After Wagner, the “Pushkinists”? Russia is planning to create another private military company after the one led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the announcement came from Evgeny Primakov, head of the federal agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Russians Abroad and International Cooperation, saying the mercenaries would serve to protect its branches in ” “enemy” countries.
“Rossotrudnichestvo is forced to respond to the deteriorating situation, since our offices are functioning more and more in hostile countries, while the hysterical accusations against us will continue – he explained on Telegram – we actually have nothing to lose, so we recognize that we must somehow ensure the safety of Russian homes and the rights of our compatriots, having no other means, we decided To our private security company in one of the foreign jurisdictions”.
According to Primakov, “the presence of well-armed, robust and motivated people” in the offices will make the work that the agency does on a humanitarian and cultural level “more visible”.
The director of Rossotrudnichestvo, founded in 2008 by then-President Dmitry Medvedev, then mentioned the two possible names for the company: Pushkinisty, meaning the followers of the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin, or Whiskers, again alluding to Pushkin, because the poet had sideburns.
If registered, it will be the second private military company after the Wagner Group, founded by Evgheny Prigozhin, known as the “Kremlin Cook” due to his closeness to Putin, whose mercenaries are active in Ukraine and many African countries .