The History of Russia’s Mercenary Wagner Group & Its Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin

As part of our roundtable discussion, we speak with political science professor Kimberly Marten, expert on the Wagner Group, who says this weekend’s mutiny by the mercenary group and its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is part of a game of “smoke and mirrors“ between Russian power players. She details Prigozhin’s long history as “Putin’s servant“ and says Wagner “is not really a private military group,“ but has a long history of being contracted by the Russian state. “We’re just at the beginning of what’s going to happen, but neither Prighozin nor Putin came out looking very good,“ says Marten. Transcript: Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Support independent media: Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: