According to independent researcher Chris Owen, the Wagner paramilitary group, which is still known for its brutality, created a “company of savages” from the most violent prisoners it recruited.

With reference to the head of the human rights group “Russia behind bars” Olga Romanova, it is said that the new “wild company” is based in Donetsk and is headed by the Minister of Internal Affairs of the “DNR” Oleksiy Dyky.

Dykiy led the “DPR” militia units in the battles in Mariupol.

The tradition of wild companies

Owen notes that Dyky’s surname means “wild” in Russian, so the name of the company has a double meaning – it reflects the name of its leader, for example, the Dirlewanger Convict Brigade (in honor of Oskar Dirlewanger), who served in the German SS in the World. The Second World War, and Russian tradition.

Telegram channel “We can explain” notes that units with similar names were in various wars of the 20th century, and they were usually formed in the Kuban and the North Caucasus.

During World War I, there was a “Wild Division” of Caucasian Muslim soldiers commanded by Russian officers who had also fought in the Russian Civil War. Another wild (or crazy) company was created during the first Chechen war in 1995.

In 2014, another wild company was created in Donetsk among pro-Russian separatists, led by militiaman Mykhailo “Givi” Tolstykh, who was killed in 2017.

“Wild companies” have a bad reputation. The one in 1995 was known for killing Chechens, and the one in 2014 involved the torture, abuse and execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war, some of whom were forced to eat epaulettes and coats of arms during filming.

It is possible that Wagner’s new company will be the same. Romanova notes that she observes the prison order, not the military one: “a strict hierarchy, full of disobedience to the secular authorities.”

“Prisoners go to war because they do not fight according to military rules. They go there as a gang, but they’re also shocked by Wild Company – it’s a gang within a gang.”

Wild Mouth flies a skull and crossbones flag similar to the one flown 100 years ago by the Makhnov movement, which fought for an anarchist state in southeastern Ukraine between 1918-21. The flag was seen at Wagner’s funeral in the Krasnodar Territory.

It will be recalled that in mid-November, a video of the alleged shooting of Yevgeny Nuzhin, a former prisoner recruited by “Wagner”, who surrendered as soon as he arrived at the front in Ukraine, circulated on social networks.

His head is crushed with a sledgehammer, then placed on a brick and tied with tape.

The head of Wagner’s group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was asked if the footage circulating on social media was genuine, and the Putin ally appeared to acknowledge the veracity of the video with rare sadism. “As for the man who was killed with a sledgehammer, this play shows that he did not find happiness in Ukraine, but met with unfriendly, but fair people. I think this film is called “The dog deserves the “dog’s death”. Prigozhin