On June 11th Dimitri Utkin aka “Wagner” would have turned 56 years old. If Prigozhin was the genius behind Wagners PR and business structure than Utkin was 100% responsible for the Musicians battle field success. Utkin was an unashamed Russian Ethno Nationalist and famously told some friends of Ramzan Kadyrov himself that he was ready for “another round” with them if they wanted one. Utkin personally didn't have any use for social media or personal publicity and that remark he made on telegram to Kadyrovs friends was one of his only public posts and that says a lot about the man. Talking shit to Kadyrovs mafiosi is a huge no no in moden Russia but Utkin didn't care at all.

A Wagner Musician who served under Utkin in Chechnya when they were GRU Spetznaz wrote the following about him:

When Utkin joined the 700th separate detachment of the GRU as a battalion commander, almost 100% of his battalions awards were accumulated during his time in command. Work was in full swing when he took over and losses also increased. If 2001 was a bit calm, then in 2002 the intensity of the fighting went up. The battalion commander was stubborn, the only man of such rank who went on combat patrols with his subordinates regularly. His tactics were aggressive and differed from standard special forces practice. For example when a patrol he was walking in came into contact with the enemy he would give the command: - "Group! Attack! Let's go!", and he also went forward. That is, there was no attempt to break contact, which a normal reconnaissance group would do, but on the contrary – always on the attack, always forward.

Also, one of the first things he did when he came into command of the battalion was to bring all the warrant officers and officers to their senses, but he did not touch the contract soldiers. He assembled his officers and told everyone to shave, wash, get a haircut, and get ready, but as for the contract soldiers, you can't touch them. We were immediately in favor of the new battalion commander.

On one occasion when his group killed a Chechen separatist from the village of Chishki, the elders came to take away the corpse which was lying under the flagpole of the banner of Russia, which was raised every morning. The elders ask him what they need to give up in exchange for the body, and the commander replies, "I don't need anything. I don't sell the corpses of my enemies.", and left, giving the body away just like that. //End

Utkin was a very aggressive leader who nonetheless managed to win over the loyalty of regular soldiers. He was demanding with his officers and shielded his enlisted troops from petty Army BS. This style carried over into Wagner, when the Russian Army was in head long retreat Wagner was still clawing forward. Wagner has it's critics, but interestingly none of them at all come from within that once great PMC. No Wagner vets have ever come forward to claim that Utkin was a butcher or anything other than competent. As a matter of fact even Igor Strelkov who absolutely hated Wagner noted that Utkin himself was a talented leader.

“Death isn't the end, it's just the start of something new”-Dimitry Utkin