Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare
by John Lechner
View on GoodreadsWagner looks like a uniquely Russian invention. Lechner's point is that it's one case of private armies coming back, and from interviews with more than thirty operatives he follows the group from Ukraine in 2014 into the Middle East and across Africa, where you see security traded for natural resources.
Core ideas
- Caterer to challenger: Yevgeny Prigozhin rose from caterer to the most serious challenge to Putin's rule, then died in a 2023 plane crash widely believed state-ordered.
- Convicts for Ukraine: Prigozhin recruited prisoners with promises of pardons and pay after six months of combat.
- It didn't end with him: Wagner was largely folded into Russia's military and keeps operating, and private armies, which flourished in the colonial era, are spreading again.
Published2025
Pages288
ISBN9781639733361
ReadDec 2025
