Ummmm... From #wikipedia:

The #WagnerGroup (Russian: #ГруппаВагнера, romanized: Gruppa Vagnera), officially known as PMC Wagner (ЧВК «Вагнер»), is a #Russian state-funded private military company (#PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir #Putin, and since then by Pavel Prigozhin. 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.

"The group emerged during the war in #Donbas, where it helped Russian separatist forces in #Ukraine from 2014 to 2015. Wagner played a significant role in the later full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, for which it recruited Russian prison #inmates for frontline combat. By the end of 2022, its strength in Ukraine had grown from 1,000 to between 20,000 and 50,000. It was reportedly Russia's main assault force in the Battle of Bakhmut. Wagner has also supported regimes friendly with Russia, including in the civil wars in #Syria, #Libya, the #CentralAfricanRepublic, and #Mali. In Africa, it has offered regimes security in exchange for the transfer of diamond and gold mining contracts to Russian companies. Wagner operatives have been accused of #WarCrimes including #murder, #torture, #rape and #robbery of #civilians, as well as #torturing and killing accused #Deserters.

[...]

"Early in 2020, #ErikPrince, founder of the #Blackwater private military company, sought to provide military services to the Wagner Group in its operations in Libya and #Mozambique, according to The Intercept. By March 2021, Wagner PMCs were reportedly also deployed in #Zimbabwe, #Angola, #Guinea, #GuineaBissau, and possibly the #DemocraticRepublicOfCongo."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group
#ErikPrinceColonialism #PutinsArmy #CorporateColonialism #Oligarchy

_The Evening Post_, 21 September 1923:
LOCAL AND GENERAL
…
The two #stowaways on the Rotorua, who were arrested by Constable Johnston when they were trying to steal ashore under cover of night, appeared for sentence before Mr. E. Page, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court to-day. Sub-Inspector Cummings said that the accused Frank White, 23 years of age, and George French, 19 years, were #deserters from the American Navy, but the Government of this country, according to the American Consul, did not want to have anything to do with them. Neither of them were wanted in the Dominion. If they could be sent back to America on the Rotorua arrangements could be made by the Consul to have them arrested on their arrival. A remand for another week was granted to enable further inquiries to be made.
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19230921.2.54