Aleksandr Sergeevich Kuznetsov (Ru: Кузнецов Александр Сергеевич), nom de guerre Ratibor, is a Russian soldier who co-founded the

Wagner Group The Wagner Group (), officially known as PMC Wagner (, ), is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled 2023 Wagner Group plane crash, until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Pu ...

alongside

Yevgeny Prigozhin Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a ...

and

Dmitry Utkin Dmitry Valerievich Utkin (; 11 June 1970 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian military officer and mercenary. He served as a special forces officer in the GRU, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was the co-founder and military comm ...

. His first role in the mercenary company was as commander of the 1st Attack and Reconnaissance Company in 2014, and fought in Syria, Libya, Sudan, and Ukraine. Following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in 2023, Kuznetsov joined the Chechen Akhmat forces in Ukraine with other ex-Wagner mercenaries.

Biography

Kuznetsov was born on October 8, 1977, in Nikolskoye,

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in what is now Russia. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg Higher Military Command College, and soon joined Senezh, the Russian special operations forces. In 2004, Kuznetov posted a video claiming he was in the group of Russian soldiers that killed Chechen fighter Khamzat Gelayev. He was company commander of

GRU Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series. Gru or GRU may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper * Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga'' Organizations Georgia (c ...

Solnechnogorsk Solnechnogorsk (, lit. ''sunny mountain town'') is a town and the administrative center of Solnechnogorsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located on the Moscow–St. Petersburg Highway and the Moscow–St. Petersburg railway, on ...

. In 2008, as a major in the Russian government, he was arrested and convicted of robbery and kidnapping, a sentence he served in a

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

prison for five years. He helped found the

in 2014 alongside

Anton Yelizarov Anton Olegovich Yelizarov (; born 1 May 1981), also known by his nom de guerre "Lotos" (, literally: ''Lotus''), is a Russian terrorist, war criminal, mercenary leader and military officer, one of the commanders of PMC Wagner Group. He has me ...

, Andrei Troshev, and

with the blessing of the Russian government. He was placed as the commander of the 1st Attack and Reconnaissance Company. He took the call sign "Ratibor", and his first deployment was in Ukraine during the

War in Donbas The war in Donbas, or the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. The war Timeline of the war in Donbas (2014), began in April 2014, when Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, Russian para ...

in 2014 with Rusich. In 2016, Kuznetsov served in Syria in the Moran Security Group, a predecessor to Wagner. He was photographed with Utkin, Troshev, and Andrey Bogatov receiving the

Hero of Russia Hero of the Russian Federation ( rus, Герой Российской Федерации, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲijskəj fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨɪ), also unofficially called Hero of Russia ( rus, Герой России, p=ɡʲɪˈroj rɐˈsʲiɪ), is ...

award from

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. In 2019, Kuznetsov served with Wagner in Libya alongside the

Libyan National Army The Libyan National Army (LNA; , ''al-jaysh al-waṭaniyy al-Lībii''), also known as the Libyan Arab Army (LAA; , ''al-Jaysh al-'Arabiyy al-Lībii'') or the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF; ), is a component of Libyan Armed Forces, Libya's mil ...

during their offensives on

Tripoli Tripoli or Tripolis (from , meaning "three cities") may refer to: Places Greece *Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece * Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in the Pelasgiotis district, Thessaly, near Larissa ...

. On October 3, 2019, Kuznetsov was wounded in an ambush that killed 15 Wagner and Rusich operatives. He was flown to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

for treatment. After the injury, Kuznetsov headed Meroe Gold in Sudan, a Wagner-linked company controlling several gold mines in Sudan. In February 2022, Kuznetsov fought in the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

m where he was injured on January 11, 2023, during the

Battle of Soledar The battle of Soledar was a series of military engagements in and around the urban-type settlement of Soledar during the Battle of Donbas (2022), battle of Donbas in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian forces began an offensive on 3 August ...

. In December 2022, Kuznetsov had been shown in a video by Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. During the

Wagner Group rebellion On 23 June 2023, the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, staged an uprising against the Russia under Vladimir Putin, Russian government. It marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Russian Ministry of Defence conflict, Wagner Grou ...

in June 2023, Kuznetsov led Wagner's assault and capture of the city of

Rostov-on-Don Rostov-on-Don is a port city and the administrative centre of Rostov Oblast and the Southern Federal District of Russia. It lies in the southeastern part of the East European Plain on the Don River, from the Sea of Azov, directly north of t ...

. He reportedly kept a low profile after the rebellion and after Prigozhin's death in September 2023, not seeking any political aims within the group. Kuznetsov joined the Akhmat Special Forces led by

Apti Alaudinov Apti Aronovich Alaudinov (, ) (born 5 October 1973) is a Russian Lieutenant general and a high-ranking member of the Kadyrovites of the National Guard of Russia. Early life He was born into a Chechen family. His father was an officer in the So ...

alongside 3,000 other former Wagner fighters in April 2024.

References

{{Auth Living people 1977 births People from Leningrad Oblast 21st-century Russian military personnel Pro-Russian people of the war in Donbas