9/11/2023 0 Comments Russian dossier text![]() The company registration in Hong Kong remained unaffected, and it wasn't until 2021 that it was officially deleted and dissolved by the Hong Kong Government Companies Registry, because it was believed not to have been operating for several years.īy July 2020, the US Department of Defense had accused the Russian government of running a huge mining operation in Tripoli through Wagner, bankrolling the now-fallen dictatorship in Sudan and exacerbating the Libyan conflict. It took part in the annexation of Crimea the following year, including attacks on Ukraine. Few contact details are given other than an email address.Īt the end of the same year, the Slavonic Corps started operating under the name Wagner. However, the company's 20 annual reports show the company address as being in New Trade Plaza, Shatin. In early 2013, the Slavonic Corps placed a recruitment ad on several Moscow military websites, successfully recruiting 267 people, some of whom were military veterans, including one Dmitry Utkin, a former high-ranking officer of the Russian intelligence special ops forces, Spetsnaz GRU.ĭmitry Utkin later used the call sign "Wagner," sparking speculation that he founded the group from the ashes of the Slavonic Corps.Īn investigation by RFA Cantonese found a copy of the advertisement, which shows a Hong Kong address for the company in an office building at 1 Duddell Street, Central. Wagner's predecessor, the Slavonic Corps, had a Hong Kong address in an office building at 1 Duddell Street, Central, according to RFA Cantonese research. Wagner's predecessor, the Slavonic Corps, is typically reported as having been founded in 2013, but a search of Hong Kong's Companies Registry showed it was established in 2012, with the founder named on the record as "Vadim Gusev, deputy director of Moran."Īnother board member is named as Sergei Kramskoi, another former Moran employee. Yet the group's affiliates have longstanding ties to Hong Kong and mainland China.Ĭustoms records show that these companies have had frequent transactions with Russian companies over the past 10 years, and reveal a network of Russian financial dealings criss-crossing Hong Kong and mainland China. Research has shown that Wagner Group doesn't actually exist as a legal corporate entity, yet until last weekend, it enjoyed the full support of the Kremlin, according to the CSIS. However, affiliated companies remained in existence in Hong Kong until 2020, when they were named and sanctioned by the United States. Credit: Screenshot from video obtained by Reuters Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin meets with Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, at the headquarters of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces, in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in this screenshot from a video released on June 24, 2023. The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and other studies have detailed how the Corps' first deployment – to Syria in 2013 – ended in disaster due to supply and logistical problems at Deir al-Zour, after which it was disbanded.Īlong with the Russian opposition-backed Dossier Center, CSIS describes Wagner as an unofficial Russian army with operations in Ukraine, Syria and Africa in recent years. Hong Kong has also been used by the ruling Communist Party's financial and political elite as both a haven and channel for its private wealth, with top Chinese leaders and their families owning luxury property in the city. The Wagner crisis comes amid growing concern over the use of Hong Kong as a domicile for a growing number of shell companies hiding illicit operations following the 2018 arrest in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou for alleged business dealings with sanctioned Iranian companies. Public domain information shows that its predecessor, the Slavonic Corps, was founded in the city by two employees of the Russian private security firm Moran Security.Īnd Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch-turned-military leader known as "Putin's chef," has raised funds for at least some of his ventures in the city, via a number of Hong Kong-registered companies held by several affiliated parent companies, according to a survey of public records carried out by RFA Cantonese. The Russian private military company Wagner Group, which made headlines over the weekend by starting to march on Moscow amid an apparent dispute with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has longstanding ties to Hong Kong, records show.
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