In this episode of La Loupe, Xavier Yvon poses the question of the private army in France to Charles Carrasco, journalist with the web editorial staff of L’Express, and to Colonel Peer de Jong, former commander of the navy and founder of the Themiis institute, author of “Acting between the lines” at Editions Mareuil.
Listen to this episode and subscribe to La Loupe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict And Amazon Music.
The team: Xavier Yvon (presentation), Charlotte Baris (writing), Mathias Penguilly (editing), Jules Krot (directing) and Marion Galard (work-study).
Credits: France 24, TV5 Monde, INA
Music and dressing: Emmanuel Herschon/Studio Torrent
Picture credits: Concordgroup official/AFP
Logo: Anne-Laure Chapelain/Benjamin Chazal
How to listen to a podcast? Follow the leader.
Xavier Yvon: Dear listeners, I wanted to start this episode with… Sorry, my phone just vibrated: I don’t always turn off the notifications during a recording, in case useful information for the episode falls. Yevgeny Prigojine again accuses the Russian army of not providing enough ammunition to Wagner. Nothing very new, I resume.
As you know, in La Loupe… Decidedly, my telephone has just vibrated again: “The United States announces sanctions against Wagner in Mali. According to British intelligence, Wagner has completely withdrawn from Bakhmout”. It is true that it was planned for these days.
I turn off notifications. But you will have understood, if there is a name that cannot be escaped in the news today, it is that of the Russian Wagner militia. In recent months, several episodes of La Loupe have even been devoted to it, whether to discuss the career of its boss, Evgueni Prigojine, Wagner’s place in Africa or even Russia’s military strategy.
But can we imagine one day seeing such a “private army” act in the name of France? While the military programming law for the coming years is being examined in the National Assembly, our defense budget is at the heart of the debates. And if money can’t solve everything, it’s perhaps the organization of the troops that needs to be reviewed.
In this episode, you will discover that Wagner is only the visible part of a flourishing business: private military companies are multiplying around the world… and perhaps soon in France.
For further
PODCAST. The new recipes of Evgueni Prigojine, the “cook of Putin”
Colonel Peer de Jong: “Wagner has outdone France in Africa”
Budget of the armies: “We give means for invisible war, not for visible war”
French army: black scenarios – The file of L’Express