Wagner, Putin’s Shadow Army

Wagner Does Not Exist. At Least Not Officially.

Yet, after months of investigation and for the first time, Alexandra Jousset and Ksenia Bolchakova take us deep into the heart of this secret army. This film is an investigation into the Russian private military company Wagner. Deployed in global hotspots, its thousands of mercenaries are the armed extension of a Russia that dreams of renewed greatness, applying tactics learned by Vladimir Putin in the KGB: destabilize and disinform.

In this murky world, among Ukrainian, Russian, and French intelligence services, we conducted an investigation into this army, its men, and its methods. Some testify for the first time, revealing their identities. Marat left the company in 2019, while Vassili is still in contact with it. They detail, with precision and numerous insights, a system that offers protection and security to many weakened dictators in exchange for plundering their countries’ natural resources. It operates as an unacknowledged occupation force, committing atrocities against civilian populations with impunity, all sanctioned and armed by the Russian government.

In the field, in the Central African Republic, we found victims and witnesses of these barbaric acts: rapes, massacres of civilians, and tortures during interrogations conducted by Russians. We also reveal an exclusive document showing the execution of a man by the roadside in the north of the country. The investigation demonstrates that under military uniforms, Wagner’s mercenaries are at work.

Behind this organization looms the shadow of Yevgeny Prigozhin; the Kremlin’s fixer. Convicted for disinformation operations during the 2016 American elections, we reveal how he imported these “troll farm” techniques to the African continent to destabilize, particularly France. Through the testimony of a member of Wagner’s propaganda cells in the Central African Republic, the film deciphers anti-French communication operations occurring in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon.

Investigating Wagner is dangerous. Journalists have paid with their lives. Others are regularly threatened. They and their families testify in the film. We ourselves have been targeted by these aggressive methods; followed, intimidated, and one team member was threatened with death.