Konstantin Aleksandrovich Pikalov (born 23 July 1968), call sign "Mazay", is a Russian colonel and former

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 ...

leader. Head of the group's operations in Africa, he has notably operated in the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...

. He is also the founder of another private military company, "Convoy".

PMC "Convoy"

In 2016, Konstantin Pikalov created "Convoy", a private security company based in

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 ...

. "Convoy" has been active primarily in Africa. In 2023, Pikalov and

Sergey Aksyonov Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov (; ; ; born 26 November 1972) is a Russian politician serving as the head of the Republic of Crimea since 9 October 2014, a territory internationally recognised as part of Ukraine. Biography Sergey Aksyonov was ...

founded a new private paramilitary organization separate from Wagner Group, known by the name of a previously existing security company "Convoy". "Convoy" recruits mercenaries for

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 ...

. Following the

2023 Nigerien coup d'état On 26 July 2023, a coup d'état occurred in Niger when the country's presidential guard detained President Mohamed Bazoum, and Presidential Guard commander General Abdourahamane Tchiani proclaimed himself the leader of a new military junta, shor ...

, the

Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. From its founding in 1962 until 1987, it was an affiliate of Georgetown University, initially named the Center for Strategic and Inte ...

reported that the United States could use the fallout of the then-recent

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 ...

to dislodge "Convoy" control in Africa.

References

1968 births Living people {{Russia-mil-bio-stub People of the Wagner Group Russian mercenaries