Ghost soldiers: the Russians secretly dying for the Kremlin in Syria

[RandomGuy]

Quite possibly part of the pattern first seen in Ukraine:

Russian soldiers given orders to go fight, but told to hide all traces of their active duty military status.

Except its kind of hard to hide the casualties. Distraught mothers are awfully hard to intimidate.

TOGLIATTI, Russia (Reuters) - The start of this year proved deadly for one unit of about 100 Russian fighters supporting President Bashar al-Assad's troops in northern Syria.

On Feb. 3, 38-year-old Maxim Kolganov was killed in a firefight with rebels near Aleppo when a bullet pierced his body armor and heart. Then, on March 9, the same unit came under s -fire near Palmyra, and Sergei Morozov, also 38, was hit and died on the way to hospital.

Back in southern Russia, medals were delivered to their families: the order of bravery, with certificates signed by President Vladimir Putin. The medals, seen by Reuters, were intended to honor the sacrifice they had made for their country.

Except Kolganov and Morozov were not employed by the Russian state. They were in Syria as private contractors, a small part of an army of such people who are being deployed secretly by the Kremlin in Syria.

The deaths of Kolganov and Morozov, and others like them, have not been made public. Families say they were given little information and told not discuss the cases. In at least one case that Reuters uncovered, the family of a fighter killed in Syria received a payout of around $100,000 in compensation.

Officially, Russia is participating only in an air war over Syria with a small number of special forces on the ground. Moscow denies that its troops are involved in regular ground combat operations.

However, in interviews with more than a dozen people with direct knowledge of these deployments, Reuters has established that Russian fighters are playing a more substantial role in ground combat than that the role the Kremlin says is being played by the regular Russian military.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ghost-sol...093453484.html


Russia sinks into the quagmire...

[hater]

At least they dont embed their special ops and mercenaries in with Al Nusra/Al Qaeda like Uncle Sam does tbqh

[spurraider21]

i still remember the reaction when romney called russia the top geopolitical threat

[boutons_deux]

Russia isn't threat. They adopted Assad/Syria, and that's all they have to do in the M/E

They have nothing to gain in Syria, just protectin Pootin's .

[SnakeBoy]

So Russia is using "contractors" for military purposes. I wonder how on earth they came up with that brilliant scheme.

[hater]

So Russia is using "contractors" for military purposes. I wonder how on earth they came up with that brilliant scheme.

It actually is a brilliant idea if youre an MIC insider like Cheney or Shillary

They get paid big bucks but you dont have to count them as US casualties so the public is oblivious to their deaths and the taxpayer pays even bigger bucks to your companies and partners

[hater]

Actually the Syrian army is successful with this type of mercenarism. The young men go to die but their families are well taken care of at home. Russia and all countries are taking a page out of US and Syrian strategies