Wagner’s Prigozhin appears on sidelines of Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg

Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the notorious Wagner paramilitary group, has appeared on the sidelines of a major Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Russia, despite agreeing to go into exile following his failed mutiny last month.

The warlord’s continued presence in Russia indicated Mr Prigozhin remains an important part of the Kremlin establishment, from which president Vladimir Putin has so far proved reluctant or unable to disentangle him.

Mr Prigozhin was photographed shaking hands with Freddy Mapouka, chief of protocol for the Central African Republic president Faustin-Archange Touadéra, who attended the summit. The picture was posted by Dmitry Syty, one of Wagner’s most visible figures in the Central African Republic, on his Facebook account with the message: “Mr Ambassador shared with me the first photos of the Russia-Africa Summit. We see familiar faces”, alongside a smiling emoji.

Mr Syty, director of a Russian cultural centre in the Central African Republic capital Bangui, has been hit with sanctions by the US, EU and, a week ago, the UK, as one of several Russian nationals active in the Central African Republic with links to Mr Prigozhin.

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Fontanka, a local news outlet, said the photograph was taken in a hotel in downtown St Petersburg owned by Mr Prigozhin’s family, which it said had been booked out for all three days of the summit.

News outlets that were previously part of Mr Prigozhin’s media empire – whose ultimate fate, like that of Wagner’s, remains unclear – claimed Mr Prigozhin also met officials from Mali as well as Niger, where a coup attempt that began on Wednesday threatened to remove its pro-western president Mohamed Bazoum.

Mr Prigozhin agreed to relocate to Belarus last month after its president, Alexander Lukashenko, brokered an eleventh-hour deal to end the group’s rebellion against the Russian army, which Mr Prigozhin has accused of mismanaging the war effort. But he has spent a significant amount of time since in Russia and even met Mr Putin in the Kremlin.

Mr Prigozhin said last week that Wagner would “gather our strength and head off to Africa” after leaving for exile in Belarus.

His rebellion had called into question whether Wagner could continue fighting as mercenaries for Moscow-friendly governments in countries such as the Central African Republic and Mali. Russia has assured the Central African Republic that the mercenaries would “continue their activity in the necessary and required numbers”.

Wagner, a once-secret organisation essentially directed by Russia’s military intelligence, has been an important part of the Kremlin’s power projection in Africa, sending mercenaries to fight in some countries and political spindoctors to work in several others.

The Central African Republic has been the major showcase for Wagner’s efforts on the continent. Touadéra owes his survival to the Wagner fighters who arrived in 2018 to instruct his country’s army and helped thwart an attempted rebellion two years later. The impoverished country has since become a vehicle for Russia’s African ambitions in the continent, according to western diplomats in Bangui.

Mr Touadéra has called a controversial vote this weekend to override his country’s constitutional bar on running for a third term, a move supported by Moscow, according to former senior members of the constitutional court.

Wagner’s fighters provide one of Mr Touadéra’s rings of personal security in exchange for concession on lucrative gold and diamond mines in the Central African Republic, prompting speculation that the president has become their “hostage”, the diplomats said.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023