Turns out that despite all the both sidesing of the Avoz Battalion (et al.) with this allegedly equally fascist "Wagner Group", it was only ever one guy with connections to mercenaries with no common organizational (let alone ideological) structure.
To clarify, "Wagner" is a catch-all term to refer to all of the members of an informal network of Russian mercenary groups, named after the nickname of one neo-Nazi commander who was active in Ukraine in 2014. He hasn't been seen since 2016, there's no evidence that he founded the entire mercenary network, and there's no evidence that the entire network is ideologically fascist. His name was slapped onto the umbrella term as a way of implying that the network is a singular neo-Nazi paramilitary under his leadership, which is deceptive. Contrast with the fascist credentials of Azov (et al.), which are overwhelming. The purpose of making the comparison between them is to minimize the threat, the role in the war, and the crimes of Azov (et al.), as well as the role the US/NATO plays in supporting them and international fascism more generally. And of course this is all in service of fanning the flames of bloodthirsty Amerikkkan imperialism.
Obviously these mercenaries are still bad, etc. etc., but I figured that was obvious.
Yeah, that's what I mean. These Russian fascist mercenaries aren't given a platform or PR by the state, and are kept at a distance from the formal military, which also keeps them ideologically at a distance. Unlike Azov, they don't seem to have any political power, don't seem to have a social movement behind them (legitimized by the state, like with labeling Bandera a national hero), and haven't threatened to overthrow their government if they don't get their way. They don't get to make tweets about committing war crimes on behalf of the military. Hence my saying it's a false equivalence to equate them to Azov. It's a deflection.
I agree, but my personal opinion on "Wagner" is clouded by my experience with them being deployed in a neighbouring country. They arrived using what I guess is Russian MOD aircraft (I'm no expert, they could have been using their own planes), went into Mozambique, 25% of them left because of the environmental conditions. They refused to work with the Mozambican government after being ambushed by jihadists dressed in fake Mozambique uniforms. This led to them getting beaten badly by jihadists due to all these factors, and left, while the situation had gotten worse.
It seems they've learnt their lessons from Mozambique given their deployments in CAR and Mali, but I still don't want them to come back. The official AU peacekeeping force consisting of mainly South African and Rwandan forces seems to be doing a much better job in Mozambique. I'm still not happy about that, but it's better than what was before.
I mean, yeah, I'm sure they're assholes. Mercenaries are trash. Hope they all choke, etc.
Russia in general has not been good at soft power in Sub Saharan Africa. Or at least not as good as they could have been. For their nuclear power plant deal in South Africa, they decided to carry it out while Jacob Zuma was president, he's a very controversial figure and the face of corruption to many. This sank the deal. Then there's the Mozambican deployment of Wagner, and many other blunders.
They seem to be doing much better in central and west Africa for sure though.