I find it curious that so many people associate the Variags with Russian people, not just on this thread. From the perspective of a Russian person, they're Scandinavian.
I haven't really thought much about who these people are in ME terms, but I suppose I subconsciously pictured them as sellsword Vikings, which sums up my knowledge of Varangians at that point. The Russian word for Varangian is literally Variag, so it was hard not to make the association.