The gold mine of the Wagner boss

As head of the infamous Russian private army Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin doesn’t just have his hands full with the war in Ukraine. In Africa, too, where Wagner has been embroiled in many conflicts and power struggles for years, he wants to further expand his influence.

“Whether the military special operation (in Ukraine) is successful or unsuccessful – in any case, Russia must be present on the international scene, diplomatically and militarily,” says the 61-year-old, referring to Africa. He is concerned with “a liberation of the African continent from Western occupiers”.

Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s confidant now comments almost daily on the situation in Africa – especially with regard to the power struggle in Sudan.

Prigozhin insists that he will not play any part in the conflict and will not provide weapons. The credibility of the statement is questionable:

But above all, the mercenary boss is calling on the Russian leadership to become even more involved in the race with China and the West to drive pins in Africa. He accuses the Moscow bureaucrats of complacency.

It is true that Putin has significantly intensified contacts with Africa. Since 2014, Moscow has signed military agreements with more than 20 countries. Africa is an important market for Russian grain and fertilizer. But Moscow is still far from having the influence it had in the days of the Soviet Union. “Russia plays an important role as a supplier of arms, as a buyer and extractor of valuable raw materials and as an exporter of agricultural equipment. It also contributes to security through private companies such as the Wagner Group,” said Philani Mthembu, director of the Institute for Global Dialogue in South Africa.

Unlike in the West, Russia is not isolated in Africa because of the war in Ukraine. Many states are in favor of Putin taking action against a monopolar world order with the United States at the helm. The Kremlin and Prigozhin, as Putin’s man, want to exploit that harshly. “The Americans, the French and other players on the African continent are a hundred times more active than we are,” says Prigozhin, who has become wealthy and influential with his business conglomerate Concord.

The entrepreneur runs his empire from St. Petersburg, which is active in the construction and real estate sector and in gastronomy, as well as in the catering of school meals. Decades ago, Prigozhin served the current Kremlin head at his restaurant in Putin’s hometown when he was still a city politician. That is why he is also called “Putin’s cook”.

To this day, Prigozhin has benefited from lucrative contracts from the Kremlin. Considered untouchable, he not only repeatedly and with impunity criticized Moscow’s military leadership in the war in Ukraine, but, with Putin’s blessing, was able to rule and rule freely in Africa. The continent has literally become a cash cow for Prigozhin. The portfolio includes Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Madagascar and Sudan.

Wagner has perfected its business model on the continent: the group unscrupulously offers personnel and services without asking questions. In return, there are commodities – often hard gold. Moscow, by far the continent’s largest arms supplier, also sells military equipment – ​​about half of all registered arms sales to African countries now come from Russia. Sahel expert Ulf Laessing of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation says:

In addition to Wagner, many Russians are active there. For example, the Alrosa group mines diamonds.

In Germany, Wagner is best known in Africa as a mercenary – for example, in the state of affairs of the Bundeswehr in Mali, where it is estimated that up to 2,000 Russian fighters are deployed, even if the Malian military government only speaks of trainers. The mercenaries there are accused of the most serious human rights violations – but the fight against jihadists never materialized.

Wagner’s business model becomes even more apparent a few thousand kilometers to the east – in Sudan, of all places, where war recently broke out. The extremely poor country on the Horn of Africa is Africa’s third largest gold producer. Then-dictator Omar al-Bashir visited Kremlin chief Putin in Sochi in 2017 and promoted his country as “Russia’s key to Africa”. Plans for a naval base on the Red Sea, which is important to Moscow, were discussed.

Prigozhin was granted gold mining permits and in return allegedly supplied weapons to the Sudanese army and paramilitaries in power of the RSF. In 2020, the US imposed sanctions on the corporate network.

According to the US Treasury Department, Prigozhin’s company M Invest and its subsidiary Meroe Gold, which is responsible for the gold mines, are a front for Wagner in Sudan, who also designed plans for al-Bashir to suppress democracy activists: “Although His activities Prigozhin’s role in Sudan, which spans the globe, underscores the interplay between Russia’s paramilitary operations, support for the maintenance of authoritarian regimes and the exploitation of natural resources.”

Investigations by CNN and investigative journalists have found evidence that billions of dollars worth of gold have been smuggled from Sudan to Russia for years through Wagner’s channels – vital currency that will benefit Moscow’s treasury as it deals with the cost of its offensive war against Ukraine.

Wagner is said to have had close ties to paramilitary leader Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, who is considered the country’s most powerful man, and whose RSF group is now battling the Sudanese army after splitting with de facto ruler Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. But Al-Burhan himself would have had good connections with Moscow.

Catrina Doxsee, an expert from the American think tank Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS), noted that Wagner had mainly shown opportunism in all the changes in Sudan. She notes that Wagner waits and then sides with the victors of the riots.

However, Prigozhin dismisses allegations of an active role in Sudan as a “provocation” and emphasizes that no Wagner has been active in Sudan for more than two years. The training of the army in Sudan ended in 2019. In an open letter, however, he now recalls his medals, which were awarded to him in Sudan in 2018 and 2020. In the current power struggle, he now offers himself as a mediator: “I am always ready to help Sudan.”

(t-online, dpa)