After the death of Evgueny Prigoyine last Wednesday, August 23, in a plane crash, the Russian paramilitary organization would have a new leader. His code name? Lotus. His real name ? Anton Oliegovich Elizarovup to just the 4th in the hierarchy at Wagner.
What do we know about him? He is 40 years old. In the photos he looks like a short, stocky man with mottled hair. A Lambda physique unlike Dmitri Outkine – also killed in the plane crash – the former right arm of Prigojine, whose body was covered with Nazi tattoos.
He is also a former member of the Russian Army who was awarded the title of Hero of Russia, conferred by Vladimir Putin himself. However, he was discharged from the army for fraud in a real estate affair. sentenced to a three-year suspended sentence.
He then joined Wagner in 2016 where he fought in Syria before commanding an assault unit in Libya and then as an instructor in the Central African Republic. Most recently he fought in Ukraine, Soledar and Bakhmout.
Self-proclaimed leader on his Telegram account
Anton Oliegovich Elizarov was not officially appointed head of the military group. He declared himself the leader on his Telegram account, based on instructions Prigozhin allegedly left behind. Other Russian reports on Telegram also explained that the Wagner founder had imagined various scenarios in the event of his death in a secret notebook. In particular, he had planned that if the first three leaders of the militia disappeared at the same time, Lotis would become the leader.
Now it remains to be seen whether the Wagner militia is still an independent unit? Or has it depended on the Kremlin since Prigozhin marched on Moscow? It is difficult to give an answer to that at the moment. Lotus is perhaps the leader of not much, perhaps the Wagners in Belarus. But we don’t know what will become of them, whether they will join the Russian army or not.
Or if they go to Africa, a place so strategic that the Wagnerians are likely to fall back into the hands of the Russian Ministry of Defense indirectly via a certain Andrey Averyanov, GRU (Military Intelligence) member, poisoning specialist. It is also rumored that the Wagners of Africa could be integrated with other private militias.
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