Thread by @NewFrontlines

Yesterday, a Telegram channel associated with the #WagnerGroup posted a call for recruits:

"The Wagner Philharmonic has decided to take part in the Great World Concert and is holding auditions to select for its touring musical troupe."

A 🧵 on #Wagner & what the post reveals.

1. Some background: Russian #VDV Airborne #Spetsnaz commander Dmitry Utkin adopted the callsign "Wagner" in the first Russian incursion in #Donbas in 2014, a triple entendre indicating his position as "conductor" of off-book scouts and saboteurs now known as the #WagnerGroup.

2. Much has been made of Wagner's affiliation with neo-Nazi movements in #Russia. But the cultural weave of Russian mercenaries is more nuanced.

"Wagner" also refers to the German composer's valorization during the #ThirdReich by Adolf Hitler & Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.

3. References to #musicians or #музыканты among the so-called #Wagnerovtsy or #вагнеровцы also ties to the German composer's famous "Ride of the Valkyries," a musical drama from the opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen," which draws on the Poetic Edda tradition of the Nordic Vikings.

4. Another notable link is that Nazi Quarter-Master General Eduard Wagner authored the orders that called for the Nazi Einsatzgruppen to co-operate in murdering Soviet Jews

5. The cultural weave of #WagnerGroup references to #musicians and #tourists also evokes Soviet era "Comrade Tourists" of the #ColdWar era, who traveled in plainclothes during the height of Russia's proxy wars in hotspots like #Syria, #Mozambique, and #Congo.

6. Back to yesterday's recruitment call on a #Wagner-linked Telegram channel: An associated Telegram channel reposted it and received some 300 comments.

One commenter refers to "another orchestra from Siberia that is playing there."

7. Another comment mentions Molkino, a town in Russia's Krasnodar district that serves as a joint training center for PMSC contingents like Wagner.

Read more in our report Decoding the Wagner Group: newamerica.org/international-…

8. One commenter says he is in the area and may apply, while several others ask where and how they can do so.

9. Several commenters chip in to clarify the barely concealed meaning of the post and explain that interested applicants might reach out to active "musicians" to learn more.

10. Others ask about the salary and receive a variety of estimates, possibly including a death payout ("God forbid") of 5 million rubles, equal to roughly $45,000 today.

11. A taste of the rhetoric that flourishes in these spaces: "ISIS Hunters [a Wagner-linked contingent that operated in Syria] begins the hunt for the black degenerates who decided to step foot in Ukraine."

12. There's much more to say, but one other key reference among so-called "Wagner musicians" is their love of the war classic #ApocalypseNow.

One commenter quotes a line from the movie's famous Ride of the Valkyries scene: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

cc @christogrozev @Jack_Mrgln @SameralAtrush @ak_mack @CandaceRondeaux @AlexMStark @manveenrana @ericschmittnyt @mschwirtz @RobynDixon__