with the sledgehammer as its symbol, sends a chilling warning about the trajectory of Russia under its present regime. The sledgehammer is not merely a symbol either. Late last year, the Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone posted a video of a defector from the group who had attempted to join Ukrainian forces?being murdered with a sledgehammer?in a manner similar to Hamadi Bouta. The video was posted along with an approving comment from Prigozhin, saying that the executed man had received “a dog’s death for a dog.” As the group ramps up its operations around the world, this is unlikely to be its last snuff film.

As one Russian oligarch?reportedly put it, speaking on the growing culture glorifying violence around Wagner and its rise within a Russian state where criminals increasingly call the shots, “the sledgehammer is a message to all of us.”

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Murtaza Hussain

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Andrew Beckwith PhD