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Mercenary activity in the former Eastern Bloc was a consequence of the difficult economic situation and reductions in the armed forces after the collapse of the USSR. Some of the military went abroad to work. Many ended up in war zones in Africa. The most numerous among all were groups of military adventurers from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Serbia.
The influx of specialists from the former Soviet Union gave rise to a drop in prices for the services of mercenaries (former soviet military asked for fewer western specialists).
There was a demand for specialists in the operation of military equipment, especially soviet equipment, of which there were quite a lot on the continent.
French mercenary Bob Denard highly appreciated the activities of natives of the post-Soviet republics in the role of military adventurers. However, according to the mercenary, they had disadvantages — poor knowledge of foreign languages and the lack of special offices that would send trained groups to Africa.
The Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus consist of the Ground Forces and the Air Force and Air Defence Forces, all under the command of the Ministry of Defence of Belarus. As a landlocked country, Belarus has no navy.
A mercenary – also called a soldier of fortune, a hired gun, or, archaically, a sellsword – is a private individual who joins a military conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather than for political interests.
The Azerbaijan Navy is the naval component of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces operating in the Caspian Sea.
The Abkhazian Armed Forces are the military forces of Abkhazia. The forces were officially created on 12 October 1992, after the outbreak of the 1992–1993 war with Georgia. The basis of the armed forces was formed by the ethnic Abkhaz National Guard. The Abkhaz military is primarily a ground force but includes small sea and air units. According to the authorities of the Republic of Abkhazia, the Abkhazian Land Forces are organised along the Swiss model – in time of peace they have personnel of 3,000 to 5,000 and in case of war further 40–50,000 reservists are called out. Georgia regards the Abkhaz armed forces as "unlawful military formations" and accuses Russia of supplying and training the Abkhaz troops.
Georgy Filippovich Baydukov was a Soviet test pilot, Hero of the Soviet Union (1936), writer and hunter.
The Central Archives of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation are located in Podolsk, just south of the city of Moscow.
Kaliningrad Special Region was a military district of the Russian Armed Forces from 1997 to 2010. It was tasked with the defense of the Kaliningrad Oblast and protection of national interests in the southern Baltic. The area of the KDA was unique in Russia, as separate branches of the armed forces existed under a single command. In recent years, the Kaliningrad Special Region played an important role in countering the U.S. missile defense system in Europe. On September 1, 2010, the district was merged with the Leningrad and Moscow military districts to create the Western Military District.
Georgy Yuryevich Trefilov is a Russian multimillionaire, businessman, the founder and the former co-owner of the "MARTA" holding. A supermarket tycoon, he was named Russia's 79th richest person in 2011.
The Turkmen Air Force is the air force branch of the Armed Forces of Turkmenistan. It was formed from former Soviet Air Forces units within that region of the Turkestan Military District. The Turkmen Air Force inherited some 300 Soviet aircraft, and has pilots trained in Ukraine.
Georgy Georgievich Sarkisyants was a Soviet and Russian sports journalist and TV commentator, best known for the television show Football Review, a television and radio commentary of the largest sporting events.
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch, mercenary leader, and former close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until he launched a rebellion in June 2023. Prigozhin is sometimes called "Putin's chef", as he owns restaurants and catering companies that provide services for the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controls a network of influential companies, notably the Wagner private military company, which was supported by the Russian state, as well as three companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 US elections. According to a 2022 investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin's activities "are tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".
The Hetman Petro Sahaidachny National Army Academy is one of the leading educational institutions in the military education system of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, founded originally in 1899 as a school of infantry cadets. It is engaged in the training of future officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded paramilitary organization. It is a private military company (PMC) composed of mercenaries, and has been described as a de facto private army of Russian President Vladimir Putin's former close ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. The group operates beyond the law in Russia, where private military companies are officially forbidden. There is evidence that Wagner was used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing the Russian state to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and allowing it to hide the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions. Wagner used Russian Armed Forces infrastructure and was secretly funded by the Russian state until 2023. While the group is not ideologically driven, elements of Wagner are linked to neo-Nazism and far-right extremism.
Gennady Valeryevich Zhidko is a colonel general of the Russian Armed Forces. He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation in 2017 for his service as chief of staff of Russian forces deployed to Syria. Following this assignment, Zhidko commanded the Eastern Military District and headed the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces. In late May 2022, it was reported that Zhidko had been put in charge of Russian forces during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, replacing Army General Aleksandr Dvornikov. In 8 October 2022, he was replaced by Army General Sergey Surovikin as the new commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine.
Relations between Belarus and Venezuela were formally established on February 4, 1997. Both countries recognized each other five years earlier on January 11, 1992.
Group of Russian military specialists in Ethiopia is a contingent of military advisers to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and mercenaries to the Ethiopian National Defense Force. Russian servicemen provided significant assistance to the country during the Eritrean–Ethiopian War. It is noteworthy that the opposing side used the services of military specialists from Ukraine.
Group of Ukrainian military specialists in Eritrea is a contingent of military advisers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and mercenaries to the Eritrean Defence Forces. Ukrainian servicemen provided significant assistance to the country during the Ethiopian-Eritrean War. It is noteworthy that the opposing side used the services of military specialists from Russia.
Events in the year 2023 in Russia.
Mercenaries in Angola are foreigners who participated in the Angolan Civil War on the side of the MPLA or the rebels, but were not personnel military of the interventionist states. Initially, the hired specialists were dominated by immigrants from western countries and "first world" states, such as the United States, UK, Ireland, France, Portugal and South Africa. In the 1990s, they were displaced by natives of the former Soviet Republics, mainly Russians and Ukrainians.
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