Logically, according to the British Disinformation Research Group, job advertisements for Wagner, operating as mercenaries in several countries, reached almost 120,000. Views on two social media platforms in the last 10 months.
About 60 posts — in dozens of languages — including French, Vietnamese and Spanish — share information about war, IT, management and medical positions at Wagner. They contained contact phone numbers and Telegram account addresses, and advertised a monthly salary of 240,000 rubles (€2,800), with allowances including healthcare.
Advertising by Wagner Group on Twitter
Although researchers cannot logically attribute the messages to Wagner Group with 100 percent certainty, the posts bear the company’s stamp. “We know these ads use the same language as Wagner’s previously verified accounts on Telegram or the Russian social networking site WKontakt,” said Kyle Walter, Logically’s head of research.
It is not clear how successful the recruitment campaigns have been. However, inciting violence — and encouraging Russian attacks on Ukraine — is almost certainly a violation of Facebook and Twitter’s separate terms of service.
A separate analysis by a Western European country official shared with POLITICO confirms that at least two of the phone numbers in these social media posts are directly linked to the Wagner Group or Russian intelligence services.
Advertisement by Wagner Group on Facebook
Twitter responded to a request for comment with an automated poop emoji (sent by Twitter’s press office The poop emoji To most of the questions asked by journalists – such a decision was made by Elon Musk). Last week, Twitter withdrew from the European Union’s agreement to combat disinformation.
“We’ve identified the Wagner group as a dangerous organization, which means they can’t be on our sites,” a spokesperson for Facebook-owned company Meta told us. He said the company also removes content that “gives praise or substantial support to the Wagner Group, including positions it seeks to recruit for, once we become aware of them.”
The Wagner Group is active in conflicts in Mali and Central Africa, but is particularly active in Ukraine. Lately, the group has been having tough fights in Bagmut. Wagner’s group lost about 20,000. Militants in Ukraine.
A French-language post about working for the Wagner Group says: “We have vacations, health care, well-paid jobs and the opportunity to work around the world.” The announcement announces a salary of 240,000 rubles and a “good performance bonus”.
Announcement of the Wagner group to work in Vietnam
“Join us now to defend the honor of Russia and the multipolar world!” – We read in another post in French on Facebook. A third Facebook post in French promotes “life insurance” and works for “a team focused on efficiency and success.”
“Evgeny Prigozhin directly from Bakhmut invites volunteers aged 22 to 55 to work in the Wagner group!” – We read the tweet in Indonesian.
The Wagner Group and several of its leaders have been placed under US and EU sanctions, and some countries have taken further steps to limit their activities. In January, the United States recognized the group as an international criminal organization responsible for human rights abuses. French legislators Wagner voted in May to designate the group a terrorist organization.
The survey of job ads was conducted between mid-April and May 19 and included posts on Facebook and Twitter. At the time of the study’s completion, 58 of the 60 posts were active (two were removed by Facebook after POLITICO’s information).
Mark Scott is the co-author of this article.
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