“Blood. Honor. Justice. Homeland. Courage.” — the motto of Russia’s Wagner Group, perhaps the best known private military company in the world.
Private militaries and mercenaries fuel pop culture storylines, but the Wagner Group’s reality has impacted the real world from Europe through sub-Sharan Africa and the Middle East. Wagner emerged in 2014 and has taken on greater prominence since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. With original leadership from Putin’s confidante Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner became a key part of Russia’s foreign policy. This evening Wagner Group experts will discuss the current status of the entity, the effect of Prigozhin’s failed rebellion, and what the future for Russian private warfare looks like since Prigozhin’s dramatic death in August 2023. The conversation will be moderated by Amy Mackinnon, an award-winning national security reporter at POLITICO. She will be joined by Colin P. Clarke, Director of Research at the Soufan Group and Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center and author of the forthcoming Moscow’s Mercenaries: The Rise and Fall of the Wagner Group; John Lechner, journalist, researcher, and author of Death is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare; and Candace Rondeaux Senior Director of the Future Frontlines program and Planetary Politics initiative at the New America Foundation and author of Putin’s Sledgehammer: The Wagner Group and Russia’s Collapse into Mercenary Chaos.
Following the discussion you can ask your questions in-person or online.
Books will be for sale and signing after the conversation.
The in-person event will have open seating available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Assistive listening devices will be available for the in-person program.
Auto-generated closed captioning will be available for this program when viewed online.