1. Igor Leonidovich Mangushev was a Russian mercenary and political strategist.
23 Facts About Igor Mangushev
1. 2.
In 2014, Igor Mangushev was stationed in Luhansk Oblast as a captain among Ukraine's Russian separatists during the War in Donbas.
3.
Igor Mangushev fought in the Central African Republic Civil War as a mercenary and worked alongside Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was overseeing Wagner Group activities in Africa.
4.
Amidst the Russo-Ukrainian War, Igor Mangushev characterized Ukraine as an "anti-Russian state" and advocated the destruction of the Ukrainian national identity, and had "dreamed of seeing Kyiv burning"; he claimed to have been the inventor of the Russian militarist Z symbol and had frequently been photographed while posing with the Nazi salute.
5.
Igor Mangushev's death has been described as an assassination, as he was shot in the back of his head at close range.
6.
Igor Mangushev was born on 16 August 1986 in Moscow, Russian SFSR.
7.
Igor Mangushev grew up to become a Russian nationalist, founding the organisation Svetlaya Rus in late 2009.
8.
Igor Mangushev's group was among the first such public-private partnerships in Russia to conduct these sorts of operations following the 2011 arrest of Russian pilots in Tajikistan.
9.
Kommersant reported in 2015 that Igor Mangushev had written strategic analyses for various Russian government agencies prior to the 2014 onset of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
10.
Igor Mangushev publicly spoke about his work as an internet troll, stating that he had written messages online both in favour and in opposition to 2013 Alexei Navalny mayoral campaign as a part of his work.
11.
Igor Mangushev worked as captain in the Luhansk People's Republic People's Militia, and as a mercenary.
12.
Igor Mangushev was an active proponent of the formation and use of private military companies in the war, seeing them as a way to unify the citizens' militias with a more structured organisation that could provide documentation of the militia's military activities.
13.
In 2015, Igor Mangushev continued to fight in Russian-occupied Luhansk and in December 2018 he was part of a three-person Russian contingent that was delegated to Central African Republic's capital city Bangui to take part in the Central African Republic Civil War.
14.
Igor Mangushev provided support to the Russian state media funded Radio Lengo Songo.
15.
Igor Mangushev worked as a political strategist for Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Russian oligarch, and then-controller of Wagner Group.
16.
Igor Mangushev was a vocal proponent of the war and a critic of some Russian military leaders who he perceived as hesitant and making slow progress in the war.
17.
Igor Mangushev claimed to be the inventor of the Z symbol and was often photographed posing with a Nazi salute.
18.
Igor Mangushev's widow said that he took the skull from the ruins of Azovstal because "one friend's wife wanted a skull of a Ukrainian very much".
19.
Igor Mangushev was struck by a 9 mm bullet at close range, and afterwards was taken to a hospital in Kadiivka.
20.
Igor Mangushev died in the hospital on 8 February 2023, aged 36.
21.
Igor Mangushev's wife described his death as an execution, and his friends have called for an official investigation into his death.
22.
British political scientist Mark Galeotti described the shooting as a "hit", while Igor Mangushev's widow alleged that medical care was being intentionally withheld from her husband in the days between the shooting and his death.
23.
Igor Mangushev's body was cremated under strict supervision of his family because, as his widow explained, a US$70,000 prize was offered for his skull in response to his performance, and the family was seriously concerned that someone from the morgue or crematory will be tempted to covertly remove and sell it.