Bellingcat confirmed the version of the SBU about the connection of Wagner's mercenaries with GRU

The Bellingcat investigation group has published a material that gives new data in favor of the version of the connection of Wagner PMC with military intelligence of the Russian Federation. Previously, this version was presented by the leadership of the SBU, referring to the fact that the Wagnerian fighters used the “General” series for flights to Africa to Africa.

On Monday, at a press conference in Kiev, the Security Service of Ukraine announced the interception of passenger shows of Russian airliners transporting mercenaries who work for Wagner PMCs. According to documents, which includes flights from Russia to several African and Middle Eastern destination in the second half of 2018, a total of 1012 mercenaries were transported to Sudan, and other African directions.

The most high -profile statement was that the mercenaries of Wagner PMCs consistently issued Russian passports by the very Moscow passport table, which issued fake documents to the GRU officers Alexander Mishkin (Petrov) and Anatoly Chepiga (Ruslan Boshirova).

In September 2018, Bellingcat wrote that this passport office, department of 770-001 of the former department of the Federal Migration Service (disbanded in 2016) is usually used to issue internal passports to GRU employees working: such as those suspected of poisoning in Salisbury Mishkin and Chepig, as well as two officers accused of Montenegro in attempt by state discord In 2016. It was later found that the same passport table issued Russian passports to a group of foreign VIP-Person, which recently received Russian citizenship (for example, French actor Gerard Depardieu).

Subsequently, Belllingcat found that the branch of 770-001 also provided passports of Russian civilians related to the Ministry of Defense either at work or through a close relative.

According to the results of the SBU press conference, lists of the alleged mercenaries of the Wagner PMC were published. The first two lists included names, dates and places of birth, as well as the numbers of internal and passports of the same series issued in 2015, and nine issued in 2017. It is noteworthy that people on the list indicate the places of birth from all over Russia, but the authority of passports in all cases is the Moscow branch 770-001.

The third list, the longest, included the names and dates of birth of 149 alleged mercenaries of the Wagner PMC, which, according to the SBU, were transferred to Sudan at the end of 2018 and early 2019. The first two lists are subgroups of a longer third.

Since Bellingcat does not have access to the database of passports issued by the branch of 770-001, it was impossible to immediately confirm the SBU statement that it was there that the alleged mercenaries received documents. However, indirect features indicated this.

Bellingcat compared the SBU data with information from the database of internal air tickets in Russia for the period from 2014 to 2016. This base, which can be downloaded using torrent sites and database suppliers in Russia, turned out to be accurate, but not complete, since it included not all flights for the specified period, writes The Insider .

Bellingcat participants tried to find several accidentally selected passport numbers from the SBU list in this base, as well as the names and date of birth from the long-list. After 11 attempts, it was possible to find 7 coincidences by last name, of which 3 also coincided by the Russian passport number, and 4 - by the full name and date of birth. All seven passengers had a very limited history of air travel, but each of them made at least one flight to Pashkovsky Airport. In many cases, Pashkovsky was generally the only destination. As a rule, the trip scheme included a trip from Moscow or St. Petersburg to Pashkovsky, which was preceded by a flight to Moscow or St. Petersburg from another Russian region, usually coinciding with a person’s place of residence.

Meanwhile, Pashkovsky is the main airport serving Krasnodar. And a 30 -minute drive from this airport is the village of Molkino, in which, according to the media, the main training camp of the Wagner PMC is located.

Two alleged mercenaries used on trips between St. Petersburg and the Pashkovsky passports of the series specified by the SBU. It is in the northern capital that the Putin’s cook Evgeny Prigozhin, which is under US sanctions, lives. He is also a power supplier for the Ministry of Defense and other state bodies. It is also widely known as the sponsor of the PMC Wagner.

The connections between the PMC of Wagner and the GRU were also testified by the previously intercepted SBU , a telephone conversation between a senior employee of the GRU and Dmitry Utkin, who is nicknamed Wagner. Bellingcat identified in an employee of the GRU, Colonel Oleg Ivannikova, who led the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine in 2014. As Bellingcat and The Insider found out, Ivannikov is one of the main sought -out suspects in the case of the Boeing MH17 passenger liner shot down over Ukraine.

From the contents of the conversation, Ivannikov and Utkin can understand that the head of the PMC receives direct orders from General GRU. By the way, Utkin and Ivannikov in 2014-2016 flew almost exclusively to Pashkovsky and from it.

Confirmation of the SBU version about the connection of Wagner PMC with GRU may mean that the Russian authorities do not just allow foreign military operations of the Wagnerians (which contradict the legislation of the Russian Federation prohibiting mercenaries), but also actively assisted, summed up The Insider.

BBC spoke about Prigozhin's business in the king

Another investigation dedicated to Putin’s cook and Wagner PMC was published by the Russian BBC service . In this case, journalists were interested in business Evgeny Prigozhin in the Central African Republic, where three Russian journalists were killed last year. They just tried to collect information about the "Wagnerians".

In mid -July 2018, the media reported that Russia agreed on the development of the NDASSIM Golden Field with the TsA Government. Later, information appeared that Russian structures received permission to develop other deposits with a total area of ​​4 thousand square kilometers.

In addition to gold, in the Prigozhin Tsar, the woodworking business is interested in - in particular, the red tree, the BBC source said.

In addition, football tournaments, beauty contests and film screenings associated with Prigozhin, build playgrounds and help in the planning of the pre-election campaign of the President of the country Fosten Arkange Tuaders, who will fight for the second presidential term in 2020.

As part of preparation for elections in the country, a new radio station was launched, since the radio is the most popular and often the only source of information for the local population.

The fact that the creation of the radio station was funded by Evgeny Prigozhin, BBC told two competent interlocutors. One of them called the approximate amount of investment - 10 thousand dollars. The radio station was called Lengo Songo ("Build Solidarity"), Prigozhin employees arrived from St. Petersburg for its launch, two sources told in structures related to the businessman.

So far, the election campaign in the TsAD has not yet begun, so the radio station does not create any news or political content: at one time they put Russian and Soviet music there, including "get up, a huge country."

Prigozhin himself denies the information collected by BBC.