Death Is Our Business

Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare

By: John Lechner

Narrated by: Christopher Ragland

Bloomsbury presents Death Is Our Business by John Lechner, read by Christopher Ragland.

"Extraordinary. . . Essential reading for understanding Russia and modern warfare."—CHRIS MILLER, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War and Putinomics

“John Lechner is an amazingly bold reporter who has been to the key places where the Wagner Group fought, interviewing members, veterans, and victims to deliver a shrewd, granular sense of how Russian mercenary forces operate.”—ADAM HOCHSCHILD, bestselling author of King Leopold’s Ghost

The shocking inside story of how the Wagner Group made private military companies inextricable from Russia’s anti-Western foreign strategy.

In 2014, a well-trained, mysterious band of mercenaries arrived in Ukraine, part of Russia’s first attempt to claim the country as its own. Upon ceasefire, the “Wagner Group” faded back into shadow, only to reemerge in the Middle East, where they’d go toe-to-toe with the U.S., and in Africa, where they’d earn praise for “tough measures” against insurgencies yet spark outrage for looting, torture, and civilian deaths. As Russia gained a foothold of influence abroad, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, known as “Putin’s Chef,” went from caterer to commander to single greatest threat Putin has faced in his over-twenty-year rule.

Dually armed with military and strategic prowess, the Wagner Group created a new market in a vast geopolitical landscape increasingly receptive to the promises of private actors. In this trailblazing account of the Group’s origins and operations, John Lechner—the only journalist to report across its many warzones—brings us on the ground to witness Wagner partner with fragile nation states, score access to natural resources, oust peacekeeping missions, and cash in on conflicts reframed as Kremlin interests. After rebelling, Prigozhin faced an epic demise—but Wagner lives on, its political, business, and military ventures a pillar of Russian operations the world over.

Featuring exclusive interviews with over thirty Wagner Group members, Death Is Our Business is the terrifying true tale of the renegade militia that proved global instability is nothing if not an opportunity.

©2025 John Lechner (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc