daily insights | January 08, 2026

Wagner Group Leader & Foudner Dmitri Outkine Is Accused Of Global Atrocities

Dmitri Outkine is one of the founders of the Wagner Group. Please continue reading this article to explore his Wikipedia details.

Dimitri Utkin, a former Russian special forces paratrooper and former military intelligence lieutenant-colonel, goes by the name “Wagner” in honor of Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer, Richard Wagner.

In a picture revealed in 2020, Utkin is seen with Nazi tattoos. In the year 2020, journalists from the BBC and Newlines locate and investigate a tablet left behind by a Russian fighter in Ain Zara, Libya, during the Battle of Tripoli.

“It is above all the ideological component that might forever affect the image of these shadow combatants,” L’Orient-Le Jour writes. Rumors regarding the group’s ideological leanings have been floating for years.

Who Is Wagner Group Leader Dmitri Outkine? Wikipedia Details

Dmitry Valerievich Utkin was born on June 11, 1970, in the Siberian city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk Oblast of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, to a family of geologists.

He is a former GRU special forces officer and Russian neo-Nazi who served as a lieutenant colonel. He is regarded as the creator of the Wagner Group, and his own call-sign is said to be Wagner.

Four Orders of Courage have been bestowed upon Utkin. Elena Shcherbinina was his wife, but they divorced in the early 2000s.

Until 2013, Utkin was the commander of the 700th Separate Special Detachment of the 2nd Separate Special Brigade of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (GRU), which was based in Pechora, Pskov Oblast. Utkin is said to have formed his own mercenary squad almost soon after returning to Russia.

Utkin, who is said to be interested in Third Reich history, used the call-sign Wagner, possibly in honor of Adolf Hitler’s favorite musician, Richard Wagner.

Utkin and his “Wagner Group” and numerous Slavonic Corps veterans were observed in Crimea in February 2014 and then in Donbas during the Russo-Ukrainian War, fighting for pro-Russian rebels.

According to Gazeta.ru, Utkin and his soldiers may have been implicated in the assassination of many Luhansk People’s Republic field commanders.

Former Special Forces Personnel Involved In Conflict – Everything We Know

The Wagner Group, as it is also called, is a Russian paramilitary group. Some have referred to it as a private military company (or private military contracting agency), whose contractors are believed to be involved in a number of conflicts, including operations on behalf of the government of Syria in the Syrian civil war, as well as aiding separatist forces in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in Ukraine from 2014 to 2015.

Utkin served in the Slavonic Corps in Syria and survived the mission’s failure. The Russian Federal Security Service detained several Slavonic Corps members for unlawful mercenary operations.

Others, including reports, believe that ChVK Wagner is a covert arm of the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the GRU, which is employed by the Russian government in situations when denial is required because its personnel is trained on MoD facilities.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is said to be the owner.