Over a year after Wagner Group leader’s death, Russian mercenaries aren’t going away
Voice of America
FILE - Members of the Wagner Group military company sit atop a tank on a street in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, June 24, 2023. FILE - A fighter of the Wagner Group private military force places a sledgehammer, one of the symbols of Wagner, at an informal memorial next to the former PMC Wagner Centre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 24, 2023.
When Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in an August 2023 plane crash, many analysts said his death could mark the end of the Wagner Group, the private military company he co-founded that provided thousands of Russian mercenaries for Moscow’s initiatives and other interests abroad.
Marina Terishvili, whose son Giorgi was arrested following recent Georgian opposition protests against the government's decision to suspend talks on joining the European Union, poses for a picture in her house in Tbilisi, Georgia December 10, 2024. FILE - A firework explodes near police officers during a rally of opposition parties' supporters, who protest against the new government's decision to suspend the European Union accession talks and refuse budgetary grants until 2028, in Tbilisi, Georgia November 30, 2024. FILE - Police officers escort a demonstrator during a rally of opposition parties' supporters, who protest against the new government's decision to suspend the European Union accession talks and refuse budgetary grants until 2028, in Tbilisi, Georgia November 30, 2024. Member of Georgia's opposition party Coalition for Change and participant of pro-EU protests Koba Khabazi, who was injured during a recent attack of a group of masked people near the party’s office, speaks during a meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia December 10, 2024.
A man breaks the lock of a cell in the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, Dec. 9, 2024. A woman examines the cells at the infamous Saydnaya military prison, just north of Damascus, Syria, on Dec. 9, 2024. Crowds are gathering to enter the prison after thousands of inmates were released following rebels' overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Men released from prison dance at the entrance of Aleppo city, on Dec. 9, 2024, as people wait for the return of relatives after the release of detainees from Syrian government prisons following the ousting of Syria's president.