Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin

The same month brought the appearance at least online of the Africa Corps a new military/commercial formation designed to seamlessly merge all the functions of the Wagner Group with the Russian state in the wake of the death last August of its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin...

The importance to the Kremlin of the AMTV operation and other disinformation in Africa is shown by the fact that after Wagner CEO Yevgeny Prigozhin's coup attempt against the Russian government failed in June he continued to be seen on AMTV including greeting African leaders at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg at the end of July attended by 17 heads of state...

Biya does not have a public relationship with Wagner but its late leader Yevgeny Prigozhin met many African public figures at the St Petersburg summit in July...

The crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin's jet on 25 August was both expected and full of surprises...

Restricting his role to a couple of set piece speeches online Putin was multi-tasking during the summit; purging senior officers from the military and managing an official response to the widely predicted demise of his erstwhile ally Yevgeny Prigozhin on 23 August...

And the immediate beneficiaries would be the jihadist insurgents already gaining ground in the Sahel and Russia's Wagner Group of mercenaries under Yevgeny Prigozhin...

And they are accepting the congratulations of Russia's Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin while mulling his offers of help...

Others believe that Paris has secretly agreed with Washington to divorce Bangui from Wagner – or a version of it that may be rebranded after Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's attempted march on Moscow – at almost any cost...

Yet capitalising on the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin's crossing of the Rubicon in his short-lived march on Moscow on 24 June Libyan rumour-merchants claimed that Kharouba had been attacked with Turkish-made drones belonging to the Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli headed by Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Dubaiba...

As Wagner's putsch led by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin unfolded in Russia on 23-24 June many in Africa saw strong parallels with the bid for power launched by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo 'Hemeti' and his Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan on 15 April...

WAGNER'S NEXT ACT IN AFRICA It is too early to conclude much about how Yevgeny Prigozhin's putsch in Russia might affect Wagner's operations in Africa but these factors could shape diplomatic and security developments: Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov long distanced from Putin's inner circle may claw back some influence with Moscow's diplomats attempting to reassert their authority and credibility overseas after the embarrassing developments on 23-24 June...

They cannot understand the US persistence with linking Hemeti to Yevgeny Prigozhin's Wagner group and Russia even when the supporting evidence is sketchy at best...