Putin's 'Viper' Detachment (2026)

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With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the Soviet armed forces were largely disbanded and some of their personnel were distributed among the newly independent republics. With few options, the author joined the Redut organisation which consisted of Russian mercenaries operating abroad. In the years that followed, the rise of Valdimir Putin after he became President led to a strong nationalist sentiment developing in the Kremlin. Two former Soviet republics, initially Chechnya and then Georgia, were the first to be subjected to a growing Russian aggression. Special sabotage teams and assault battalions were created, each based on the Redut group, and the author, who had acquired the call sign ‘Viper’, soon found himself once again in Russian pay. This time, though, he was leading a special forces group in operations in Donetsk in the eastern part of Ukraine. In the autumn of 2021, ‘Viper’ was appointed to command the intelligence unit of the Redut