In late 2022, a new private military company was established in Crimea over friction between Prigozhin and the Russian Defense Ministry. Ally or competitor of Wagner?
By Hugues Maillot
Published 4/12/2023 at 10:49 AM, updated 4/12/2023 at 12:16 PM
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Convoy mercenaries in training. Telegram/Convoy
“You don’t know how to do it: we’ll teach you”. In mid-November, a Russian Telegram channel called Convoy shared two images resembling a recruitment campaign. “The convoy of the PMC (private military company) forms a Cossack company as part of the volunteer regiment,” the text reads. After Wagner, a new militia seems to have emerged, built to fight in the Ukraine.
On April 4th in his daily newsletterThe British Ministry of Defense confirmed the birth of a new private military company, “sponsored and developed by Russia”. Moscow “is likely to see benefit in PMCs deployed in Ukraine as they are not subject to the constrained wage levels and inefficiencies that hamper the regular Russian army,” the ministry said. However, the role of this new militia is still unclear.
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Prigozhin’s former right-hand man is responsible
The paternity of this battalion of volunteers appears to belong directly to Sergei Axionov, who has been the head of the Republic of Crimea since its annexation. On March 16, it was he who announced on Crimea 24, a local television channel, the existence of a “Crimea Reconnaissance and Attack Battalion” christened Konvoi. It must also be the source of its funding. According to information from iStories, an independent Russian investigative medium, the unit is stationed in the southern Kherson region. Their main training ground is said to be near the village of Perevalnoye in Crimea.
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At the head of this militia is a certain Mazai. Konstantin Pikalov is actually hiding under this mysterious pseudonym, as the investigative NGO Bellingcat revealed in August 2020. This senior retired Russian has long been the right arm of Wagner boss Evgueni Prigojine. In particular, he has worked extensively in Africa, where he has been able to be directly involved in several attempts to destabilize states. In Russia, according to iStories, he is listed as head of the Cossack society Konvoy and founder of the “Military Security Society” of the same name.
Another man seems to figure prominently in Convoy’s org chart: Vasily Yashchikov. With a buttoned cap and a long black beard, he regularly appears in the videos published by the militia on Telegram. According to iStories, this seasoned fighter descends directly from the personal bodyguard of Russia’s last Emperor, Nicholas II. Is this the origin of the name Convoy? An imperial convoy of Cossacks systematically accompanied the tsar on his travels.
Small numbers but state-of-the-art arsenal?
True to her role, Olga Kurlaeva, the Kremlin’s “little telegraph operator,” published a report on this new unit last February. “I’ve never seen a fortress like this: a whole building underground,” she testified, describing Convoy’s headquarters. The propagandist also points out that the battalion has heavy equipment, including T-80 and T-90 tanks. On several videos posted on Telegram, we also see fighters armed with Lobaev sniper rifles, but also rocket launchers.
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However, all this must be qualified. Konvoi initially has fewer than 500 men, a far cry from the 50,000 that Wagner boasts of. It is not even known if they ever fought in Ukraine. In a Telegram post from January 11, the broadcaster points out that the unit will “soon be deployed to the front”. Most notably, “there are a lot of PMCs in Russia,” despite the law banning mercenary activities, points out Peer de Jong, co-founder of the Themiis Institute and author of Act between the lines, a book on private military companies.
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Will this newcomer influence the current conflict? “Serguei Axionov’s problem is Crimea,” says the former naval colonel. With Convoy, the oligarch wants to “create a system that will protect him” and protect the peninsula in the event of a Ukrainian attack on Crimea. In summary, Convoy will watch over Axionov today before serving his interests in the future. “The Wagner experience gave some oligarchs wings,” says Peer de Jong.
Promised Lands in Crimea or Abkhazia
As far as recruitment criteria go, Convoy seems to be quite broad. To join the unit, you must be a man of Russian nationality under the age of 60, according to the announcement, translated from Russian by Le Figaro. “A military specialization, any” and “experience in the army is welcome” are also required. In return, the announcement promises “military preparation under the aegis of experienced leaders,” “war veteran status” and its benefits, “life and medical insurance,” and a “monthly financial allowance.”
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A convoy recruitment poster posted on the militia’s Telegram channel in November. convoy/telegram
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Another recruitment poster for Convoy. convoy/telegram
According to a former member of the militia interviewed by iStories, the fighters receive up to 200,000 rubles a month, or just over 2,200 euros. In addition, Convoy offers a contract for a period of three to six months, which will be signed with both the militia and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Any fighter who has served a year in the SMP is even promised land in Crimea or Abkhazia, a region that declared its independence from Georgia in 1992.
The West as an enemy
But according to the company’s Telegram channel, “convoy members are not motivated by money, but by an ideological component.” Their goal is clearly stated: “We know that our enemy is not the Ukrainian army, but NATO”. And by extension the West as a whole. “Look at what’s happening at the gates of the Empire: desecration of sanctuaries, destruction of monuments, substitution of history, propaganda of sodomy and gender at the state level, idealization of Nazi criminals…” the string enumerates.
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Aside from pure propaganda for his military prowess, Convoy insists on pointing out all the “deficiencies” of western countries to be fought as “soldiers of Christ” on a mission for a “strong Orthodox Russia” and uses and abuses the religious lexicon. They broadcast video of drug addicts wandering the streets of the United States, comparing them to “zombies.”
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But also conspiracy theories with anti-Semitic undertones, for example when the Telegram channel alleges that the Rockfellers bought Ukraine’s water supply system and “using a special chemical composition paralyzed the parts of the brain responsible for identifying a person”. ‘.
Complementary to Wagner?
The emergence of this new mercenary group is part of a particularly strained connection between the Russian Defense Ministry and Wagner’s boss, Evgueni Prigojine, who accuses Moscow of using his men as cannon fodder in Bakhmout. With Convoy, “the Russian General Staff is likely to want to replace Wagner with a more docile private military company,” the British Ministry of Defense said in its April 4 bulletin.
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“The tensions between the General Staff and Wagner naturally lead one to believe that any new militia would naturally be destined to compete with Wagner,” adds Peer de Jong. The arrival of Convoy could be perceived more as an addition to the presence of Wagner. “Prigojine and Axionov are friends, they know each other very well,” said the former officer. And if Ukraine soon targets Crimea, which it rumored wants to retake, Convoy could be in charge of its defense, not Wagner.
Even if Convoy wanted to compete with Wagner, the group would not be able to match the numbers and fighting power of Prigozhin’s militia. The existence of Convoy should therefore not necessarily be contrasted with that of Wagner. It is simply engaging in a “gangsterization” of the Russian security system, as defined by Peer de Jong, with the emergence of more and more private military companies pursuing independent goals.