Marat Gabidullin, born in Siberia and raised in Uzbekistan, served in Soviet airborne forces until 1994, then spent three years in prison for shooting a crime boss. After security work in Russia, he joined the Wagner Group in 2015, rose to lead a reconnaissance company, and was badly wounded near Palmyra in 2016. He later advised the ISIS Hunters Battalion and fought at Khasham, but quit Wagner in 2019, briefly ran a Redut detachment in Syria, and left disillusioned. Gabidullin’s 2022 memoir denounced Wagner and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; he now lives in France.
Journalist and researcher John Lechner reports from conflict zones and specializes in Russian PMCs. His book Death Is Our Business (Bloomsbury, 2025) charts the rise of Wagner, following earlier work such as Beginner’s Chechen and upcoming Circassian and Sango language texts. A former policy analyst for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and an emerging-markets banker at Deutsche Bank and Lazard, Lechner holds degrees from Harvard (Slavic Languages) and Georgetown (MSFS). Fluent in five languages and conversant in several others, he is a recognized expert on Russian foreign policy and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. He lives in Washington, DC.
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Guest Links:
Marat Gabidullin
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Book – Moi, Marat, ex-commandant de l’armée Wagner – Les dessous de l’armée secrète de Poutine enfin révélé https://a.co/d/csNMjFH
Book – Ma vérité https://a.co/d/bLZYssf
John Lechner
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Book – Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare https://a.co/d/7rKXhnI
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00:00 – Introduction
02:43 – The Origins of Wagner Group
03:32 – Prigozhin’s Rise: From Gangster to Military Contractor
07:06 – Wagner Group’s Role in Ukraine
11:32 – Recruitment and Training in Wagner Group
20:53 – Wagner Group’s Global Operations
28:42 – Syria: The Strategic Move
37:17 – The Battle of Kaan: A Clash with US Forces
55:22 – American Drones and Russian Denial
01:00:51 – US Response and Russian Confusion
01:05:44 – Battle Duration and Aftermath
01:07:45 – Collecting the Dead
01:10:43 – Wagner’s Role and Russian Denial
01:14:45 – Leaving Syria and Joining RAD
01:20:44 – Wagner’s Role in Ukraine
01:23:03 – Prigozhin’s Ambitions and Tensions
01:23:51 – Prisoner Recruitment and Bakhmut
01:28:44 – Conflict with Russian Ministry of Defense
01:31:41 – March on Moscow
01:41:29 – Wagner’s End and Aftermath
01:45:01 – Final Thoughts and Message to Putin
