A few months ago Freddie Sayers interviewed economist Louis Gave re: Ukraine. Gave was of the opinion that the West was in trouble because flighting Climate Change and Putin is effectively a two-front war. That view made sense to me because the climate issue has clearly devolved into an extremely expensive an divisive moral crusade. There’s been widespread economic damage especially in the demonized ‘deplorable’ class while eco-carpetbaggers have been getting rich. 
So what does that have to do with the Wagner Group? The article appears to be well-researched and offers up a believable account of how the group works and for whom. They are nasty. Point taken, but I found this recent article explains further about why they are messing around in Sudan and other African countries: csis.org/analysis/how-does-conflict-sudan-affect-russia-and-wagner-group. Apparently gold mining and a possible Russian naval base are the key attractions in Sudan.
China wasn’t mentioned specifically but IMO it seems obvious that the on-going campaign to hoover up valuable resources in Africa (and elsewhere),which China has been very active for years, is quickly establishing the financial bedrock for global realignment that would make China and Russia the leaders of BRICS and Co. Ltd. 
In the meantime two recent US initiatives in Africa come to mind. Last September John Kerry warned Africans, of which over 600M have no access to electricity at all, not to depend on fossil fuels and that international financing would be limited to green energy. Not good news for African countries sitting on untapped oil resources.
Then a month or so ago VP Kamala Harris (remember her?) does a whistle stop tour in Africa. I’m not sure why because even Americans don’t listen to her unless they happen to be in the funny memes business. She blathered on about Alphabet rights literally while Ghana was debating a bill to restrict those rights even further. 
Outside of the Anglosphere and EU bubble there is a large part of the world that is not interested in Alphabet rights, DEI and ESG. They don’t debate gender – they’re quite sure what a woman actually is. Rules based international order? No thanks. Many of these countries are sitting on valuable resources that could bring growth and prosperity and they aren’t much impressed by morality lectures from jet-setting, over-stuffed westerners warning them to “not live it up like we do – it’s bad for the planet”. Meanwhile, Russia and China are showing up in these countries with muscle and money, doing deals and not worrying about social justice.
I don’t think that asking hard questions about the repeated leadership fails in the West makes one a Putin apologist. As a Canadian I seriously doubt that anyone in our government can remember when they last told the truth about anything. As to Ukraine, that the Russian invasion is indefensible seems to be an easy point but aside from the obvious destruction and human suffering you need a truckload of salt to swallow the news stream we’ve been fed over the last year from either side. We know Russia is still there. Everything else is a guess.
IMO, Wagner Group operations, and by extension increased Sino Russian influence, belong in the same category as Brexit and Trump. They are/were treated as new challenges when they are actually the result of old problems not addressed. 

Required reading for the remaining Putin apologists. And anyone who thinks that the current Russian regime are on the side of less developed countries.
Please continue with these articles.

Looks like the new face of reality.
And it looks very much like a re-run of the really bad parts of the Renaissance, with mercenary groups pillaging their way through a good part of the developing world.
The New Landsknechts, with a latter-day Wallenstein far worse than the original.
So be careful what you wish for.
When you cry out for “a multipolar world,” one of those poles will undoubtedly involve out-of-control mercenaries like these.
We already saw that in Africa in the 60’s. But this will be far worse.

How does a law firm in Britain sue a Russian mercenary group? In what court would such a suit be heard? And if whoever sits in judgement rules in favor of the plaintiffs, how is the penalty enforced? Seems a futile exercise, rather like when my former New Hampshire town issued a proclamation claiming George W. Bush to be a war criminal. Whether he was or wasn’t isn’t for me to say but it was utterly toothless and, as we can see, has had zero impact on the former president.

Didn’t the US and Blackrock produce the blueprint?

For people involved in anything in many parts of Africa the activities of the Wagner group have been known for years. I am not going to name any names but there are some highly respected and publicly quoted companies as well as private ones who use their services to protect their interests in Africa. Their methods have always been barbaric but until now, when they are on the doorstep of Europe in Ukraine, the powers that be have chosen to turn a blind eye. It is interesting to note, on that subject, that Macron pulled the French Army out of Mali when the government entered into a contract with the Wagner group. It is also interesting to note that the Wagner Group have been far more effective against civilians and ill-trained armies than it has been against the well-trained, armed and motivated Ukrainian army.

You could also give some balance to your repeated analysis embedded in the Deep State of the West by commenting on the CIA’s ops. ” Agreed about Wagner but what about the CIA? And the machinations of the Vicki Nuland set of the State Department?
Conversations with the Crow” by Gregory Douglas is a good start. Of course that may mean biting a hand that feeds …

The real danger for Russians is that many other Russian businesses are recruiting their own PMCs.
They may say they are going to send them to fight in Donbas. But when Putin goes, the oligarchs may well turn on one another, and be at every other throat.
Once the normal, legal norms go in any society, bad actors appear almost as if by magic.

…so far as I recall, in the early years of the Czarist Empire the Hetman of various Cossack communities gave direct personal loyalty to the Czar not the state (to the extent that the two were distinguishable)…and on that basis defended and extended the “All the Russias” abroad and crushed rebellion at home…so this seems to reflect Putin’s enthusiasm for history.

Stalin said, “One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic.” His family was even more screwed up than Joe Biden’s with suicides, murders and alcoholism claiming victims. Putin is cut from the same cloth, and it will be up to history to tell the story–if there is anyone left to tell it.

The most worrying part about all this is that giant Russian companies like Gazprom are also creating their own merc companies.
If you thought the 90s were bac, with assassinations of individual oligarchs/mafiosi, after Putin goes, you may well see whole regiments of mercenaries start warring against one another.
Russia has been headed down a very dark path since 2014, and it soon may reap the whirlwind.

The Americans need to take him off the board.