On April 10, journalist Candace Rondeaux gave a talk at the Dickey Center for International Understanding about the history of Russian military organization the Wagner Group.
With Russia’s current volatility in the international world, the Wagner Group is a “good harbinger for what’s coming next and a good way of understanding how Putin thinks about power and military aid,” Rondeaux said. Approximately fifty students and community members attended the event — which was the annual Mary and Peter Dallman ’51 Great Issues Lecture. It was also live streamed on Youtube.
The Wagner Group rose to prominence in the chaos of the post-Soviet Union era through its connection to Vladimir Putin, state backing, mercenary operations in foreign conflicts and skillful branding.
Attendee Benjamin Simon ’28 said he found Rondeau’s lecture “very interesting.”
“The speaker is obviously very smart and well-informed, and also a very impressive person overall,” Simon said. “I think her enthusiasm for the topic was very visible in the way she described it. My biggest takeaway is the importance of international law and the potential for peace in these sorts of violent situations.”
Rondeaux began her talk by describing the sledgehammer video that began circulating online in 2017. The video depicts violence by the Wagner Group against Russian civilians. According to Rondeaux, the video is what “[branded] its brutality.”
“Wagner isn’t just camouflage; it’s strategic illusion,” Rondeaux said. “It’s fake troops, staged videos, and altered realities. It’s the art of showing the false and hiding the real.”
The roots of the Wagner Group trace back to the collapse of the Soviet Union, when it was founded as a shadow group by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog vendor who eventually became the figurehead of the group.
“Prigozhin went from selling sausages to serving state dinners for Putin and George W. Bush,” Rondeaux said. “That dinner in 2006, during the G8 summit, is when he really entered history’s frame.”
Rondeaux said the Wagner Group originally served as enforcement for Putin’s sanctions before merging with the KGB. After the 2008 Russia-Georgia war exposed weaknesses in the Russian military, especially in intelligence and communication, military services became privatized and allowed for the Wagner Group to become even more instrumental to Putin. The Arab Spring further increased Putin’s paranoia, which led him to use Wagner to crack down more on Russia. Despite Prigozhin’s death in a helicopter accident, the Wagner Group has continued to grow and evolve without his leadership.
“Prigozhin dies in this crazy fiery plane crash that is kind of mysterious,” Rondeaux said. “ … The Wagner Group stays, interestingly, and it transforms into what we know today as the African Corps.”
Rondeaux concluded her lecture by describing trials in Finland and Poland, where Wagner affiliates have been arrested for war crimes and propaganda campaigns. Many have been caught for small crimes and were later exposed for their affiliation to the Wagner Group, further exposing the network.
“There’s an opportunity here to turn the tables on Russia and start using international law as a means of fighting back at this kind of hybrid warfare,” Rondeaux said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done to bring justice to the Wagner Group.”
Following the lecture, Rondeaux participated in a Q&A session with Dickey Center director Victoria Holt. She emphasized the importance of understanding Wagner warfare patterns to decode Russian military tactics, Wagner’s use of digital platforms and the power of journalism.
Attendee Gerry Monteux said although he knew the lecture would be “fascinating,” he “wasn’t prepared” by “how deep she went and how she mentioned how dangerous it might be.”
“My main takeaway is that I know I never want to live in Russia,” Monteux said.
