1 00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:05,160 Speaker 1: Something strange is going on. Who is killing Russian billionaires? 2 00:00:05,519 --> 00:00:08,720 Speaker 2: Another Russian oligarch has been found dead. Report suggests that 3 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:12,240 Speaker 2: he hanged himself, fell out of a window, slashed his wrists, 4 00:00:12,480 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 2: was poisoned, murdered, his whole failing. 5 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,799 Speaker 1: Last year, more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in 6 00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: the space of nine months. Many of the deaths are 7 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:27,080 Speaker 1: suspicious with links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach, 8 00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:32,360 Speaker 1: an investigation into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created 9 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:37,480 Speaker 1: by me jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergei Slipchenkov. Sad 10 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:44,440 Speaker 1: Oligach is a H eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. 11 00:00:53,040 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: Last month, on August twenty third, Yevgeny Progojin sixty two, 12 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: boarded one of his private jets and was parked on 13 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: the runway at an airport in the West African country 14 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,680 Speaker 1: of Mali. Progoson had been seen three days prior in 15 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: a propaganda video for the Kremlin backed Mercenary firm that 16 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:20,760 Speaker 1: he led, PMC. Wagner. In the video, he says, quote 17 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:24,000 Speaker 1: for those talking about whether I'm alive or not, well, 18 00:01:24,240 --> 00:01:29,200 Speaker 1: basically I'm fine. Those words were soon to be a 19 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:34,480 Speaker 1: very bad omen on board Progosion's jet was also the 20 00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:39,920 Speaker 1: founder of PMC. Wagner his name was Dmitri Utkin. Utskin 21 00:01:40,160 --> 00:01:44,759 Speaker 1: fifty three was a lifelong Neo Nazi with ESS's tattoos 22 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: etched into his neck and a swastika tattooed across his chest. 23 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:55,200 Speaker 1: He named his Mercenary firm after Richard Wagner, Hitler's favorite composer. 24 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:58,840 Speaker 1: Wagner was also his call sign when he served as 25 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:03,600 Speaker 1: a Special Forces of so In Russia's GIU. It will 26 00:02:03,640 --> 00:02:06,559 Speaker 1: probably come as no surprise to now discover that both 27 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:11,480 Speaker 1: Progosion and Ukin were avowed war criminals, and Wagner prides 28 00:02:11,520 --> 00:02:17,160 Speaker 1: itself on brutality and the mass murder. Progosian's plane took 29 00:02:17,200 --> 00:02:20,919 Speaker 1: off bound for Russia. It's roughly a fifteen hour flight. 30 00:02:22,080 --> 00:02:25,120 Speaker 1: As the plane traveled across the world, Ukin and Progosion 31 00:02:25,160 --> 00:02:28,400 Speaker 1: went about their business making plans that would never happen 32 00:02:30,040 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: in broad daylight. As progosions jet made its way from 33 00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:39,080 Speaker 1: Moscow to Saint Petersburg, the plane began to nosedive. Footage 34 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: shows the burning jet plummeting vertically to the ground. It 35 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:45,079 Speaker 1: crashed in the village of cusan Kino in the Taywa 36 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:49,800 Speaker 1: region that's just sixty miles north of Moscow. Everyone on 37 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:54,600 Speaker 1: board was killed, burned alive, were obliterated on impact. 38 00:02:57,840 --> 00:02:58,359 Speaker 2: Or go here. 39 00:02:59,080 --> 00:03:02,720 Speaker 1: Within hours, the was footage of PMC. Wagner fighters crying 40 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: at a makeshift grave for Progosion and Ukin. To truly 41 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,560 Speaker 1: understand what a huge event this was for Russia, we 42 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:14,639 Speaker 1: need to understand who Progosian was and how he made 43 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:18,200 Speaker 1: history in the country. To do this, I spoke to 44 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:23,320 Speaker 1: extremism investigator Pierre Vaux, who spent almost ten years research 45 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: in PMC. Wagner. 46 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 2: Progosion graduated from school in nineteen seventy nine when he 47 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,720 Speaker 2: was eighteen, and within a year he was in prison. 48 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 2: So he studied at a boarding school for sports, and 49 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:43,280 Speaker 2: he apparently excelled in cross country skiing. But pretty much 50 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:48,840 Speaker 2: immediately after finishing school he was charged and given suspended 51 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:50,000 Speaker 2: sentences for theft. 52 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: Suspended sentences didn't put Progosion off. He went on a 53 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,880 Speaker 1: crime spree shortly after dodging prison for the first time. 54 00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:01,680 Speaker 1: He was involved in armed robbery, breaking into houses, and 55 00:04:01,840 --> 00:04:07,280 Speaker 1: various other criminal enterprises. This culminated in a horrific scene 56 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:11,280 Speaker 1: when Progoson and three of his associates followed a woman 57 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:14,760 Speaker 1: home to rob her. Instead of just taking her belongings, 58 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,040 Speaker 1: though Progosion personally strangled the woman with his bare hands 59 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:23,440 Speaker 1: until she passed out. After being caught for these crimes, 60 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:27,039 Speaker 1: Progoson was sent to prison for a full decade, doing 61 00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:28,440 Speaker 1: time in a penal colony. 62 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:30,880 Speaker 2: This is one of the signs that you see from 63 00:04:31,200 --> 00:04:34,280 Speaker 2: personal accounts of him is that he's generally reported as 64 00:04:34,320 --> 00:04:37,200 Speaker 2: being a sadist. So he spent the whole of the 65 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:42,039 Speaker 2: nineteen eighties in a penal colony, and he didn't emerge 66 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 2: until he was released a few years early in nineteen ninety. 67 00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:48,120 Speaker 2: So this is exactly as the Soviet Union is collapsing, 68 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:52,320 Speaker 2: and when he went in nineteen eighty is the sort 69 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 2: of height of Soviet stagnation and paralysis and very conservative 70 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:02,159 Speaker 2: and staid, and when he comes to it's capitalist, free 71 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,479 Speaker 2: for all, and he was he kind of thrived in 72 00:05:05,520 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 2: that environment. He was told this story about how he'd 73 00:05:10,120 --> 00:05:13,120 Speaker 2: sold hot dogs at the main market in Petersburg and 74 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,599 Speaker 2: that they mixed the mustard in his mother's apartment. The 75 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 2: thing is no one else has ever corroborated that, so 76 00:05:20,080 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 2: it's hard to say how much of this sort of 77 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,560 Speaker 2: rags to richest story is necessarily true. 78 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,920 Speaker 1: Considering Progosion spent the first part of his life as 79 00:05:27,920 --> 00:05:30,440 Speaker 1: a violent criminal and then the latter part of his 80 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:34,120 Speaker 1: life as a violent war criminal, I personally think it's 81 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:38,200 Speaker 1: quite possible that this humble Beginning's tale about selling hot 82 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: dogs through the collapse of the Soviet Union is nonsense 83 00:05:42,279 --> 00:05:43,760 Speaker 1: or at best a half truth. 84 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 2: It looks like he was actually involved in the whole 85 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 2: load of different businesses around that time. So he was 86 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:52,359 Speaker 2: working at a used car lot where he was apparently 87 00:05:52,440 --> 00:05:57,760 Speaker 2: ripping people off. He was working as helped run a 88 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,479 Speaker 2: supermarket chain in Petersburg, and what he quickly got in 89 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 2: with was a couple of well known businessman slash gangsters 90 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:11,160 Speaker 2: in Petersburg, and by the mid nineties they fronted him 91 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:14,119 Speaker 2: enough money to buy his first restaurant. This is really 92 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:16,719 Speaker 2: how he kind of entered high level politics. So he 93 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,560 Speaker 2: bought this restaurant and he got an English guy, Anthony 94 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:22,520 Speaker 2: Gear to be the sort of frontman for it to 95 00:06:22,520 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 2: give it a degree of class. 96 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,839 Speaker 1: Now, this is of course a warped perception of Britain 97 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:31,159 Speaker 1: from back in the eighties to the nineties. We're now 98 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:35,240 Speaker 1: best known for throwing plastic chairs, getting hammered and birthing 99 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:38,600 Speaker 1: football hooliganism, and we love it. But back then, the 100 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:42,240 Speaker 1: thin veneer of British classiness was a thing more commonly 101 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: known and used for advertising. So Progosion has this pretend 102 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:52,159 Speaker 1: British aristocrat type running the restaurant that he purchased through 103 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:56,000 Speaker 1: a loan from his organized crime community. The restaurant was 104 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: at market Fancy, a place where rich people go to 105 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:05,080 Speaker 1: eat slowly. They began to garner an elite clientele. After 106 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:10,240 Speaker 1: establishing himself here, Bragojin opened another restaurant in the late nineties. 107 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:14,480 Speaker 1: This was called New Island. It was situated on the 108 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:17,480 Speaker 1: river in Saint Petersburg. An aimed to cater to the 109 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:21,440 Speaker 1: rich and powerful. That worked so much so that the 110 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: head of the International Monetary Fund was taken there for 111 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: a luxury meal. 112 00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 2: The key moment was in nineteen ninety nine where the 113 00:07:31,480 --> 00:07:35,360 Speaker 2: IMF's head was in the country while the Russians were 114 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 2: trying to get alone and they wanted He wanted to 115 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:40,880 Speaker 2: find a restaurant to go to, and also wanted to 116 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,360 Speaker 2: tour of the river and the waters in Petersburg, so 117 00:07:44,440 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 2: someone in the Russian entourage invited him to New Ireland, 118 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 2: and as a result of that, the negotiations were successful 119 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:55,880 Speaker 2: and Russia got an IMF loan. After that, you start 120 00:07:55,960 --> 00:08:00,200 Speaker 2: seeing Russian leadership using this as a regular venue to 121 00:08:00,240 --> 00:08:05,480 Speaker 2: bring foreign guests to Putin brought over Jacques Shirak, George W. Bush, 122 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 2: the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshira Mauri on one of his 123 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:12,160 Speaker 2: other restaurants as well. I found an interesting mention in 124 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:14,920 Speaker 2: an old newspaper review of it. They had a portrait 125 00:08:14,960 --> 00:08:17,280 Speaker 2: of Prince Andrew on the wall as one of their 126 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 2: honored guests. 127 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,920 Speaker 1: Legally, there's not much we can say about Prince Andrew 128 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,840 Speaker 1: other than that he was a close friend of international 129 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:30,760 Speaker 1: pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Oh and also that 130 00:08:30,840 --> 00:08:34,600 Speaker 1: he was accused of sexual activity with an underaged girl 131 00:08:34,920 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 1: from Epstein's circle of the abused and trafficked. Anyway, Progoson's 132 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,520 Speaker 1: restaurant New Ireland became the go to plays for the 133 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:05,400 Speaker 1: Russian elite, not just rich people, but also powerful rich 134 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,680 Speaker 1: politicians who'd later go on to shape the country into 135 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:12,760 Speaker 1: the authoritarian regime Russia has now become. This is when 136 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:15,880 Speaker 1: Progosim first started getting close to the Kremlin and its 137 00:09:15,960 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: various tentacles. 138 00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 2: Putin personally held his birthday party on New Island, so 139 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:25,680 Speaker 2: he's doing really well at this point. He's got access personal, 140 00:09:25,880 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 2: very close access to top people. He then opens his 141 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:35,800 Speaker 2: own catering company, Concord, and they get really wealthy contracts. 142 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:38,440 Speaker 2: They start contracting and supplying all of the food for 143 00:09:38,559 --> 00:09:42,960 Speaker 2: schools in the area, and by twenty ten he's sort 144 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:47,200 Speaker 2: of dealing with local police and eventually starts becoming the 145 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:50,200 Speaker 2: major supply to the army. He's in a position where 146 00:09:50,280 --> 00:09:55,040 Speaker 2: he's getting loads of business in through contacts, particularly through 147 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:58,800 Speaker 2: the government, also through the Ministry of Emergency Situations, which 148 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:02,680 Speaker 2: is like the large of fire ambulance and stuff, and 149 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 2: at that point it was headed by Sergei Shoigu, who's 150 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 2: now the Defense Minister. There's an interesting sort of alignment. 151 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:12,840 Speaker 2: It's the same people that he's been both dependent on 152 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 2: and in conflict with since the mid two thousands for 153 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,040 Speaker 2: all this money. And it's really interesting reading interviews with 154 00:10:20,120 --> 00:10:23,160 Speaker 2: him back then, because even back in twenty ten, when 155 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,400 Speaker 2: he was saying, Oh, our next big target, we want 156 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 2: to break into the army. He was very paranoid, and 157 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:32,160 Speaker 2: he was report he was talking to the interview about, Oh, 158 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:35,480 Speaker 2: there's all these parents protesting against our school food because 159 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:37,199 Speaker 2: people as claying that it's poisoned. 160 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,480 Speaker 1: Spoiler. Literally hundreds of kids did get food poison in 161 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:45,120 Speaker 1: because the food from Progosions catering company wasn't up to 162 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:46,439 Speaker 1: hygienic standards. 163 00:10:46,679 --> 00:10:49,719 Speaker 2: He's got this constant paranoia that he's being undermined by 164 00:10:49,720 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 2: business rivals who are orchestrating protests against him, and you 165 00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:57,320 Speaker 2: can kind of see he's projecting his own methodology onto 166 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:01,320 Speaker 2: other people. At the same time, he was as intimidating 167 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:03,280 Speaker 2: journalists who are investigating him. 168 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:04,000 Speaker 1: And his companies. 169 00:11:04,240 --> 00:11:08,480 Speaker 2: Already, he built a huge empire, making millions and millions 170 00:11:08,480 --> 00:11:13,160 Speaker 2: and millions of rubles through this catering empire. But then 171 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:17,840 Speaker 2: in late twenty thirteen, he suddenly starts popping up in 172 00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:23,200 Speaker 2: connection to the Troll Factory, the Internet research agency, which 173 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,680 Speaker 2: obviously is most famous for what it was involved within 174 00:11:26,720 --> 00:11:31,080 Speaker 2: America and stuff during the twenty sixteen elections by paying 175 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:34,840 Speaker 2: people to sit there writing comments on various newspaper comments 176 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 2: pages Twitter, read it anything you'd name it. They had 177 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:42,520 Speaker 2: people pasting pro Russian arguments or making up narratives on 178 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:46,040 Speaker 2: it at the same time. By the summer of twenty fourteen, 179 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 2: this is by when he finally admitted it, he started 180 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:57,920 Speaker 2: funding and providing the shell companies for the Wagner Mercenary Group. 181 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:02,360 Speaker 2: So Wagner was basically a reconstruction of a mercenary outfit 182 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:08,080 Speaker 2: that had already existed since mid to twenty thirteen, which 183 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,800 Speaker 2: fought in Syria, which was called Slavonic Core and I 184 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:13,840 Speaker 2: say four It had one engagement and pretty much lost 185 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:16,719 Speaker 2: miserably to j hll Islam and ran away from the 186 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:19,240 Speaker 2: resort and was never returned. 187 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:19,560 Speaker 1: To the country. 188 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 2: Most of its leadership got picked up by the FSB, 189 00:12:23,559 --> 00:12:27,800 Speaker 2: but then the leading commanders of it, which included Dimitri Utkin, 190 00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,000 Speaker 2: turned up as the head of Wagner. 191 00:12:30,200 --> 00:12:34,360 Speaker 1: Remember that's the neo Nazi founder of PMC Wagner, a 192 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:40,280 Speaker 1: guy ironically later deployed to Ukraine to quote denazify the region. 193 00:12:40,640 --> 00:12:45,720 Speaker 1: According to Kremlin propaganda, Progosion's role within PMC Wagner began immediately. 194 00:12:47,000 --> 00:12:50,280 Speaker 1: He provided the use of show companies and various different 195 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:54,760 Speaker 1: complicated networks of bank accounts to pay for Wagner's fuel, 196 00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:59,640 Speaker 1: medical equipment, body armor, and more. However, from the very start, 197 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 1: EMC Wagner was backed by the Russian Armed Forces. 198 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:08,200 Speaker 2: The GRU actually hosts them physically and really controls everything, 199 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:11,400 Speaker 2: but he provides the sort of contracting nexus to run 200 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:15,640 Speaker 2: everything through. And yeah, Ukin was the sort of effective 201 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:19,600 Speaker 2: commander of this group, and they were based at the 202 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:25,120 Speaker 2: sort of gru's tenth Spets Lance Brigade headquarters, so physically 203 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:28,040 Speaker 2: located on the territory of their base is the Wagner 204 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:32,080 Speaker 2: Training Center, which again makes the whole like, oh, Wagner 205 00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,760 Speaker 2: GRU separation is the same thing in a lot of cases. 206 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:40,920 Speaker 1: From the beginning, the Kremlin denied any involvement with PMC Wagner. 207 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:45,120 Speaker 1: Of course, that was a lie. Soon Wagner mercenaries began 208 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,280 Speaker 1: doing the dirty work for Putin. 209 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 2: Back in twenty fifteen, they first publicly appeared. The Kremlin 210 00:13:52,480 --> 00:13:55,160 Speaker 2: was officially denying any involvement in Ukraine, so they were 211 00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:58,080 Speaker 2: still trying to use systems to obscure. 212 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:01,080 Speaker 1: For anyone unaware the U. The Ukraine War did not 213 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:05,240 Speaker 1: start on February twenty four, twenty twenty two, when Russia 214 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:08,720 Speaker 1: launched the full scale invasion. The war actually began in 215 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:12,960 Speaker 1: April twenty fourteen, when Russia armed and assisted pro Russian 216 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:17,280 Speaker 1: factions in the Dombas region in East Ukraine. They did 217 00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:20,840 Speaker 1: this because the people of Ukraine ousted their previous pro 218 00:14:20,920 --> 00:14:24,640 Speaker 1: Russian leader. It was a revolution that Putin and his 219 00:14:24,800 --> 00:14:29,920 Speaker 1: many supporters did not like, and so, perhaps taking a 220 00:14:29,960 --> 00:14:33,520 Speaker 1: note from America's playbook, Russia started the war in the 221 00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: East to try and reverse the will of the Ukrainian people, 222 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:41,360 Speaker 1: the people who'd launched their successful revolution. At first, the 223 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: Kremlin said that no Russian forces were there, trying to 224 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 1: create this illusion that the Dombas uprising was the same 225 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:53,640 Speaker 1: grassroots revolt as the Maidan Revolution in Kiev. This was 226 00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: simply not true. 227 00:14:55,960 --> 00:14:58,960 Speaker 2: They did send in regular troops twice in two big 228 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:03,680 Speaker 2: waves August twenty fourteen and in January February twenty fifteen, 229 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:06,520 Speaker 2: but they were still trying to cover their assis as 230 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 2: much as possible. 231 00:15:08,280 --> 00:15:11,200 Speaker 1: I have personally reported from the ground in Ukraine more 232 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,560 Speaker 1: than ten times since twenty sixteen when I first went 233 00:15:14,600 --> 00:15:16,080 Speaker 1: to the front lines in the East. 234 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 3: Do you think that was fift I told you. 235 00:15:29,800 --> 00:15:32,840 Speaker 1: Yes, you did tell it that was me embedded with 236 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:37,040 Speaker 1: the Ukrainian military in twenty sixteen in Avdivka. As you 237 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,280 Speaker 1: heard there, we were getting shelled pretty heavily from the separatists. 238 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:45,120 Speaker 1: I managed to work on both sides, although full disclosure, 239 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: I was later banned from the separatist region. Whilst in 240 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:53,240 Speaker 1: the separatist controlled areas of the Dombas, I encountered many 241 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 1: regular Russian troops commanding separatists militias. They also had a 242 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:01,120 Speaker 1: ton of Russian military equipment. They had load of Russian tanks. 243 00:16:01,120 --> 00:16:04,400 Speaker 1: For example. The next clip of audio you'll hear is 244 00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:07,520 Speaker 1: from a documentary I made in the separatist region in 245 00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. At this moment, I am stuck in a 246 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:18,320 Speaker 1: front line trench with a separatist commander who says that is, 247 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:22,040 Speaker 1: we took all these tanks from the Ukrainians, to which 248 00:16:22,120 --> 00:16:27,000 Speaker 1: I responded, of course he was lying. When the translator 249 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: said it back to him, he just started laughing. The 250 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 1: whole thing was absurd, and everybody knew it. At that time. 251 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:40,560 Speaker 1: No reporters could operate in the separatist regions without a minder. 252 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,680 Speaker 1: This person sticks to you twenty four seven to make 253 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: sure you don't photograph anything incriminating that could expose their 254 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 1: help from Russia. This was frankly ridiculous because, as I said, 255 00:16:53,040 --> 00:16:56,720 Speaker 1: everyone knew what was going on anyway, at those times, PMC. 256 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:01,840 Speaker 1: Wagnin was also all over the dombasly suspect, I encountered 257 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:04,240 Speaker 1: them at the ruins of Donyetsk Airport. 258 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,879 Speaker 4: So we've been taken to the Net's airport, which is 259 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:12,000 Speaker 4: quite symbolic place for the separatists here dn R, because 260 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,840 Speaker 4: whoever controls this of a minder told us controls the 261 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:17,040 Speaker 4: entrance to the net. I've been fighting for this for 262 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,040 Speaker 4: two and a half years now. Right now the DNR 263 00:17:20,119 --> 00:17:23,880 Speaker 4: control it. And over here as the frontline with Ukrainian. 264 00:17:23,600 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: Positions, a unit of very well equipped fighters controlled the 265 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 1: frontline debt. Their commander, a man in his late twenties 266 00:17:32,359 --> 00:17:35,960 Speaker 1: called Serge Lim, even told me he wasn't actually from 267 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,520 Speaker 1: the Dombas, not from Ukraine at all. He came from Russia. 268 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:41,600 Speaker 1: But he said that he traveled to fight in Ukraine 269 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:45,760 Speaker 1: as a volunteer to help out the Russian separatists possible sure, 270 00:17:47,359 --> 00:17:49,720 Speaker 1: as he took me on a tour of the destroyed airport, 271 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,360 Speaker 1: though it was clear that this guy was not new 272 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,320 Speaker 1: to conflict. I've worked in dozens of war zones across 273 00:17:56,320 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 1: the world, including Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Palestine and elsewhere. And 274 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,159 Speaker 1: trust me, you can tell who's an novice volunteer and 275 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: who's properly trained and experienced. Serge Alam was definitely not green. 276 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:15,120 Speaker 1: His unit was part of the Sparta Battalion, whose commander, 277 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: nicknamed Motorola, was also from Russia. This unit, at the 278 00:18:20,680 --> 00:18:24,000 Speaker 1: destroyed airport frontline where we were, had around a dozen 279 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:27,119 Speaker 1: Russian military ural trucks parked up at their base in 280 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:30,600 Speaker 1: the ruins, all with Russian plates. When my colleague tried 281 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: to film them, the fighters went berserk and made us 282 00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:37,160 Speaker 1: delete the footage. In contrast, as we were walking over 283 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,600 Speaker 1: this pit in the airport, we had to walk over 284 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:43,800 Speaker 1: this beam below there were clearly the remains of soldiers, 285 00:18:44,040 --> 00:18:48,400 Speaker 1: and the separatists started laughing, saying, hey, look it's dead Ukrainians, 286 00:18:48,760 --> 00:18:51,560 Speaker 1: old bodies of Ukrainian servicemen down in that pit there. 287 00:18:52,160 --> 00:18:57,840 Speaker 1: To see kind of a jacket for boots that they 288 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:00,600 Speaker 1: thought was funny. They didn't mind us filming that, but 289 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:03,119 Speaker 1: the trucks no make of that. 290 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 2: What you will soar gonna provided a way of moving 291 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:08,320 Speaker 2: people in there, like these are not Russian troops, they 292 00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:12,320 Speaker 2: are members of a private military organization. The other thing though, 293 00:19:12,600 --> 00:19:15,600 Speaker 2: was that because they were directly controlled by the g 294 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 2: are you and private and non ideological in that way, 295 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:22,480 Speaker 2: like a lot of them are ideological, but you could 296 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:25,679 Speaker 2: use them. What they were used for was to clean 297 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:29,840 Speaker 2: up separatist fighters in Ukraine who were out of there, 298 00:19:30,040 --> 00:19:32,720 Speaker 2: who you know, displeased the leadership. 299 00:19:33,119 --> 00:19:36,439 Speaker 1: Remember that guy Motorola that I just mentioned, Well, he 300 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:39,760 Speaker 1: was eventually killed in Donyetes in twenty sixteen when a 301 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:42,680 Speaker 1: bomb blew up in the elevator of his apartment block, 302 00:19:43,280 --> 00:19:46,679 Speaker 1: was planted in the ceiling and detonated. When Motorola entered, 303 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:52,760 Speaker 1: his whole head was blown in two. Motorola's friend Givi, 304 00:19:53,160 --> 00:19:56,560 Speaker 1: was also a commander of a Russian separatist militia known 305 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:01,719 Speaker 1: as the Somali Battalion, named after pirates in Side. He 306 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,280 Speaker 1: was killed in twenty seventeen in his Donjet's office when 307 00:20:05,359 --> 00:20:09,879 Speaker 1: a thermobaric rocket was fired through the window. He burned 308 00:20:09,920 --> 00:20:14,280 Speaker 1: to death. The rocket used was a Russian RPO Schmelround. 309 00:20:15,760 --> 00:20:18,160 Speaker 1: The guy who was the head commander of all these 310 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:22,560 Speaker 1: pro Russian units and separatist Donyetsk was also killed him. 311 00:20:22,600 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, he was targeted with a bomb inside 312 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,640 Speaker 1: a cafe in Donyetsk, which blew up as he went 313 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:33,800 Speaker 1: for coffee. He was blown to bits. It's worth noting 314 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:37,240 Speaker 1: that all three of these dead separatist commanders were war criminals. 315 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:41,800 Speaker 1: They sometimes committed these acts on camera and on the 316 00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:46,640 Speaker 1: record admitted to regularly executing prisoners of war and much 317 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:51,000 Speaker 1: worse now the Russian separatists all blowing these deaths on 318 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,880 Speaker 1: the Ukrainian special forces. They deny that many believe as 319 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,240 Speaker 1: Pierre said that it was Russia clearing house with the 320 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:02,679 Speaker 1: help of Wagner. I guess we'll never not. 321 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,920 Speaker 2: Wagner's first ever appearance was on January two, twenty fifteen, 322 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 2: when they assassinated the commander of a unit called GBR 323 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:33,520 Speaker 2: Batman in Lhansk. 324 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:38,320 Speaker 1: GBR Batman was another pro Russian separatist unit fighting in 325 00:21:38,359 --> 00:21:40,199 Speaker 1: the Dombas against the Ukrainians. 326 00:21:40,480 --> 00:21:43,320 Speaker 2: That he just waited for. This paramilitary commander, who was 327 00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:47,080 Speaker 2: a separatist commander driving down the road, ambushed him. Five 328 00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:51,720 Speaker 2: loads of Thermobarrat missiles into his car, killed everyone. Then 329 00:21:52,119 --> 00:21:55,320 Speaker 2: a few days later, they were involved in besieging another 330 00:21:55,440 --> 00:22:00,320 Speaker 2: base used by another paramilitary Cossack group in Krasnadonna in 331 00:22:00,359 --> 00:22:02,040 Speaker 2: the hands so they were basically used as a death 332 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:07,640 Speaker 2: squad to go and enforce Kremlin control over their various 333 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,240 Speaker 2: paramilitary groups. Then a few weeks later they were finally 334 00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,480 Speaker 2: thrown into proper battle in the bouts of it, in 335 00:22:14,560 --> 00:22:17,720 Speaker 2: the big offensive there, and all the survivors from that 336 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,000 Speaker 2: said that they were just using human wave tactics. 337 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: Human wave tactics is exactly as it sounds, soldiers sent 338 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:28,920 Speaker 1: up over the trench in waves. They keep going. Everybody drops, 339 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:32,520 Speaker 1: another wave comes an awful tactic that gets a lot 340 00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:33,480 Speaker 1: of people. 341 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:36,760 Speaker 2: Killed horrific casualties as a result of it. Their image 342 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,479 Speaker 2: they always like to present is very important. The image 343 00:22:40,480 --> 00:22:43,720 Speaker 2: is like, oh, we're special forces, where you know operators 344 00:22:43,760 --> 00:22:46,720 Speaker 2: were really capable and elite. They're not. They never were. 345 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,040 Speaker 2: What they were actually used for in almost every conflict 346 00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:54,679 Speaker 2: was meet disposable, deniable cannon. 347 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:59,639 Speaker 1: Foddow, which is what Progosion started mouthing off about in 348 00:22:59,680 --> 00:23:03,000 Speaker 1: a big way on telegram mostly and through various different 349 00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:09,240 Speaker 1: or Wagner associated propaganda channels. That's what he was kicking 350 00:23:09,280 --> 00:23:10,880 Speaker 1: off about right in Ukraine. 351 00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:15,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, because he was saying that the Ministry of Defense 352 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:19,760 Speaker 2: was withholding ammunition from them. I don't know what it 353 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:21,399 Speaker 2: was that really caused this in no way because this 354 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,480 Speaker 2: is in a way how they'd always operated. It's just 355 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 2: I think, I mean, there's also the potential that on 356 00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:31,120 Speaker 2: a human level, something does eventually snap on you when 357 00:23:31,119 --> 00:23:33,800 Speaker 2: you're surrounded by that many corpses on a daily basis. 358 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 2: The battlefields outside Bakhmu work. I mean, you've seen the 359 00:23:38,560 --> 00:23:41,439 Speaker 2: drone videos and stuff, and the piles and piles of 360 00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:44,879 Speaker 2: corpses around there and people still trying to advance through them. 361 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,840 Speaker 2: It was horrific. So, yeah, there's some change in him 362 00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:51,760 Speaker 2: where he sort of finally decides that this is not 363 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,080 Speaker 2: an acceptable way to use the personnel he's getting. I 364 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 2: wonder if also it's the fact that he was using 365 00:23:57,359 --> 00:24:00,240 Speaker 2: penal conscript stuff, and I think his own identity as 366 00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 2: a convict was quite important penal conscripts. 367 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,439 Speaker 1: Let me explain that. So, when it became clear that 368 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:10,439 Speaker 1: invading and taking over Ukraine was not going to be 369 00:24:10,560 --> 00:24:13,280 Speaker 1: the walk in the park Russia thought it was, the 370 00:24:13,359 --> 00:24:15,800 Speaker 1: Kriminin realized it needed a lot more men for its 371 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:20,760 Speaker 1: ongoing groundwar. They conscripted young men, then older men, then 372 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:26,120 Speaker 1: older men still, then literal prisoners, rapists, murderers, and other 373 00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:30,240 Speaker 1: various convicts were released from many prisons across Russia on 374 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: the condition that they fight in Ukraine under PMC. Wagner. 375 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,080 Speaker 1: The deal was that if they survive, they can go 376 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:40,200 Speaker 1: home a free man after the fighting is done. Now, 377 00:24:40,280 --> 00:24:42,560 Speaker 1: of course, at least two of these fighters that we 378 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:47,240 Speaker 1: know of that survived returned home and immediately started committing 379 00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:53,760 Speaker 1: murders again. But anyway, that's the penal conscripts. As you 380 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:57,239 Speaker 1: can probably tell by now, Yevgeny Progosian's life was a 381 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:02,000 Speaker 1: brutal but extremely eventful one. He was worth over a 382 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:05,400 Speaker 1: billion dollars when he died. For weeks before that, at 383 00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:08,040 Speaker 1: sixty two years old, he was out in a field, 384 00:25:08,119 --> 00:25:10,360 Speaker 1: bed in a tent on the front lines of East Ukraine, 385 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,720 Speaker 1: watching his men get butchered. In amongst this savagery which 386 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:19,120 Speaker 1: he was so used to, something happened, and Progosian decided 387 00:25:19,200 --> 00:25:23,919 Speaker 1: to turn it against his old friend Vladimir Putin. He 388 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 1: took PMC. Wagner, turned around and rode back into Russia 389 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:33,119 Speaker 1: with the aims of destabilizing the Kremlin. We'll be covering 390 00:25:33,119 --> 00:25:36,119 Speaker 1: Progosion's mutiny on Putin in the second half of this 391 00:25:36,200 --> 00:25:58,280 Speaker 1: episode next week. The final conclusion to sad Oligach said. 392 00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:01,639 Speaker 1: Oligarch is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media 393 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:08,440 Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio, hosted, produced, researched and edited by me Jake 394 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:14,560 Speaker 1: Hanrahan and Sergey Slipchenko. Co produced by Sophie Lichtman. Music 395 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:20,560 Speaker 1: by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle, soundmix by Splicing Block. 396 00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,159 Speaker 1: Go to Jacanrahan dot com for more information.