On the night of 24 August 2004, explosive devices were detonated on board two domestic passenger flights that had taken off from Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, causing the destruction of both aircraft and the loss of all 90 people on board them.
Volgograd International Airport is an airport located 15 km northwest of the city of Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, in Russia. It comprises a civilian airport built on top of an older military runway, now demolished. The terminal area parks 42 medium/large aircraft and 91 small aircraft.
The 20th Guards Carpathian-Berlin Motor Rifle Division is a formation of the Russian Ground Forces, originally formed within the Soviet Red Army as the 3rd Mechanised Corps. The division was reformed in 2021 from the former 20th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.
The Echelon Song, also known as Song for Voroshilov or Battle of the Red Guards, is a Russian song written in 1933 by A. V. Alexandrov (music) and Osip Kolychev (lyrics), dedicated to Kliment Voroshilov. It is one of a number of popular Soviet songs which reminiscence about the Russian Civil War era. This particular song is about the "railway warfare" during the Battle for Tsaritsyn of 1918, where Voroshilov and Joseph Stalin became friends. The music of the song is composed so as to recall a steam locomotive, beginning in an accelerando and crescendo, and ending in a decrescendo.
The Slavonic Corps is an 18 January 2012 established firm registered in Hong Kong as a private military contractor (PMC) that operated during the Syrian civil war for 113 days after which many of these fighters established the Wagner Group.
The Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war started on 30 September 2015, with 4,000 Russian military personnel being stationed in Syria. The Russian forces also consisted of 25 strategic bombers, 20 tactical bombers, 12 attack bombers, 8 fighter aircraft, 16 attack helicopters and various other aircraft.
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a rebellion in June 2023. Prigozhin was sometimes referred to as "Putin's chef" because he owned restaurants and catering businesses that provided services to the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies whose operations, according to a 2020 investigation, were "tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
Dmitry Valerievich Utkin was a Russian military officer and mercenary. He served as a special forces officer in the GRU, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was the co-founder and military commander of the Russian state-funded Wagner Group, with his military alias reportedly being Wagner. Utkin was a neo-Nazi. He rarely made public appearances, but was allegedly the commander of the private military company, while Yevgeny Prigozhin was its owner and public face. Utkin was awarded four Orders of Courage of Russia.
Aleksey Gennadyevich Korokin, is a Russian statesman and party leader who served as the 4th governor of Kurgan Oblast from 26 September 2014 to 2 October 2018. He was the head of the administration of the city of Shadrinsk from 1996 to 2014. He is a member of the Presidium of the Political Council of the Kurgan regional branch of the United Russia party from 2007 to 2019.
Aleksey Leonidovich Teksler, is a Russian statesman and politician who is currently the 5th Governor of Chelyabinsk Oblast since 20 September 2019. He is also the secretary of the Chelyabinsk regional branch of the United Russia party since 2 October 2020.
Vitaly Viktorovich Likhachyov, is a Russian politician, who is currently a member of the State Duma of the VIII convocation. He had served as the mayor of Volgograd from 2018 to 2021, and had been a member of the Volgograd Oblast Duma of the third and fourth convocations, and was its chairman from 2005 to 2009.
Alexei Borisovich Berngard is a Russian serviceman, colonel. Berngard is deputy brigade commander of the 810th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade. He earned the Hero of the Russian Federation for participation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and his leadership during the Battle of Volnovakha.
Magomed Salaudinovich Tushayev is a Russian Lieutenant Colonel and advisor to the Head of the Chechen Republic. He is a commander of the 141st Special Motorized Regiment (Kadyrovites).
On Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Articles 31 and 151 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation is a group of federal laws promulgated by the Russian government during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These laws establish administrative and criminal punishments for "discrediting" or dissemination of "unreliable information" about the Russian Armed Forces, other Russian state bodies and their operations, and the activity of volunteers aiding the Russian Armed Forces, and for calls to impose sanctions against Russia, Russian organizations and citizens. These laws are an extension of Russian fake news laws and are sometimes referred to as the fakes laws.
The battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern Ukraine campaign, a theatre of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is regarded by some military analysts to be the bloodiest battle since the end of World War II.
Redut, also known as Redoubt, Redut-Antiterror or Centre R, formerly known as "Shield", is a registered Russian Private Military Company (PMC) that is a part of the "Antiterror-family" — a group of PMCs that protect commercial operations of Russian companies. It is currently deployed by Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to an RFE/RL investigation, concurrent "Redut" is fully controlled by the GRU and acts as a proxy umbrella organization for mercenaries, managing finances, recruitment and logistical supply of various formations.
The rivalry between the then-head of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the leadership of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, headed by Sergei Shoigu, in the public sphere began in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ultimately led to the Wagner Group rebellion on the 23rd to 24th of June 2023. According to United States officials, Yevgeny Prigozhin had longstanding disputes with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) "for years" prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, these tensions escalated and became more public during this stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War. During the initial stages of the invasion, the Russian Ground Forces suffered significant casualties, but the announcement of mobilization for reservists was delayed by Russian president Vladimir Putin. As a result, authorities actively sought to enlist mercenaries for the invasion, which led to a heightened influence and power for Prigozhin and the Wagner Group. Prigozhin was allocated substantial resources, including his own aviation assets. Additionally, starting in the summer of 2022, he gained the authority to recruit inmates from Russian prisons into the Wagner Group in exchange for their freedom. Western intelligence estimated that the number of Wagner mercenaries increased from "several thousand" fighters around 2017–2018 to approximately 50,000 fighters by December 2022, with the majority comprising criminal convicts recruited from prisons.
“Potok” is a volunteer battalion or PMC, which is participating in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. According to an investigation by BBC News, Financial Times and other media, "Potok" is associated with Gazprom and integrated in GRU's Redut. Like most other PMCs, it is part of the Russian Armed Forces.
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