Alva Review-Courier -

MOSCOW (AP) — Before he was killed by a sniper in Syria at age 23, Ivan Slyshkin wrote a poignant message on social media to his fiancee: "We will see each other soon — and I will hold you as tight as I possibly can."

But Slyshkin's name won't be found among the Russian Defense Ministry's official casualties in the fight against Islamic State extremists.

That's because the young man who left his hometown of Ozyorsk in the Ural mountains was one of thousands of Russians deployed to Syria by a shadowy, private military contractor known as Wagner, which the government doesn't talk about.

Slyshkin...