Wagner’s mercenaries trade Ukrainian trenches for natural resources in Africa

The gigantic PMC Wagner Center sign no longer hangs on the majestic building at 15 Zólnaya Street (Ash Road, in Russian) in Saint Petersburg.. The mutiny of the mercenaries on June 23 and 24 against the Kremlin could not be punished by Vladimir Putin, since the group continues to be essential for his interests, although it has forced its leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, to reformulate the objectives of his company. As the address of its ephemeral public headquarters symbolically insinuates, only ashes remain from the memory of the paramilitary army that made headlines in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, and from them has been reborn the old Wagner, created by Moscow a decade ago to undertake covert operations in the foreign. Africa and its natural resources are now again his main objective.

Although he has been forced to leave the Ukrainian trench, the insurgent Prigozhin has not lost his Russian business despite having demanded with arms the dismissal of the Defense high command in the middle of the war. Several companies of the putin cook, known for having built their empire from the catering business, have been awarded for the next course with more than 4,400 million rubles (about 40 million euros) in tenders for school canteens in Moscow, a juicy business that had not been accessed before, as revealed by the Dossier Center.

However, it has been Africa, and specifically Niger, that has led Prigozhin to reappear after the failed mutiny. He was first seen at the end of July in Saint Petersburg, on the occasion of the Africa-Russia summit. The head of the House of Russia in the Central African Republic, Dmitri Sytri, posted a photo on Facebook on July 27 in which a smiling Prigozhin shook hands with a delegate from that country at the Trezzini hotel in the city, where the those days the summit. according to the newspaper fontanka, received representatives from Niger, Mali and the Central African Republic; The latter two are among the group’s main clients, to whom it offers the services of its mercenaries in exchange for business in the exploitation of natural resources. Russian paramilitaries are in several African countries, but are particularly active in the Central African Republic, Mali, Sudan and Libya.

On August 8, Prigozhin again made public a message to mock the United States and its attempts to negotiate a way out of the coup in Niger. “I am proud of the guys from the Wagner Group. When you think about them, the Islamic State and Al Qaeda seem like obedient children (…). The US now recognizes a government that it did not recognize yesterday just because it did not meet with Wagner in that country,” the businessman said, referring to the meeting of the US Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland, with the military coup leaders of the African country. The concern that he provokes in Washington (and in the EU) about his possible help to the coup leaders in Niger has encouraged him to return to the public scene.

Niger is listed as one of the group’s short-term priorities. According to three different sources told the Associated Press agency, the rebel general Salifou Modi traveled to Mali on August 2 to allegedly ask for support from a representative of Wagner. A day later, Prigozhin published an audio in which he assured that he blessed the rebellion: “Changes were needed in Niger. This is a liberation struggle.”

“Wagner is no longer here”

After the mutiny and the mediation of the Aleksandr Lukashenko regime, the mercenaries also diverted to Belarus. The Belarusian National Resistance Center, an opposition entity, denounces the establishment of several military camps in the country, with around 6,000 soldiers with light weapons. The Baltic countries and Poland have strengthened the surveillance of their borders, while Ukraine does not lose sight of them.

Gone is the splendor of the headquarters in Saint Petersburg, which Prigozhin inaugurated at the beginning of November last year, when it gained prominence as a parallel army in the war in Ukraine. The building was to house the administrative apparatus of the mercenaries and offer free rent to “patriotic” technology companies, according to Prigozhin, who also owns the Patriot group, which includes the troll factory. that heated up the 2016 US election campaign on the internet and various propaganda media. However, this company did not survive the riot and was closed in early July.

“Wagner is no longer here,” a receptionist kindly replies at the entrance to the building. “The building is owned by the Mórskaya Stolitsa company. If you wish, you can rent a space here ”, she adds after extending a catalog with the benefits and prices of each plant.

Even though it’s August, both the parking lot and its floor-to-ceiling windows reveal an unusually empty building. In the half year prior to the coup, all kinds of pro-war initiatives were installed. Among them, the so-called z-bloggers, who make propaganda in favor of the invasion of Ukraine, the Oktagon drone school, the Dobrovólets (Volunteer, in Russian) recruitment center and the Wagnerenok youth movement.

The independent medium bumaga contacted them and confirmed that they have not ceased their activities, although they are relocating. “The members of the club are taking a break, in September we will resume activities,” the head of Wagnerenok, Alexander Tronin, told the magazine.

The same goes for almost all of Wagner’s mercenary recruitment points. The company announced on July 30 that they were temporarily closing “due to existing staff backlogs.” Prigozhin, however, clarified a day later that the company might need people in the near future because it “continues its activities in Africa, as well as in training centers in Belarus.” The middle Vazhnye Istorii discovered that the company still recruits candidates for Africa at some recruitment points in the Siberian cities of Omsk and Novosibirsk.

Mercenaries in exchange for African resources

The mercenary company was born as an extension of the army intelligence service (the GRU) to carry out armed interventions without the need for Moscow’s recognition. For example, its soldiers claimed to be “Russian volunteers” when they stormed into eastern Ukraine in April-May 2014, just before the Donbas war began. However, their major sources of funding come from the natural resources offered in exchange for their rifles by some regimes in Africa, especially in the sub-Saharan zone, and which are now vital for the Kremlin due to the pressure of sanctions on the Russian economy. .

Moscow, through Wagner, tries to occupy in Africa the space left by Europe, especially France, the former colonial power. “I need to protect the institutions of the republic. I asked everyone for help. Should I refuse the help of those who wanted to help us?” stressed the president of the Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touaderá, in an interview with NBC in early June. In exchange for supporting him against the rebels, Wagner obtained access to his natural resources. Three Russian journalists were killed in 2018 while investigating these movements.

“Moscow cannot afford to lose the political, military and economic benefits that Wagner provides,” stresses an analysis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) US. According to his estimates, in the Central African Republic alone he would obtain more than 1,000 million dollars a year thanks to the protection he offers to the authorities in exchange for important concessions such as the Ndassima gold mine.

Aware of the importance of these financing nodes, the US has launched a new wave of sanctions this summer against these gold mines that feed Wagner in the Central African Republic and Mali, and the entities that supposedly contribute to laundering that business in the United Arab Emirates . “The US will continue to target the revenue streams of the Wagner group to undermine its expansion and violence in Africa, the Ukraine and elsewhere,” the Treasury Department warned three days after the failed Prigozhin mutiny.

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