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#195 Marat Gabidullin - Wagner Group Commander / Russian Mercenary

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Manage episode 479553398 series 2598154
Content provided by Shawn Ryan Show and Shawn Ryan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Shawn Ryan Show and Shawn Ryan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

Marat Gabidullin, born in Siberia and raised in Uzbekistan, served in Soviet airborne forces until 1994, then spent three years in prison for shooting a crime boss. After security work in Russia, he joined the Wagner Group in 2015, rose to lead a reconnaissance company, and was badly wounded near Palmyra in 2016. He later advised the ISIS Hunters Battalion and fought at Khasham, but quit Wagner in 2019, briefly ran a Redut detachment in Syria, and left disillusioned. Gabidullin’s 2022 memoir denounced Wagner and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; he now lives in France.

Journalist and researcher John Lechner reports from conflict zones and specializes in Russian PMCs. His book Death Is Our Business (Bloomsbury, 2025) charts the rise of Wagner, following earlier work such as Beginner’s Chechen and upcoming Circassian and Sango language texts. A former policy analyst for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and an emerging-markets banker at Deutsche Bank and Lazard, Lechner holds degrees from Harvard (Slavic Languages) and Georgetown (MSFS). Fluent in five languages and conversant in several others, he is a recognized expert on Russian foreign policy and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. He lives in Washington, DC.

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Guest Links:

Marat Gabidullin

FB - https://www.facebook.com/share/15TBVmf2mt/

Book - Moi, Marat, ex-commandant de l'armée Wagner - Les dessous de l'armée secrète de Poutine enfin révélé https://a.co/d/csNMjFH

Book - Ma vérité https://a.co/d/bLZYssf

John Lechner

X - https://x.com/JohnLechner1

IG - https://www.instagram.com/johnalechner/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/john.lechner.5

Book - Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare https://a.co/d/7rKXhnI

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249 episodes

Artwork
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Manage episode 479553398 series 2598154
Content provided by Shawn Ryan Show and Shawn Ryan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Shawn Ryan Show and Shawn Ryan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://ppacc.player.fm/legal.

Marat Gabidullin, born in Siberia and raised in Uzbekistan, served in Soviet airborne forces until 1994, then spent three years in prison for shooting a crime boss. After security work in Russia, he joined the Wagner Group in 2015, rose to lead a reconnaissance company, and was badly wounded near Palmyra in 2016. He later advised the ISIS Hunters Battalion and fought at Khasham, but quit Wagner in 2019, briefly ran a Redut detachment in Syria, and left disillusioned. Gabidullin’s 2022 memoir denounced Wagner and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; he now lives in France.

Journalist and researcher John Lechner reports from conflict zones and specializes in Russian PMCs. His book Death Is Our Business (Bloomsbury, 2025) charts the rise of Wagner, following earlier work such as Beginner’s Chechen and upcoming Circassian and Sango language texts. A former policy analyst for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and an emerging-markets banker at Deutsche Bank and Lazard, Lechner holds degrees from Harvard (Slavic Languages) and Georgetown (MSFS). Fluent in five languages and conversant in several others, he is a recognized expert on Russian foreign policy and has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Foreign Policy. He lives in Washington, DC.

Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors:

⁠https://www.roka.com⁠ - USE CODE SRS

https://www.americanfinancing.net/SRS

NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org

https://www.expressvpn.com/SRS

https://www.shawnlikesgold.com

https://www.hillsdale.edu/SRS

https://www.shopify.com/SRS

https://trueclassic.com/SRS

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/SRS

Guest Links:

Marat Gabidullin

FB - https://www.facebook.com/share/15TBVmf2mt/

Book - Moi, Marat, ex-commandant de l'armée Wagner - Les dessous de l'armée secrète de Poutine enfin révélé https://a.co/d/csNMjFH

Book - Ma vérité https://a.co/d/bLZYssf

John Lechner

X - https://x.com/JohnLechner1

IG - https://www.instagram.com/johnalechner/

FB - https://www.facebook.com/john.lechner.5

Book - Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare https://a.co/d/7rKXhnI

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  continue reading

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