In one of his few known photos, the chief of operations of the Wagner paramilitary group, Dmitri Utkin, appears with a shaved head and a murderous look. On both of his collarbones, the same tattoo: the symbol of the SS, the paralimit organization at the service of the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler.
This veteran of special units of Russian military intelligence was traveling with Wagner’s boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, on a plane that crashed north of Moscow on Wednesday night.
According to official sources, almost nothing is known about this former officer whom the Russian media, including the state media, presented in 2015-2016 as Wagner’s “commander”, at a time when the authorities denied any relationship with him. group, then active in Syria and Ukraine.
However, the curtain was slightly drawn back in December 2016, when he was invited to a reception in the Kremlin paying tribute to the Russian “heroes” of the Syrian civil war, in which Moscow is participating alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime. He was even photographed alongside President Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, his ex-wife Elena Shcherbina indicated in an interview with the Gazeta.ru news website that she was trying to get back in touch with him.
Difficult transition
According to her and an April investigation by the media dossier.center, Utkin, born in 1970, served in the 2000s in the Russian army’s war against the Chechen independence rebels and the jihadists of the North Caucasus.
Utkin was responsible for the group’s operations and Prigozhin was in charge of the financial part (REUTERS / Stringer)
According to this investigation, he left the military in 2012 and founded his first security company. His ex-wife described to Gazeta.ru a difficult transition.
“It took a lot for him to adjust. She had a hard time not fighting. He wanted a military career, as a combat officer, and not wear out his pants in a barracks,” he explained.
How did you meet Yevgeny Prigozhin and create what would become Wagner back in 2014? It’s a mystery, but the group is called after its code name, “Wagner”.
Many see this election as further proof of Utkin’s Nazi sympathies, since Adolf Hitler was passionate about the German composer Richard Wagner and the men of the paramilitary group call themselves “the musicians”.
Utkin was responsible for the group’s operations and Prigozhin was in charge of the financial side and relations with the Russian government since he had known Putin since the early 1990s.
Everything was done with absolute secrecy.
In barely a decade, the two men and their group became as famous as they were, operating in the shadows and being accused of all kinds of outrages, torture, and summary executions in places like the Central African Republic, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine.
At first, the Russian offensive against Ukraine in February 2022 did not change anything.
According to official sources, almost nothing is known about this former officer whom the Russian media, including state media, presented in 2015-2016 as Wagner’s “commander”.
But when the Russian army was forced to withdraw to the east and south in the fall of 2022, Prigozhin became a public figure, acknowledging Wagner’s existence and conscripting tens of thousands of prisoners.
The group led the assault on Bakhmut, a bloody battle that lasted a year and established itself as the most effective Russian force.
Utkin remained very discreet, not appearing in videos or posting on Telegram, contrary to Prigozhin, who even publicly insulted the military hierarchy.
Death “by traitors”
This did not prevent Utkin from earning the respect of his mercenaries and, most likely, from taking part in the abortive mutiny in June, when Wagner marched on Moscow demanding the heads of the Chief of Staff and the Defense Minister.
At makeshift memorials in Russia for those killed in Wednesday’s plane crash, his face is as prominent as Prigozhin’s, and Telegram channels close to Wagner are full of praise.
Some suggest that he was assassinated and all eyes have turned to the Kremlin since the air disaster, since Putin considered the rebels traitors.
“Dmitri Valerievich Utkin was a hero of Russia, a four-time knight of the Order of Valor and known throughout the world by his nom de guerre ‘Wagner,'” the Gray Zone channel noted on the night of the accident.
