Why does GRU need a PMC?

Meet the private military company ‘Redut’ — a mercenary recruitment proxy for Russian intelligence and Spetsnaz forces

In a joint new investigation, two divisions of Radio Free Europe — the Ukraine-based Skhemy project and the Russian media Sistema — uncovered an illicit military recruitment scheme run by Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). The military intelligence agency, it appears, is using a fictitious private military company, PMC Redut (which translates as “Redoubt”), to recruit mercenaries for the war in Ukraine. According to the journalists’ findings, PMC Redut serves as a recruitment proxy for more than 20 Russian armed formations with tens of thousands of troops. Here’s how this system works and what links it to Russia’s GRU.

Investigative journalists spoke to several PMC Redut personnel captured by the Ukrainian military and convicted of torturing civilians in the Kharkiv region. Reporters also interviewed the men’s relatives and the recruiters who signed them up with Redut. The investigation also draws on phone data and company documents provided by the Ukrainian military and secret services.

One of the documents made available to the RFE/RL outlets was a note signed by seven Russian mercenaries stating explicitly that they serve in the Volki (“Wolves”) regiment — a part of the GRU and PMC Redut forces. In September 2022, when the Ukrainian army forced the Russian formations out of the Kharkiv region, these seven mercenaries were cut off from their main grouping. Four of the men — Ruslan Kolesnikov (callsign “Bulat”), Mikhail Ivanov (“Pokrov”), Maxim Volvak (“Esquadra”), and Valentin Bych (“Rashid”) — were detained by Ukraine’s National Security Service and subsequently charged with torturing civilians in the region. A Ukrainian court later sentenced each man to 11 years in prison.

After being convicted, Bych and Volvak told an interviewer that they went to Ukraine as part of the 16th brigade of the GRU “Spetsnaz,” or special operations forces. Volki, they explained, is a special forces regiment where a GRU officer with the callsign “Amur” oversees recruitment. The same high-ranking officer reportedly gave orders to detain Ukrainians (including activists and members of Ukraine’s anti-terrorism force in the Donbas) and personally interrogated the captives. Journalists have not yet established his legal name.

According to mercenary Mikhail “Pokrov” Ivanov, he signed a contract with a company specified as PMC Redut. Kolesnikov, one of the other mercenaries, said he served in the same group. Both men say they came to Ukraine through the Trigulyay bootcamp — a training site operated by the 16th GRU brigade in Russia’s Tambov region.

Other records obtained by the journalists shed light on the links between the Volki regiment and the GRU. When retreating from the Kharkiv region, the regiment reportedly abandoned a trove of internal documents in which the formation was designated, in Russian, as “DRO GRU Volki.” RFE/RL suggests that the first three letters might stand for an infiltration and reconnaissance regiment. The name “Redut” also appears in the papers.

Using these records, journalists identified 98 members of the Volki regiment, whose total number of personnel is several hundred troops. Of those 98, thirty-eight names match entries in the Ukrainian Peacemaker (Myrotvorets) database, where they are identified as combatants in Ukraine since 2014. Additionally, every sixth mercenary on the list has served previously in Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, and every tenth man has seen combat in Syria. At least four individuals on the list either served in the GRU in the past or serve there now, based on leaked personal data.

The total number of regiments recruiting through PMC Redut is reportedly more than 20. These formations include subgroupings of the GRU’s 16th Spetsnaz brigade, the Cossack formations Listan and Skif (“Scythian”), the St. George Brigade of the Donbas Volunteers, and others. Until 2022, Redut was also recruiting fighters for the Neo-Nazi grouping Rusich.

All these diverse formations are linked by a single recruitment system where a fighter signs a contract with a non-existent company and is assigned to either a real or a “virtual” unit of the Russian military, which makes it possible for him to be paid by the Defense Ministry. When contacted over social media, Redut recruiters themselves described this scheme to journalists.

Moscow has never mentioned PMC Redut’s existence, and the government’s position remains that mercenary companies cannot exist legally in Russia. President Putin recently reiterated this view in remarks at a meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club.

Journalists nevertheless obtained documents showing that Redut mercenaries have been honored with state decorations in the past. Members of the Russian military are also aware of mercenaries serving under the PMC Redut umbrella.

In July 2023, for instance, the federal office of Russia’s Military Prosecutor General informed the relatives of deceased Volki sniper Alexander Kopyltsov (callsign “Nemo”) that the military wouldn’t issue compensation because the family had already received a payment from PMC Redut. Until that point, the authorities had denied the family’s claims to compensation on the basis that Kopyltsov hadn’t served in the military — even though he was posthumously decorated with the state Order of Gallantry. The family, meanwhile, has documents proving that Kopyltsov died in Ukraine from wounds he received in combat.

Journalists link PMC Redut to the Russian Volunteer Corps, whose creation was announced in February 2023 during a Donbas Volunteer Union summit in the occupied city of Mariupol. Several recruiters told the RFE/RL outlets that Redut was also the principal recruiter for this formation.

The documents cited in the investigation include a certificate received by a Redut mercenary to prove that he took part in combat in Ukraine. Among other things, this document attests that the Russian Volunteer Corps was created on the Russian Defense Ministry’s orders. The certificate bears the ministry’s seal and the signature of Alexey Kondratyev, a retired GRU officer and now a Tambov region senator. Curiously, Kondratyev also attended the Donbas Volunteer Union summit.

Another high-ranking guest at the same event was Colonel Sergey Drozdov, whose leadership position in the Russian General Staff suggests that he might be responsible for mercenary recruitment.

Journalists argue that the GRU’s first deputy head, Vladimir Alexeyev, sits at the top of the agency’s illicit recruitment structure. Alexeyev was the senior-most military official in attendance at the Donbas Volunteer Union summit. (The Insider and Der Speigel previously identified Alexeyev as the chief instigator of PMC Redut’s creation.)

During Wagner Group’s armed insurrection in June, Alexeyev took part in talks with leader Yevgeny Prigozhin before vanishing from public view. Journalists say this is because Alexeyev was one of the leading “patrons” of private military companies within the Russian military (right until the mutiny).

According to Skhemy and Sistema, PMC Redut was first established in the fall of 2021. (The Insider says this happened in August 2021.) In December 2021, the Russian mercenary Mikhail Ivanov (later convicted of war crimes in Ukraine) signed a contract with a Russian LLC under the name “Redut.” Other Redut mercenaries took part in combat in and around Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Luhansk.

Journalists point out that Russia has at least one other organization with the name “Redut” — a company called Redut Security, headed by Yevgeny Sidorov, one of the founders of another PMC called Slavic Corps. Investigators link Redut Security to PMC Shield, whose existence Novaya Gazeta first reported in 2019. The newspaper wrote that PMC Shield (also headed by Sidorov at the time) was instrumental in guarding facilities owned by Stroytransgas, an oil-and-gas company controlled by longtime Putin associate Gennady Timchenko.

Although the U.S. has sanctioned Redut Security for allegedly managing mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, RFE/RL journalists say the company is distinct from the entity they describe in their investigation.

Reportage by Radio Free Europe, adapted by Meduza in English