I keep reading that the Wagner Group, Russia's brutal semi-private paramilitary operation led by the assumed-assassinated Yevgeny Prigozhin, was named so after the call-sign of the unit's founder Dmitry Utkin (also thought to have been killed in the same plane crash).
It seems to be assumed that everyone just knows what a call-sign is, but I certainly didn't. It turns out that a military call-sign is in fact a kind of nickname assigned to individuals (or companies or stations) for military communications purposes. Sometimes these are tactical (i.e. they change from time to time), others can be fixed and unchanging. They are used for quick identification of individuals or groups, and to help confuse enemies who may be monitoring communications.
Dmitry Utkin happened to be using the call-sign Wagner, named after the eponymous German composer, when the group had its origins during Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. Utkin was a big Nazi sympathizer (as was Richard Wagner), and had Nazi SS symbols tattooed on his neck, although little more is known about this shadowy figure. Over time, the group as a whole began to be known by that name.
So, there you have it. Wagner. Call-signs.
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