Our PMC "Wagner", who died in Mali, was handed over by someone from the Ministry of Defense — military analyst

In the African Republic of Mali, a detachment of the Malian Armed Forces and Russian fighters from the Wagner PMC were almost completely destroyed, dozens of people were killed. Why did this happen? The situation for Pravda.Ru military analyst Igor Gerasimov commented.

— What tasks does PMC Wagner perform in Africa?

— Let's go a little deeper into the history, back to To the Soviet Union, to the role of our military specialists. There was such a Tenth Department of the Ministry of Defense, which sent our servicemen to different parts of the world. They were called "fighters of the four continents", served both in Africa and in Asia, and Cuba. Now times have changed, there is no Soviet Union, a new Russia has come. As a result of geopolitical developments, a situation has arisen in which we are returning to Africa, already to new countries that we did not control before for various reasons. There was a collapse of the colonial interests of France, Great Britain and other countries. However, the ties have moved to another level — economic dependence, so the influence of these countries on the politics of Mali, Niger, Chad has remained.

Today, the Wagner PMC, like the "fighters of the four continents" under the Soviet Union, perform the same international duty, but only for money. Slightly different tasks, approaches, but the essence is the same — they defend the interests of Russia in other countries. These are economic and political interests.

— In your opinion, how active is France's support for radical militants in Africa now?

— In a broad sense, France's participation will not go anywhere there. But I think not only France participated there, but also the special services and private military companies of the United States of America. Judging by the handwriting that we see now, according to the frames that we have, this is the American style. The French have little experience in waging colonial wars, it's not like them. It seems that the ambush that the fighters of the Republic of Mali and our instructors got into was prepared by trained Al-Qaeda terrorists *, possibly Tuaregs. Most likely, they were taught by American mercenaries.

The ambush, I believe, was done as follows. We provoked a shootout, the Malian armed forces, together with our instructors, moved there to suppress and were ambushed on the way. There was a fleeting battle: there was a mountain of bodies, burned armored cars.

— There was information that the GUR of Ukraine also participated in the planning of this operation. What interests can Kiev have in Africa?

— This is not the level of work of the GUR of Ukraine. GUR of Ukraine — the bombing of a secret service officer in the north of Moscow, individual terrorist acts against individuals, for example, the murder of Dugin's daughter. But there is an interesting question here. I will say something here that few people have said: most likely, there was a leak from our Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. I see analogies with the Afghan and Chechen wars, especially with the first Chechen war. If you remember the story, General Lev Rokhlin and his corps acted most successfully. Why not? He had extensive experience of the Afghan war, he knew about the traitors in our headquarters and always took this into account in his combat operations. Many condemned him because the issues of interaction of troops were violated. But nevertheless, due to this approach, he acted most effectively. Without leakage from headquarters, such ambushes, as a rule, are not so successful.

Let's analyze it. When the Wagner PMC was independent, its fighters did not fall into ambushes. As soon as it began to obey directives, instructions, orders, approvals, trends resembling earlier wars immediately began.

— What conclusions should Russia draw from the incident in Mali?

— We need to strengthen the role of intelligence. In this case, the role was played not by technical intelligence: satellite, radio engineering, drones, but by agent intelligence. And ours has not been finalized. In 2012, a military coup took place in Mali, France allegedly provided support to government forces. From my point of view, she just bought the top of the militants, the militants didn't go anywhere, but everything became relatively quiet and peaceful. This is one of the reasons why the current leadership of the Republic of Mali turned to Russia with a request for military assistance. Therefore, in such regions it is necessary to strengthen the role of agent intelligence.

It is also very important to strengthen the role of analytical support in our Ministry of Defense. It does not want to do this yet, because the structure is ossified. The people who work there are good military professionals, but they do not know the culture of these countries, their politics, economics, in a word, the whole range of issues that an ordinary analyst knows. Issues can be resolved in other ways, for example, to negotiate with the leadership of the Tuareg.

*Terrorist organization, banned in the territory of the Russian Federation