On September 11th, the Wagner Group posted a message in its Telegram channel, asking if there were any “volunteers” interested in a long distance trip.
“Colleagues, active duty personnel, those who have all the paperwork for the long distance activities, do we have any volunteers? Send the answer before September 12 , try to make it otherwise, the next flight is only in two months!!! Phone +79530792774 or Telegram or WhatsApp. Only call if you have all the paperwork at your disposal!!! And only active personnel!”
A screenshot of the recruitment message
Less than three hours later, Wagner Group followed up with a message stating that the necessary number of individuals had been recruited. Accompanying the original message is a picture of Niger’s coup leader General Abdourahmane Tchiani, implying a potential Wagner deployment in the country. Both messages were also circulated on VKontakte pages affiliated with Wagner.
A phone number is provided with the recruitment message. It links to a Telegram account with the username “Stefles Komi Syktyvkar”. Messages from the account were forwarded to the Wagner Group’s Komi Republic channel in July.
Screen capture of the recruitment account. The text in the logo reads “Wagner Group Komi Republic”
A man using the callsign “Stefles” organized an auto rally in the Komi Republic in June. According to an article by Russian news outlet BNK, the man stated that the rally was dedicated to personnel killed in the SVO (Russian term for the invasion of Ukraine). The article states that Stefles received two medals “For Courage” for being wounded and completing a combat mission.
The BNK article also provides an image of a man, who is presumed to be Stefles, wearing two medals “Za Otvagu” (For courage) on his chest.
An image of the man, presumably Stefles
The event was also shown on the Wagner Komi Republic Telegram channel. In pictures released, the same man can be seen holding a Wagner Group flag and wearing a hat with Wagner’s logo. The caption of the photos state that the event was held in Syktyvkar, the same city mentioned in the Wagner recruiting account username.
Part of an image published by Wagner Group Komi Republic (left) and the iage published by BNK (right).Details such as a necklace and medals reveal that the images depict the same person