Members of Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner Group have reportedly been detained in Syria as Russian President Vladimir Putin cracks down on the paramilitary outfit over its mutiny attempt.
The head of a Wagner Group unit was apprehended by Russian military police in the city of As-Suwayda in southwestern Syria, and three high-ranking Wagner Group commanders were detained at Syria's Khmeimim Air Base, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported, citing the Saudi-owned news channel Al-Hadath.
The Wagner Group, founded in 2014, has been accused of doing Russia's dirty work in regions including Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, Sudan, Mozambique and eastern Ukraine. Its contractors face accusations of committing human rights violations while doing so.
The use of mercenaries is illegal under Russian law. The country had denied a connection between the Russian government and the Wagner Group until Tuesday when Putin publicly admitted that the Kremlin fully funds and supplies the "private military company" run by the Prigozhin, his longtime ally.
Putin is now pushing to reassert control after Prigozhin's aborted mutiny on June 24, which lasted less than 24 hours and saw the Wagner Group carry out a "march for justice," advancing from southern Russia to within 120 miles of Moscow.
Wagner troops pulled back from their march to the capital after the Kremlin said a deal had been brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko to avoid "bloodshed." The Kremlin said Prigozhin would leave for Belarus and criminal charges against him would be dropped.
Police visited Wagner headquarters in the Syrian cities of Deir ez-Zur, Hama, and Damascus, according to Kommersant, which also reported that a message appeared on a Telegram channel belonging the Dmitry Utkin, Wagner's co-founder, which denied that the group's commanders had been arrested in Syria.
The New Arab website separately reported on Tuesday that Russian military police, in conjunction with the intelligence of the Syrian regime, conducted a campaign of arrests against leaders, personnel and recruitment officials working for the Wagner Group in Syria.
Wael Alwan, a researcher at the Bridges for Studies Center, told the news outlet that at about 10 p.m. local time—when Prigozhin's mutiny attempt began—Russian military police and military security groups affiliated with the Syrian regime arrested a Wagner Group, a representative, and three officers—one colonel and two with the rank of lieutenant colonel—within the Khmeimim Air Base.
On Saturday morning, Wagner leaders, delegates, and recruiters were arrested in Deir ez-Zur in eastern Syria, in the Syrian capital Damascus, and in Al-Suqaylabiyah, a Greek Orthodox Christian Syrian city. In the afternoon, a recruiting representative for Wagner in the As-Suwayda region, in the south of the country, was arrested.
They were all transferred to the Khmeimim Air Base, said Alwan.
Newsweek couldn't immediately verify the reports and reached out to Russia's Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
Putin is also trying to present Prigozhin "as corrupt and a liar to destroy his reputation among Wagner personnel and within Russian society," according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank.
The president implied on Tuesday that Prigozhin had lied about the Wagner Group's independence from the Kremlin and the lack of state compensation for its personnel.
Putin did not refer to his former ally by name, describing him only as "the owner of the Concord company," but said he had received 80 billion rubles (about $936 million) between May 2022 and May 2023 for "delivering and catering food to the Russian military, and that the Kremlin will investigate whether the company stole anything during its work for the Kremlin."
The ISW said Putin's comments may be "preparation to justify the Kremlin's confiscation of Prigozhin's assets via corruption charges."
It added: "Putin is rhetorically separating Prigozhin from the Wagner PMC and is deliberately depriving Prigozhin of the title of Wagner financier to undermine his role in the Wagner PMC."
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