The Wagner Group is a Russian private military company, founded in 2014 by Dmitry Utkin, a former Russian military officer, has been active in several conflicts around the world, including Ukraine, Syria, and Libya. Utkin is thought to have taken the nom de guerre “Wagner” after the German composer Richard Wagner, who was an inspiration for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. The group is funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.