"Little Wagnerite" youth club run by Prigozhin opens in Saint Petersburg
The Little Wagnerite youth club has been opened in Saint Petersburg. The building operates on a base of the Wagner Group PMC, which is orchestrated by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman.
Source: The Bumaga (Paper) media outlet from Saint Petersburg
Details: The club was opened in early 2023, and its first meeting was held on 29 January. There were only a little more than 10 people there.
Members of parliament and law enforcement officers come to these meetings with children, and they offer the children to play a military UAV simulator. Organisers of this club have a goal to "instil love to the motherland" to pupils and students.
Quote: "MPs of the State Duma [the lower house of the Russian parliament – ed.] – Vasily Vlasov and Maria Butina, pro-governmental blogger Vitaly Veresk who held lectures about tuning of arms on the base of the Wagner Group Centre, and blogger Yury Podolyaka have visited the ‘Little Wagnerite’ centre for over a month."
More details: Viktor Shmarkovsky, a Special Forces soldier, was present at another meeting. He was introduced as the head of the KUOS-Vympel foundation for state security special forces veterans. This organisation considers itself a successor of a department of the KGB.
Shmarkovsky has said that he "radiated delta waves", and his brain was capable of surviving any hit "because of liquid gathered in certain zones". He has added that he was "a child of the first nuclear bomb".
Alexander Tronin, an organiser of the project, has stated that currently, about 60 people are members of the youth club.
Background:
- In November 2022, the Wagner Group Centre related to Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian businessman who is also known as "Putin’s chef", was opened in Saint Petersburg.
- On 6 February 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognised the Wagner Group as an international criminal organisation.
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