The Ghost of Wagner

In Venezuela, the fighters of the Russian PMC have nothing to do, but there will always be those who believe in their arrival even on the moon

Reuters reported that after the start of mass protests in Venezuela, fighters from a Russian private military company from the Wagner Group arrived in the country in transit from Havana. Allegedly "to strengthen the security of President Nicolas Maduro." The agency referred to a certain Yevgeny Shabaev, who introduces himself as the ataman of the "farm Cossack society Khovrino" and "the head of the committee of the All-Russian Officers' Assembly", which was liquidated back in 2006.

The Russian Embassy in Venezuela promptly denied this report. And this is the case when diplomats did not have to come up with crafty language designed to hide the truth. The fact is that there is no practical sense in landing armed Russians in Venezuela. And that's why.

Maduro has no problem recruiting bodyguards, and Venezuela has no shortage of armed men. The country's army is the third largest in the region (after Brazil and Colombia).

About 100 thousand people are under arms in the ground forces, navy and air force. 150 thousand people serve in the National Bolivarian Militia. And another 23,000 people have the National Guard of Venezuela, excellently equipped and armed, provided with both special equipment and equipment designed to suppress protests. And in recent years has gained vast experience in ensuring the stability of the Maudro regime.

It also makes no sense to protect the infrastructure facilities of Rosneft and other Russian companies in Venezuela, because there is practically no such infrastructure in the country. Yes, in December 2017, a directive was signed to issue licenses to Rosneft for the development of the Patao and Mejillones gas fields. But these deposits are located on the shelf of the Caribbean Sea. Onshore, although Rosneft participates in oil production in the Petromiranda, Petromonagas, Petrovictoria, Boqueron and Petroperija projects, it does so only as an investor. All these fields are being developed by Venezuelan state oil and gas company PDVSA.

Despite the obvious absurdity of the news about the dispatch of Wagner PMC fighters to Venezuela, the Reuters report was picked up by both the press and social networks. The point here, I think, is that "Wagner PMC" has already become a household name. And the reputation of this “group of armed people” associated with the restaurateur Yevgeny Prigozhin is such that few people are already able to figure out where the truth about this PMC is, and where the fables are.

And it won’t surprise me at all if information appears tomorrow that Wagner PMC fighters went to protect the interests of Russia in Antarctica or even on the moon.