A company linked to billionaire Yevgeny Prigozhin, a St. Petersburg restaurateur and caterer for official Kremlin events, has received a contract for 25% of the oil and gas that will be produced in Syria in territory recaptured from militants.
The corresponding agreements were reached in December 2016 in Moscow during the visit of Syrian Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources Ali Ganev with the head of the Russian Ministry of Energy Alexander Novak.
The Fontanka publication reported this on Monday, citing a source in the ministry, and on Tuesday it was confirmed by RBC, citing people close to Prigozhin and the private military company Wagner, which he finances.
Legally binding agreements for a period of five years will be signed on the Russian side by Europolis LLC, which is headed by Valery Chekalov, who also serves as the general director of two dozen companies associated with Prigozhin.
As a result, Prigozhin, who made his fortune in restaurants for the elite of St. Petersburg in the 1990s, and after Vladimir Putin came to power, entered into a government contract to supply the Ministry of Defense for 100 billion rubles, will gain access to deposits in the central part of Syria, sources told RBC.
In addition to oil, we are also talking about the “gas fields” of Palmyra - Shair, Hayan, Jizel, says an interlocutor from Prigozhin’s entourage. “In December 2016, they were captured by the Islamic State (an organization banned in Russia). The PMC freed them and took them for themselves,” he said. According to him, there is a memorandum concluded with the Syrian Ministry of Oil. " It's about about tens of millions of dollars a month,” the source said.
Prigozhin, who supplies food to the presidential administration and was called by Forbes “Putin’s personal chef,” invested money in the Wagner PMC with the expectation that, in addition to earnings from military operations, he would receive some dividends, another source told RBC. According to him, “the main emphasis” was initially placed on Syrian oil.
“So far, Prigozhin is receiving large orders from the government (to carry out combat missions on the front line and protect important infrastructure facilities). Moreover, there (in Syria) the Syrian government has already signed a five-year contract with one of Prigozhin’s oil companies,” said RBC’s interlocutor.
Prigozhin’s Concord M company supplies food to the presidential administration. In addition, the businessman’s structures deliver food to military units and schools, maintain military camps under a contract with the Ministry of Defense, and also sew uniforms for the Youth Army movement. Prigozhin is considered the organizer of the so-called “troll factory”, whose employees are placed in in social networks comments loyal to the authorities.
The businessman and his companies are subject to US sanctions. As the US Treasury explained, Prigozhin has “extensive business ties with the Department of Defense,” and a company associated with him is building a military base near the Ukrainian border.
A week ago, special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is investigating “Russian interference in the American presidential election,” accused a Russian businessman of illegal banking transactions and long-term management of “information warfare.” If the “troll factory” leaves the territory of the Russian Federation, an official request for extradition to America may await their trial here. In addition to producing "poisoned propaganda" for American voters, it is now reported that the "Kremlin chef" .
The Washington Post, citing sources in American intelligence, reported that the Russian authorities knew about the military offensive of the Syrian government group, which included employees of the Wagner PMC in the province of Deir ez-Zor on the night of February 7-8. It appears that American intelligence has access to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s correspondence. She claims that the businessman, who is associated with coordinating the actions of the Wagner PMC in Syria, was in close contact with the Kremlin and Syrian officials in the days and weeks before and after this battle.
On January 24, Prigozhin told a senior Syrian official that he had "received permission" from an unnamed Russian minister to move forward with a "quick and powerful" initiative in early February, and he was awaiting agreement from the Syrian government.
In a post on January 30, Prigozhin says he has a “good surprise” for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is “expecting him from February 6 to 9.”
Syrian Presidential Affairs Minister Muhammad Fadlallah Azzam promised Prigozhin fee for his work.
At the same time, American intelligence reports record an increase in the frequency of Prigozhin’s negotiations with officials from the Russian Presidential Administration during this period, including with the head of the administration Anton Vaino and his deputy Vladimir Ostrovenko. Conversations continued until February 5 and resumed immediately after the attack in Deir ez-Zor.
The question arises: are Russian oligarchs and senior officials really under CIA or NSA wiretapping? If yes, how long has this been going on?
And why weren’t they protected by our cyber-skills, who hack “everyone and everything”?! Or should we expect new denials from Moscow in the spirit of “you’re all lying”, “where is the evidence”?
US Defense Secretary James "Mad Dog" Mattis: The Russians said they were not near the American base in Syria, and then we struck. Photo: Reuters The Pentagon is sparing and reluctant to talk about it the first direct combat clash between Americans and Russians. Defense Secretary James Mattis and the head of Air Force Central Command, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, said that U.S. intelligence saw the mobilization of Syrian forces in the Deir ez-Zor area a week before February 7. The Americans warned the Russian side that if Assad’s forces launch an offensive against the base of US allies from the Syrian opposition near strategically important oil fields a few kilometers from the bank of the Euphrates, “they will be repulsed.”
According to Secretary Mattis, “the Russians said that they knew nothing about the upcoming offensive” and assured the American command that there were no Russians among the participants in this operation. In the attack on the base, where American military advisers were located at that moment, after appropriate artillery preparation, a detachment of 300 to 500 people took part. In response, there was a powerful airstrike that lasted three hours. After some time, the Russian military approached the Americans with a request to stop the bombing and allow the wounded to be carried away. “You’re not there, are you?” - the Americans answered. However, this is only the version in the media.
On the American side, the military prefers to remain silent about this clash; only a few details are known to the public.
At a Pentagon briefing on Feb. 8, U.S. Defense spokeswoman Dana White said coalition forces did not respond until artillery shells from the attackers fell within 1,640 feet (500 meters) of the headquarters of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). . Defense Secretary Mattis (nicknamed "Mad Dog") called the incident "baffling." The Pentagon chief noted, "I can give no explanation" for pro-government Syrian forces crossing the river and attacking a base of opposition and American forces.
Last Sunday, as the minister was returning from a tour of Europe, he was asked whether he believed the Russian government was responsible for its “mercenaries” fighting in Syria. The minister reacted diplomatically: “I prefer not to answer this question now, I need more information for a competent answer.”
A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, called the incident "disturbing." He added that he was surprised by “how quickly the Russians distanced themselves” from what he called “an operation under Syrian command and execution of Syrian orders.”
The American president did not comment on the incident in the province of Deir ez-Zor. However, on Friday, during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House, Trump called the actions of Russia, Iran and the Syrian authorities a “humanitarian disgrace,” commenting primarily on the aggravation in the Eastern Ghouta region. According to him, Russia and Iran, which support Assad, are pursuing a destructive policy. “What these three countries have done to the people over the last period of time is a disgrace,” the US President declared.
The use of Wagner PMCs in military operations in Syria and other places seems to leave the Kremlin a “thin layer of non-involvement”
says Michael Carpenter, a former White House official who worked in the Obama administration: “What’s even more important is that it allows Russian forces attack the Syrian opposition, while regular Russian armed forces will not risk doing this for fear of escalation (with the US coalition).”
The American press quotes one of the former commanders of the Wagner PMC about how they are fighting for Assad in Syria:
“The Wagner fighters go first and do their job, then the Russian ground forces come and then the Arabs and the television cameras.”
According to Western media, there are 2.5 thousand Wagner PMC fighters in Syria, who are paid up to 300 thousand rubles a month. The Russian press cited much more modest figures.
According to Andrew Weiss, an expert at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, Prigozhin has made himself “indispensable to the Kremlin”: “On the one hand, he is at the very tip of the spear, for example, when conducting information operations against America. On the other hand, it is deeply involved in the activities of the Ministry of Defense and provides military forces and other services."
American media remind that even before the Syrian events, Prigozhin and Wagner PMCs were included in US sanctions lists because of the Ukrainian events.
Prigozhin has been under sanctions since December 2016. Then the US Treasury noted the businessman’s “intensive ties” with the Russian Ministry of Defense and his involvement in the construction of a new military base on the border with Ukraine.
Wagner PMC, as well as the Prigozhin companies Concord Catering and Concord Management and Consulting, were blacklisted a little later - in June last year. And last month, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the company Evro Polis, which is associated with Prigozhin, because of Syria. The US Treasury called this firm “a Russian company that entered into a contract with the Syrian government to protect oil fields in exchange for a 25% share in oil and gas production from fields in territories retaken from ISIS” ( terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). Most of these territories are located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates.
On the one hand, the Russian and American militaries in Syria have established and maintain almost daily telephone contacts in order to prevent accidental losses of troops and aircraft. By its silence, the Pentagon makes it clear that after the military demonstration, further comments are not needed.
On the other side,
if American intelligence leaks are true that the attack on the base was coordinated through Prigozhin “at the very top,” then we could be talking about a large-scale provocation. Much more dangerous than Russian aircraft flying over American warships and approaching aircraft.
What happened requires an explanation, which, however, we may never get - neither from Washington, nor even less so from Moscow.
This happened shortly before the clash between the Wagner PMC and the American military.As The Bell learned, this happened shortly before the clash between the Wagner PMC and the American military in Syria
The Euro Policy company signed legally binding agreements to work in Syria shortly before the clash between Wagner PMC fighters and the American military in the oil and gas province of Deir ez-Zor, The Bell found out. As a result of this attack, according to various sources, from a dozen to more than two hundred people were killed. Both media structures are associated with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Since the end of 2016, Euro Policy has been negotiating with the Syrian government to participate in the liberation, protection and development of Syrian oil and gas fields. The Bell was told that it had entered into binding agreements by two Russian sources familiar with the company's negotiations. One of them clarified that this happened around January 2018. At the very end of January, the Russian Ministry of Energy announced the signing of a “road map” with Syria for the restoration, modernization and construction of new energy facilities on its territory. The department does not disclose the details of this document. But Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riad Haddad clarified to The Bell that in January the energy ministers of Russia and Syria signed not one, but two “road maps” - for work in the energy sector and in the oil industry. From his words it follows that these documents spell out previously reached agreements with specific Russian companies. Euro Policy is one of them, the ambassador confirmed. Signed agreements are needed to “monitor [at the government level – The Bell] existing agreements and priority projects that have been identified,” he added.
What did Prigozhin claim in Syria?
The publications Fontanka and RBC wrote last summer that Euro Policy is connected with businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin and his associates. The same information was provided by American intelligence agencies, last weekend in The Washington Post.
According to Fontanka, at the end of 2016, during a meeting between the Syrian Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources Ali Ganev and the Minister of Energy Alexander Novak, Euro Policy signed a memorandum of intent to work in Syria. It followed from the document that the company lays claim to a quarter of all oil and gas produced in Syria in the territories conquered for the government of Bashar al-Assad. Euro Policy promised to liberate fields and oil refining infrastructure in Syria from IS militants and opponents of the Syrian government, and then to protect them.
Prigozhin’s interest in developing RBC’s Syrian fields was then confirmed by a source close to the businessman and interlocutors at Wagner PMC. Prigozhin invested money in the Wagner PMC with the expectation that, in addition to earnings from military operations, he would receive some dividends, a RBC source in the PMC said. According to him, the “main emphasis” was initially placed on Syrian oil.
Last December, the Associated Press published a document that appears to be a draft of the Euro Policy agreement with the Syrian government and the Syrian General Oil Corporation. It also stated that Euro Policy would take on the “responsibility to liberate” oil and gas fields in part of Syria, and then carry out production, processing, transportation, storage and sales in cooperation with the General Petroleum Corporation, which includes the Syrian Oil Company and the Syrian Gas Company.
It is unknown in what form all these agreements were included in the final agreements signed by Euro Policy and the energy ministers. It was not possible to contact representatives of Euro Policy using any of the telephone numbers listed in the SPARK database. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the press service of the Ministry of Energy and the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources did not respond to requests from The Bell.
What is known about the reasons for the battle in Deir ez-Zor?
The battle took place on the night of February 7-8, and is considered the first direct clash between Wagner PMC mercenaries and American troops during the Syrian campaign. A PMC column and detachments of so-called ISIS Hunters came under fire from American aircraft. The exact number of victims and their nationality have not yet been officially disclosed.
The positions of the American military and pro-government forces, which are supported by Russia, are very close at the site of the clash - they are only a few miles from each other on opposite sides of the Euphrates River, The Washington Post wrote. According to the publication, until recently, the Russian and American military maintained telephone contact almost daily to avoid an accidental collision.
The Pentagon said in official statements after the attack that it had not identified the attackers. Immediately after the clash, Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that he could not explain why pro-government forces decided to cross the river and open fire on a known base of the United States and its allies.
The Ministry of Defense denied that the Russian military was involved in the attack. The official statement from the department said that “the cause of the incident was the reconnaissance and search actions of the Syrian militias, which were not coordinated with the command of the Russian operational group.” Two weeks after the battle, the Russian Foreign Ministry admitted that Russian citizens were also injured in the clash, and announced “dozens of wounded” and five dead, emphasizing that all of them had nothing to do with official military structures.
Kommersant, citing a Russian military source, wrote that the cause of the incident was allegedly an attempt by Syrian “large entrepreneurs to this moment supporters of Bashar al-Assad”, seize oil and gas fields under the control of the Kurds, allies of the United States.
“The whole calculation was that after the shelling, our people would quickly storm this plant [the US base is located near the Syrian oil refinery], and the Kurds would throw down their weapons. And the Americans will no longer hit their own when close combat ensues,” the publication wrote, citing a former colleague of several Wagner PMC fighters who died on February 7. According to him, the PMC detachment that came under fire from American aircraft consisted of about 600 people armed with small arms, as well as artillery and tanks. Most of the group consisted of Russian-speaking fighters, and only a minority were ISIS Hunters. They had no air support.
A military source cited by Kommersant said that the Russian command in Syria did not give permission to conduct offensive operation to oil fields, and the operation itself was perceived as a “dangerous amateur activity.” But The Washington Post over the weekend, citing materials from US intelligence services, said that shortly before the PMC attack, Prigozhin was in close contact with Russian and Syrian officials, including the head of the presidential administration, Anton Vaino.
Irina Malkova, Anastasia Stogney, Anastasia Yakoreva
Grigory Turcanu and Roman Zabolotny. Frame from video
Today it is reliably known that ISIS captured 38-year-old Roman Vasilyevich Zabolotny, a native of Rostov region, and 39-year-old Grigory Mikhailovich Tsurkanu, a native of the Moscow region.
Both Zabolotny and Tsurkanu are contract workers for a private military company known as Wagner PMC.
It is known about Zabolotny that he arrived in Syria in May, after two months of training at a base near the village of Molkino Krasnodar region (The training grounds of military unit 51532, known as the “10th GRU special forces brigade,” are also located there. —THEM.).
Tsurkanu is a veteran contract soldier. His first business trip to Syria took place back in September 2013.
"Slavic Corps"
Visitors to the popular Tema bar in Moscow would hardly have guessed that in the same building, located at 5 Potapovsky Lane, right above the bar, there was an office of the private military company Moran Security Group, which was engaged in recruiting personnel, organizing their training and protecting maritime forces. ships in pirate-prone areas of the World Ocean.
Office on Potapovsky, 5. Yandex.maps It was here, in house No. 5 on Potapovsky Lane, that Grigory Turcanu came in the summer of 2013, having learned about the recruitment of security guards to escort sea vessels.
But the strong guy, who had completed his military service in the airborne reconnaissance company, was offered another job. More money. And he agreed.
The fact is that in the summer of 2013, Moran Security Group received an offer from the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources to recruit, train and send “specialists” to Syria to protect oil production, transportation and refining facilities.
Having assessed all the risks, the company decided not to contact official Damascus. But she didn’t refuse the contract completely. Several managers of the Moran Security Group registered the company Slavonic Corps Limited (“Slavic Corps”) in Hong Kong, and this company, although in the office of the Moran Security Group, recruited 267 volunteers under a contract with the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.
Among the first 267 volunteers was Grigory Turcanu.
By the way, the future commander of Wagner PMC, Dmitry Utkin, was also in this group.
Oil rig in Syria. Photo: Reuters Retired Lieutenant Colonel Utkin signed a contract with Moran Security Group after leaving the post of commander of the 700th separate detachment special forces 2nd separate brigade special purpose GRU, stationed in Pechory, Pskov region. He was hired straight away, without a trial selection process, and immediately became the commander of the escort group. And before heading to Syria, Dmitry Utkin managed to complete several assignments escorting ships in pirate-prone areas.
In September 2013, 267 Slavic Corps volunteers reached Syria through Beirut in Lebanon. They were stationed in Latakia training center close to the local port.
Only after reaching Syria, many learned that before they could begin to protect “oil production, transportation and refining facilities,” these same facilities still had to be recaptured from the militants.
But the very first battle of the “Slavic Corps” turned out to be the last.
On October 13, the "Slavic Corps", divided into two companies - "Cossack" and "Slavic", - loaded into Hyundai buses and JMC jeeps lined with homemade armor and headed towards the oil fields in the Deir ez-Zor region.
On October 17, 2013, in the province of Homs, near the city of Es-Sakhna, the “Slavic Corps” was ambushed. The fighters dispersed, took up a perimeter defense, even managed to dig in and for several hours fought off the fierce attack of several thousand militants who were trying to surround the Russians.
“Everyone would have died there,” says one of the participants in the battle. “We’ve already shot almost the entire back… But a sandstorm hit.” They didn't see each other a few meters away. Dima Utkin, who commanded the “Slavic” company, led his boys to make a hand-to-hand breakthrough, saying, otherwise we’ll all die here. The “Cossacks” also rushed after the “Slavs”. But the storm also frightened the “blacks”; they missed our breakthrough. So they went to Sukhna. And six “three hundredths” ( wounded. — Ed.) were carried out, two of them were heavy.
“Already in Latakia, it turned out that one of the “Cossacks” - Lesha Malyuta - had lost a tablet with documents. ISIS then trumpeted that Russians were fighting in Syria.”
The “Slavic Corps” was urgently evacuated to Russia. Two planes that landed in Vnukovo were surrounded by fighters from the FSB Alpha special forces unit, and all contract soldiers were detained. For two leaders of the “Slavic Corps”, Vadim Gusev (part-time deputy director of Moran Security Group) and Evgeniy Sidorov (personnel officer of Moran Security Group), the voyage to Syria ended in criminal cases and sentences with real terms under Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Mercenarism”). The rest, among whom was Grigory Turcanu, got off with “preventive conversations.”
Ash Shola
Photo: Ammar Safarjalani\Zuma\TASS On September 5, 2017, the Ministry of Defense issued a press release in which it said that from the frigate Admiral Essen, performing tasks as part of the permanent operational formation of the Russian Navy in the Mediterranean, sea-based cruise missiles "Caliber" were launched against the targets of a terrorist group ISIS in the area of Deir ez-Zor. The strike was carried out on a fortified area in the vicinity of the city of Ash-Shol, which was held by a gang consisting mainly of militants from the CIS countries, including Russia.”
The militants left Ash-Shola, located on the Deir ez-Zor-Palmyra highway, and a unit of the Syrian army and a detachment of the Wagner PMC air assault company entered the town.
But on September 28, ISIS launched a large-scale counteroffensive, calling it “the gazawat of Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Adnani,” almost simultaneously attacking checkpoints along the entire section of the Palmyra-Deir ez-Zor highway.
Our sources claim that the counterattack was organized by the fedayeen ( former employees secret services of Saddam Hussein). And the immediate military action was preceded by separate negotiations between the leaders of the Kurdish paramilitary forces Peshmerga and the leaders of Saddam’s Fedayeen, the most professional and combat-ready part of ISIS.
The mediator in the negotiations was allegedly the former Vice President of Iraq Tariq Hashimi, about whom it is known that back in December 2011 he fled from Iraq to Kurdistan to avoid arrest for organizing death squads. Then he moved to Saudi Arabia, and from there to Turkey. On September 9, 2012, an Iraqi court sentenced Hashimi to death in absentia.
reference
Saddam's Fedayeen were originally a volunteer militia created by Saddam Hussein's son Uday in 1995. During the US military operation in Iraq, it was the fedayeen who put up the most fierce resistance American army. Subsequently, the fedayeen went underground, and after the formation of IS, they joined the militants, ensuring the military successes of this terrorist organization in both Iraq and Syria.
According to our source, the negotiations were successful. It was agreed that the Kurds would temporarily stop “bothering” ISIS, and ISIS would transfer forces to Deir ez-Zor. The goal is to prevent the Syrian government army, reinforced by Wagner PMCs and groups of Special Operations Forces Russian army, with the support of Russian Aerospace Forces and Syrian Air Force aviation on the left bank of the Euphrates and take control of the Umar and Tanak oil fields, where ISIS produces up to 20 thousand barrels of oil daily. In the long term, these fields should come under Kurdish control. Saddam's Fedayeen were promised an amnesty in return.
On September 28, mobile groups of fedayeen attacked checkpoints on the Palmyra-Deir ez-Zor highway. The Syrians quickly retreated, abandoning the Wagnerites. There was virtually no air support either, since ISIS attacked checkpoints at several dozen points simultaneously.
Russian Su-25 attack aircraft only had time to land at the Khmeimim airbase, refuel, load ammunition, and immediately take off again.
As a result of the swift attack, the militants captured several settlements along the highway, including Ash-Shola, where Roman Zabolotny and Grigory Tsurcanu were captured.
Businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is called a friend of Vladimir Putin, took part in planning the attack by Russian mercenaries fighting on the side of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the Syrian Democratic Forces, allies of the international coalition led by the United States, on February 7. The Washington Post claims this, citing intelligence data about Prigozhin’s negotiations with Syrian military officials and officials.
Prigozhin is called the main organizer and sponsor of the so-called “Wagner private military company,” in whose ranks hundreds of Russian citizens are fighting in Syria.
According to the interception of Prigozhin’s negotiations with Syrian representatives, he allegedly stated that he had prepared a “good surprise” for Bashar al-Assad, which would become known between February 6 and February 9. According to the Washington Post, Prigozhin also received assurances that “the work will be paid for.”
The article also claims that Prigozhin stated on January 24 that he received the “green light” for “decisive actions” from a certain Russian minister and was waiting for the Syrian side to agree to them.
The investigation also states that Prigozhin repeatedly communicated with Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff Anton Vaino in January and early February, but what they talked about is unknown.
On February 7, in the province of Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria, a battle took place between pro-government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which were assisted by US aircraft. As a result, the attackers were defeated, and, according to various sources, from several dozen to several hundred people died, including many Russian citizens, presumably fighters from the Wagner PMC. Russian authorities, who initially denied the deaths of Russians, admitted that dozens of Russian citizens were injured in the clash. The Russian Foreign Ministry emphasizes that we are not talking about military personnel.
The purpose of the Wagner PMC's offensive attempt against US allies in Syria is still unclear. According to some reports, the mercenaries intended to take control of a large oil refinery.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller recently accused Prigozhin, dubbed “Putin’s chef,” of financing a so-called “troll factory” responsible for interfering in the 2016 US election campaign.
