The infamous Yevgeni Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, reappeared on Monday in a video recorded, he claims, in Africa. Due to the arid landscape, it certainly looks like the Sahel, an area in which this company at the service of the Russian regime has been taking root in recent times in the heat of various coups in countries of the region. In the background you can see several men in military clothing and an artillery ‘pick up’, a classic vehicle of insurgent militias in sub-Saharan Africa.
The recording, in which he appears armed, shows that he still has friends in the Kremlin and that he continues to work for Russia. Therefore, all the investigation after his departure to Moscow and the proceedings opened against him, which included a visit to his house publicized in Russian propaganda, have come to nothing.
The video confirms what Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus, announced, who assured that Wagner’s leader was no longer in his territory, as part of an agreement with Vladimir Putin, after the failed mutiny staged by his paid militiamen against the authority of the Russian Defense Ministry. Wagner, named after Prigozhin in honor of Adolf Hitler’s favorite composer, of whom he is a well-known admirer, is present in the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan, although several Western intelligence services believe that this group has created links with the coup plotters. of the Niger military junta that overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum a few weeks ago.
Prigozhin assures in the recording that it is “at 50 degrees of temperature” and that he is in Africa “to make Russia bigger on all continents.” “We are fighting the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other bandits,” says this well-known war criminal, responsible for abuses against the civilian population, killings and torture in the Central African Republic, Mali and Ukraine, where his troops have committed all kinds of outrages. well documented.
That Prigozhin is still alive at this point just shows how useful he is to the Kremlin with his company of soldiers of fortune. Wagner is the tentacle of the Moscow regime in those places where Russia cannot act as a state and its responsibility is not thus in evidence.
However, Prigozhin is not known to be a client or payer other than the Putin regime, which has paid over a billion dollars, so calling him a mercenary is inaccurate, as he always works for them. “The Wagner Group was fully maintained by the state, the Defense Ministry and the state coffers,” Putin said after the riot.