PMC Wagner in Venezuela: why they are not there and cannot be

Coverage of events in Venezuela must be perceived from the point of view of the information war going on against it, which involves an active confrontation between the parties. Disinformation is reset, real information is provided partially and in a light favorable to the customer. A vivid example is the situation surrounding the possible sending of Wagner PMCs to help the Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.





What do we know for sure?

In this Latin American country with a Russian-friendly regime, a US coup d'état takes place. Our country has made significant investments in Venezuela and is interested in protecting them. The easiest way is to support the legitimate president Maduro. It's no secret that China invested in Venezuelan the economy at times large amounts, and, according to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Chinese security forces are currently guarding President Maduro and the country's main government agencies together with colleagues from friendly Caracas Cuba. Thus, there is nothing shameful in sending feasible assistance from Moscow to the friendly regime in Venezuela.

What do we know from the existing information field?

Yevgeny Shabaev, leader of the Honor and Homeland organization, which defends the rights of military personnel, gave an interview to Reuters. A public activist said that he was approached by worried relatives of servicemen, who were allegedly put into Il-96 without warning and sent on a business trip in an unknown direction. The fact that the ultimate goal is Venezuela, they learned only in Cuba, where the plane landed for refueling. The human rights activist did not disclose any data on the names of servicemen and their relatives, fearing, in his words, the involvement of “business travelers” in the tribunal for disclosure.

This information in Russia began to refute at all levels. President’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented quite reasonably on this “duck”:



At the same time, Peskov does not deny that the Russians provide military services, for example, in Sudan. About how wide the geography of so-called “Russian PMCs” can be understood from the commentary of a certain anonymous “Wagnerian”:



Then, according to him, they began to exert strong pressure on Yevgeny Shabaev and quickly hung an anti-patriotic “label”. War correspondent Vlad Shurygin said:



We don’t know what kind of person Evgeny Shabaev really is, and how true his information is, therefore we don’t undertake to protect him. But for objectivity and completeness of the picture, it is necessary to remember the following:

At first, in our country the activities of PMCs are outside the legal field, because each of its fighters can go to the criminal article for "mercenarism."

Secondly, at Wagner PMC the light did not converge. Earlier we toldthat in Syria, this structure has a new competitor, the so-called PMC "Patriot", for operations in which the current officers of the Ministry of Defense of Russia are involved, in contrast to the "Wagner", where retirees are recruited.

Thirdly, the range of PMC services includes not only the conduct of hostilities, as in Syria, or the personal protection of the country's leadership, as, for example, in the Central African Republic or, for example, in Venezuela. Private traders guard oil fields, buildings of state institutions, strategically important facilities, provide military translation services, escort convoys, train military, police and other special services.

Therefore, if you “think logically”, as Dmitry Peskov advised, we can assume that someone could still fly to Venezuela behind the scenes, but it could well be not the same “Wagnerians”. Therefore, in the refutation by the Kremlin of the information that Wagner had taken Maduro under guard, there is no lie, but only guile.