Mozart Group mercenaries in Ukraine: Some real Congressional oversight on this stuff might be a good idea
Should actual mercenary companies be allowed to operate out of the US?
Peter Maass reports for The Intercept on some disturbing allegations about a Wyoming-based company called the Mozart Group that was involved with training Ukrainian soldiers. (The company announced at the end of January that it had shut down.) It claimed its employees didn’t engage in combat there. But the company is facing a lawsuit making claims the Mozart Group contests:
Andy Bain, a businessman in Kyiv since the 2000s and a former Marine, filed a lawsuit in Wyoming, where Mozart is registered as a limited liability company, accusing Milburn of financial fraud, sexual misconduct, burglary, attempted bribery, avoidance of U.S. weapons-transfer regulations, and even threatening a retired American general. The lawsuit asks the court to remove Milburn from the company and order him to pay damages of more than $50,000. According to the suit from Bain — who says he is the majority shareholder of Mozart — Milburn presided over the group “in a manner which has caused senior Ukrainian military officers to remark ‘can’t he go home and stop saving our country.’”1
So, an American businessman who has been based in Ukraine “since the 2000s“ claims to be the majority investor in a US-based company that has been training Ukrainian soldiers. And he is claiming it’s involved in some very dubious dealings.
Whatever the Mozart Group itself has been doing, it shared some dubious company in its business:
The last few decades of global warfare have seen a profusion of private military companies operating with little scrutiny and engaging in widespread abuses. The most notorious after 9/11 was Blackwater, led by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince, whose highly paid mercenaries — mostly retired U.S. service members — ran amok in Iraq and were implicated in war crimes there, though Prince was not personally charged. Wagner’s troops have been accused of atrocities in pretty much every war zone where they fight.
Mozart casts itself in a different mold, as it claims its members are unarmed and help civilians in addition to soldiers; Milburn reacted with public anger when an American magazine described him as a “foreign fighter.” Nonetheless, Mozart has found a unique way of marching into controversy. [my emphasis]
Let’s take note here that the post-1989 era, the definitive end of the Cold War which most of the world hoped would be a less dangerous era, is one we can now reflexively refer to as “the last few decades of global warfare.”
David Isenberg reports:
When it operated in Iraq and Afghanistan, Blackwater claimed its contractors operated strictly in a defensive role, protecting diplomats and other officials. Yet there were numerous occasions when its employees fired their weapons for non-defensive purposes. Mozart was focused on rescuing endangered civilians from the front lines, yet was also engaged in paramilitary activities by training Ukrainian military and security forces. Blackwater was an explicitly for-profit group, and Mozart seemed to be positioning itself to become one too.2 [my emphasis]
The US military’s Stars and Stripes this past November published a report on the Mozart Group which can generously be described as a puff piece.3 It actually reads more like an advertising insert for the Mozart Group. It even offers the following photo for sale, with options for Print, Framed Print, Framed Print-No Mat, and Canvas, available in sizes 10”, 14”, 20”, and 30”.
If the idea was for the US military to use the Wagner Mozart Group for direct participation in the conflict while maintaining “plausible deniability,” they don’t seem to have tried very hard to keep up the “deniability” cover in this case.
Private security is a huge business in the US. And at some point, the boundary between “security” and soldiers-for-hire can become pretty thin. On the other hand, the difference between watching buildings and factories during off hours and hiring out soldiers to fight for other countries (or foreign oligarchs, or criminal operations) is pretty clear in most cases.
Bodyguards are one thing. Soldiers-for-hire are a different kind of activity.
Maass, Peter (2023): U.S. Military Vets in Ukraine Are Fighting Each Other in Court. The Intercept 01/20/2023. <https://theintercept.com/2023/01/20/ukraine-mozart-group-us-veterans/> (Accessed: 2023-13-04).
Isenberg, David (2023): The rise and fall of the Mozart Group. Responsible Statecraft 02/08/2023. <https://responsiblestatecraft.org/2023/02/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-mozart-group/> (Accessed: 2023-14-04).
Shkolnikova, Svetlana (2023): American veterans race to train Ukrainian soldiers as war with Russia sweeps more troops into battle Stars and Stripes 11/09/2022. <https://www.stripes.com/veterans/2022-11-09/ukraine-american-veterans-train-troops-7972157.html> (Accessed: 2023-14-04).