I believe during the Cold War there were some mercenaries with a residuum of a moral compass: they would gladly fight for pay, but only if it was in an anti-Communist cause.

All of the West appears to be dissolving at roughly the same rate. Britain, France, Germany, Canada, the US, the future doesn’t look bright for any of them. And China and Russian aren’t in great shape, either. There is a big door-stopper book here for a historian who perhaps is yet unborn. That assumes there will still be a civilization where such a work could be researched and written and people to read it.

How very odd that a South African journalist should fail to mention one of the most notorious mercenary escapades of recent years, the farcical attempt to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea by one Simon Mann Esq.
Mann, ex- Eton, Scots Guards, SAS, and latterly a mercenary outfit calling itself ‘Sandline International’*, brought the good name of professional mercenaries spectacularly into disrepute but the sheer naïveté and incompetence of his ‘operation’.
He was fortunate to escape with his life.

(* Sandline had previously operated very successfully in Angola, thus making its other Director, one Tim Spicer Esq, also formerly Scots Guards, a very rich man indeed.)

i missed the part about how they become more dangerous.
also wondering how that happens if mother russia cuts them off.

@Charles Stanhope. Contract officers with SAF were not mercenaries; they were employed directly by, and had made an oath of loyalty to, Oman and its constitutional leader, HM Sultan Qaboos. Yes, they were on a contract, but so are many members of militaries; one of Putin’s problems is that his conscripts can’t fight in Ukraine; they would have to volunteer to become ‘regulars’.

Mercenaries, by contrast, are paid by their employing company and work for them.

We are slightly immune from these distinctions in the U.K. today, but it was not always so. In the past, distinctions of service (even in general war) were drawn between Regulars, Reservists, Territorials and Volunteers. Those distinctions have been largely eliminated as we morphed into the ‘One Army’ concept but elements of difference still remain.

So, please accept that SAF contract officers were, and are, not mercaneries.

(BTW I was not a SAF Contract Officer but ‘Loan Service’: unlimited commitment (ie we were allowed, indeed expected, to fight) but even we had a ‘get out of jail’ card: we did not have to obey orders that would not have been given by a British Officer. This came to a head in 1987 during Operation SAIF, when the then COSSAF (the first Omani to hold the post) made a series of completely bizarre decisions.)

Blinken and Nuland were banking on him playing the role of Rasputin in the Winter Palace, so Putin really had to get medieval on his derrière to polish him off.
But apart from being the first proxy war by the Washington neocons, what has made this ghastly war novel is the use of a substantial mercenary force. And that iself is pretty Medieval.

He who takes up the sword shall . . . what?

I recommend reading “Firepower” by Chris Dempster and Dave Tomkins, to get an insight into the Angolan war.

A former member of the Parachute Regiment said to me leaders of Muslim countries in sub -Sharan African countries are using Wagner because French politicians are not allowing 2 eREP – Legion Parachute to undertake what is needed to defeat Islamic Terrorists. The consequence is western leaning Muslim nations, threatened by Islamic Terrorism are using Wagner and therefore will come under the influence of Russia. Russia stands by her allies such as Assad in Syria while M Gaddafi who had come over to the West is betrayed by us, murdered by Islamic Extremists and as well we, hastily withdraw from Afghanistan, leaving vast amounts of equipment.
How long before countries such as Uganda and Keny which suffer from Islamic Terrorist attacks employ Wagner? The other benefit for African leaders is that they do not have to listen lectures on homosexuality and transgenderism from the West.
The lack of tough worldly wise leaders in the West who would use whatever means needed to thwart Putin was why he invaded Georgia, Crimea, Ukraine, supported Assad and Wagner gains in support in Africa. Putin assessed tht there would no effective opposition to his actions. Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Iran have joined the BRICs group of nations which if Iraq as well then much of the Worlds oil, gas and mineral wealth will be under the control of countries antagonistic to the West and largely dictatorial. What future a free democratic World?

Surely what is imporatnt are the aims and achievements of the soldiers? Do their actions increase or decrease the number of innocent killed?

Putin eventually did the right thing with regard to Vagner–but far too late.
There’s a reason why they stopped using mercs for most of the last 350 years.
As the writer notes, they often develop political goals of their own, which then clash with those of their employers.
Also well to remember that most of the barbarian groups that eventually took over the Roman empire (called “foederati”) were on the same model. And almost all inevitably developed their own political goals, and betrayed Rome.
Prigozhin may have sincerely believed he was just demanding that the war be fought better. But any challenge to political authority weakens it. Either it refuses the advice and remains dysfunctional, or it accepts it, and looks ever weaker.
Killing Prigozhin did get rid of a loose cannon, but it also degraded Putin’s power, and permanently.
So, it is richly ironic that the force that helped bring down the Roman Empire may also help bring down “the Third Rome”–the collapsing Russian empire that Putin is so desperately trying to save.
Urra!