
Death Is Our Business
Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare
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Narrated by:
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Christopher Ragland
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By:
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John Lechner
About this listen
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.
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Story
Lerette, a private contractor employed by the notorious Blackwater in the early days of the Iraq War, pulls no punches in calling out the incompetence of both the US military and the Department of State during the collapse of Iraq. You can decide if the insertion of private contractors in Iraq assisted or detracted from the war effort and if the costs in blood and treasure were worth the carnage.
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Tucker Max Meets Gun For Hire
- By Tommy on 03-06-24
By: Morgan Lerette
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The Unvanquished
- The Untold Story of Lincoln's Special Forces, the Manhunt for Mosby's Rangers, and the Shadow War That Forged America's Special Operations
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Civil War is most remembered for the grand battles that have come to define it: Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, among others. However, as bestselling author Patrick K. O’Donnell reveals in The Unvanquished, a vital shadow war raged amid and away from the major battlefields that was in many ways equally consequential to the conflict’s outcome.
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Gray Ghost
- By O. G. Ramos on 07-29-24
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Zero Footprint
- The True Story of a Private Military Contractor's Covert Assignments in Syria, Libya, and the World's Most Dangerous Places
- By: Simon Chase, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Eric Brooks
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Armored cars, burner phones, top-notch weaponry, and top-secret missions - this is the life of today's private military contractor. Like author Simon Chase, many PMCs were once the world's top military operatives, and since retiring from outfits like US Navy SEAL TEAM Six and the UK's Special Boat Service, they have devoted their lives to executing missions too sensitive for the government to acknowledge. Chase reveals here for the first time the operations too hazardous and politically volatile to be officially sanctioned by his employers.
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Read Amazon reviews, not Audible reviews
- By Andrew M on 02-22-16
By: Simon Chase, and others
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Task Force Black
- The explosive true story of the SAS and the secret war in Iraq
- By: Mark Urban
- Narrated by: Mark Urban
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in 2003, the SAS launched one of the most intense and secretive operations in its history: Task Force Black. BBC journalist Mark Urban uncovers the sensational story of this operation and the extraordinary men who carried it out.
By: Mark Urban
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The Scythian Empire
- Central Eurasia and the Birth of the Classical Age from Persia to China
- By: Christopher I. Beckwith
- Narrated by: Jim Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook narrated by Jim Lee provides a rich, discovery-filled account of how a forgotten empire transformed the ancient world.
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Demystifying the mysteries of the Ancient Worlds through a common source
- By cpdb on 02-10-23
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Overreach
- The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine
- By: Owen Matthews
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War—and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime—and Russia itself—at risk of destruction. Why? Drawing on over 25 years’ experience working in Moscow, journalist Owen Matthews provides the answer. He takes us inside the COVID bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of nationalist fantasy and bad information.
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Comprehensive Account of the War Through September 2022
- By Jason777 on 12-30-22
By: Owen Matthews
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The Eurasian Century
- Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern Century
- By: Hal Brands
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Hal Brands argues that a better understanding of Eurasia's strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today's world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare, and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest, made Eurasia the center of twentieth-century geopolitics—with pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.
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Worth the read.
- By Chip Eckert on 02-24-25
By: Hal Brands
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Out of the Mountains
- The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla
- By: David Kilcullen
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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When Americans think of modern warfare, what comes to mind is the US army skirmishing with terrorists and insurgents in the mountains of Afghanistan. But the face of global conflict is ever-changing. In Out of the Mountains, David Kilcullen, one of the world's leading experts on current and future conflict, offers a groundbreaking look at what may happen after today's wars end.
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Insightful analysis
- By Anon on 11-06-19
By: David Kilcullen
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Covering Islam
- How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World
- By: Edward W. Said, Laleh Khalili
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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An unusually sharp look at the way in which the U.S. press and experts have dealt with the crisis in the Middle East and Iran.
By: Edward W. Said, and others
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Tough Rugged Bastards
- A Memoir of a Life in Marine Special Operations
- By: John A. Dailey
- Narrated by: Tom Beyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Following the 9/11 attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld directed the Marine Corps to establish a unit that would answer to US Special Operations Command. The eighty-six-man "Detachment One" was formed with a two-year charter to train and deploy as a "proof-of-concept" to assess the viability of a larger Marine Special Operations contribution in support of the Global War on Terror. For such a departure from the norm, a special leader was needed.
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Great historical account of the precursor to today’s MARSOC
- By bryan on 01-14-25
By: John A. Dailey
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Butler to the World
- The Book the Oligarchs Don't Want You to Read - How Britain Helps the World's Worst People Launder Money, Commit Crimes, and Get Away with Anything
- By: Oliver Bullough
- Narrated by: Oliver Bullough
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Suez Crisis of 1956 was the nadir of Britain's twentieth century, the moment when the once-superpower was bullied into retreat. "Great Britain has lost an empire and not yet found a role," said Dean Acherson, a former US secretary of state. Acheson's line has entered into the canon of great quotations: but it was wrong. Britain had already found a role. The leaders of the world just hadn't noticed it yet. Butler to the World reveals how Britain came to assume its role as the center of the offshore economy.
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Extraordinary
- By Brad on 12-30-22
By: Oliver Bullough
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Narcotopia
- In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA
- By: Patrick Winn
- Narrated by: Patrick Winn
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In Asia’s narcotics-producing heartland, the Wa reign supreme. They dominate the Golden Triangle, a mountainous stretch of Burma between Thailand and China. Their 30,000-strong army, wielding missiles and attack drones, makes Mexican cartels look like street gangs.
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Absolutely Incredible
- By Oded N. on 05-02-25
By: Patrick Winn
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Underground Empire
- How America Weaponized the World Economy
- By: Henry Farrell, Abraham Newman
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A deeply researched investigation that reveals how the United States is like a spider at the heart of an international web of surveillance and control, which it weaves in the form of globe-spanning networks such as fiber optic cables and obscure payment systems.
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Good summary
- By Medz on 01-28-25
By: Henry Farrell, and others
An indepth, analysis and account of the rise and fall of Wagner
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