Igor Mangushev | |
|---|---|
Игорь Мангушев | |
 Mangushev inRussian-occupied Ukraine,c. 2023 | |
| Born | Igor Leonidovich Mangushev (1986-08-16)16 August 1986 Moscow,Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
| Died | 8 February 2023(2023-02-08) (aged 36) Kadiivka,Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine |
| Years active | 2009–2023 |
| Employer | Internet Research Agency |
| Organization(s) | Svetlaya Rus E.N.O.T. Corp. |
| Call sign | Bereg (Берег) |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance |  Luhansk PR Russia |
| Branch | E.N.O.T. Corp. Russian Ground Forces |
| Years of service | 2014–2023 |
| Battles / wars | |
Igor Leonidovich Mangushev (Russian:Игорь Леонидович Мангушев; 16 August 1986 – 8 February 2023) was a Russian mercenary and political strategist. A prominent figure within theKremlin, he was a hardlineRussian nationalist and is known for having foundedSvetlaya Rus in 2009 andE.N.O.T. Corp. in 2011.
Born inMoscow six years before thedissolution of the Soviet Union, Mangushev became affiliated withfar-right politics in his youth and also worked inRussia to advance the Kremlin's objectives internationally, including through his time at theInternet Research Agency. His E.N.O.T. Corp. was aprivate military company that had been active inNagorno-Karabakh, theRussian-occupied territories, andSyria, while also having a presence in theBalkans. In 2014, Mangushev was stationed inLuhansk Oblast as a captain amongUkraine's Russian separatists during theWar in Donbas. He also fought in theCentral African Republic Civil War as a mercenary and worked alongside Russian oligarchYevgeny Prigozhin, who was overseeingWagner Group activities in Africa. During theRussian invasion of Ukraine, which he took part in as an officer of an anti-drone warfare platoon, he attracted international attention for an August 2022 public speech in which he brandished a human skull that he said belonged to a Ukrainian soldier who had been killed during theRussian siege of Mariupol.
Amidst theRusso-Ukrainian War, Mangushev characterized Ukraine as an "anti-Russian state" and advocated the destruction of the Ukrainian national identity, and had "dreamed of seeingKyiv burning";[1] he claimed to have been the inventor of the Russian militaristZ symbol and had frequently been photographed while posing with theNazi salute. In February 2023, he was killed at a Russian checkpoint in the Ukrainian city ofKadiivka. His death has been described as an assassination, as he was shot in the back of his head at close range.
Igor Mangushev was born on 16 August 1986 in Moscow,Russian SFSR.[2][3]
Mangushev grew up to become aRussian nationalist,[4][5] founding the organisation Svetlaya Rus (Russian: Светлая Русь) in late 2009.[6] Mangushev, in his role leading Svetlaya Rus, coordinated with police and conducted raids onillegal migrants living within unlicensed dwellings in the Russian Federation.[7] Following the raids on immigrant dwellings, Mangushev would contact local Russian police, who would take note of the illegal migrants, fingerprint them, and typically release them.[7][8] His group was among the first such public-private partnerships in Russia to conduct these sorts of operations following the2011 arrest of Russian pilots in Tajikistan.[6]
By 2012, Mangushev's connections with militant patriotic groups in Russia had strengthened, and he founded and took the helm of E.N.O.T. (Russian:Енот),[8][9] which was founded to coordinate Russia's nascent militarised patriotic movement.[8]
According to documents leaked byAnonymous, Mangushev had become an employee of theInternet Research Agency by 2013.[10]Kommersant reported in 2015 that Mangushev had written strategic analyses for various Russian government agencies prior to the 2014 onset of theRusso-Ukrainian War.[6] He publicly spoke about his work as aninternet troll, stating that he had written messages online both in favour and in opposition to2013 Alexei Navalny mayoral campaign as a part of his work.[11]
Mangushev worked as captain in theLuhansk People's Republic People's Militia,[12] and as a mercenary.[4] Through E.N.O.T. Corp., he deployed as a fighter in the Russo-Ukrainian War beginning in 2014,[9][13] though E.N.O.T. had claimed at the time that it was simply providing humanitarian assistance to individuals living inDonbas.[14]: 131–132 Mangushev was an active proponent of the formation and use ofprivate military companies in the war, seeing them as a way to unify the citizens' militias with a more structured organisation that could provide documentation of the militia's military activities.[6]
In 2015, Mangushev continued to fight in Russian-occupiedLuhansk[6] and in December 2018 he was part of a three-person Russian contingent that was delegated toCentral African Republic's capital cityBangui to take part in theCentral African Republic Civil War.[15] Mangushev provided support to the Russian state media fundedRadio Lengo Songo.[15] Mangushev also worked as a political strategist forYevgeny Prigozhin,[4] theRussian oligarch,[16] and then-controller ofWagner Group.[17] The strategy work included disinformation efforts,[18] and the organisation ofagent provocateurs to work against opposition politicianLyubov Sobol during the2019 Moscow City Duma election.[19][10]
During the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mangushev led Russia's anti-drone platoon[18] and used the call signBereg.[20] The platoon sought out and destroyed Ukrainian drones by identifying and interrupting their WiFi signals with technology developed by Mangushev and his team.[21] Mangushev was a vocal proponent of the war and a critic of some Russian military leaders who he perceived as hesitant and making slow progress in the war.[13][5] He claimed to be the inventor of theZ symbol[20][22] and was often photographed posing with aNazi salute.[20]
Mangushev operated theTelegram channelNotes of an Adventurer.[23] In August 2022, a video circulated showing him appearing on a stage in a Russian nightclub[13] holding a skull that he claimed was from a Ukrainian soldier who died in theAzovstal Iron and Steel Works during thesiege of Mariupol.[4][24] While on stage with the skull, he stated that he sought the destruction of Ukraine as a nation-state and that Russia's goal in the invasion of Ukraine was to destroy the Ukrainiannational identity.[22] Mangushev's widow said that he took the skull from the ruins of Azovstal because "one friend's wife wanted a skull of a Ukrainian very much".[25]
On the night of 4 February 2023, at a checkpoint inKadiivka, Mangushev was shot in the back of the head.[12] At the time, he had been stationed in Kadiivka as a soldier in the Russo-Ukrainian War.[4] He was struck by a9 mm bullet at close range,[4] and afterwards was taken to a hospital in Kadiivka.[20] He died in the hospital on 8 February 2023, aged 36.[18]
His wife described his death as an execution,[4] and his friends have called for an official investigation into his death.[18] British political scientistMark Galeotti described the shooting as a "hit",[20] while Mangushev's widow alleged that medical care was being intentionally withheld from her husband in the days between the shooting and his death.[26]
Mangushev's body was cremated under strict supervision of his family because, as his widow explained, a US$70,000 prize was offered for his skull in response to his performance, and the family was seriously concerned that someone from the morgue or crematory will be tempted to covertly remove and sell it.[1]
