The Wagner Group, described by the New York Times as a “Kremlin-linked private [military] company”, has reportedly carried out operations in the Middle East, Africa, eastern Europe, and South America. Russian leadership, including President Vladimir Putin, maintains that the Wagner Group does not represent the Russian state and is instead a private company for freelance fighters. Others posit that the force is ultimately a “proxy” or “ghost company” for the Kremlin.
The Wagner Group reportedly has connections to Russian military intelligence.
The Wagner Group reportedly has connections to Russian military intelligence. Yet regardless of the company’s true relationship with the Russian government, the Wagner Group has proven to be a force capable of advancing Moscow’s interests in crisis-ridden countries.
The Wagner Group’s commander is Dmitriy Valeryevich Utkin, a former special-forces officer. Known as “Putin’s chef,” Yevgeny Prigozhin belongs to Putin’s inner circle and is the “driving force” behind the military company, at least according to many western reports. In September 2019, the U.S. government sanctioned Prigozhin for his alleged meddling in America’s last presidential election. Nonetheless, he denies being affiliated with the Wagner Group.
In 2014, the Wagner Group entered eastern Ukraine, which was the first time it went into a foreign country to further Moscow’s international interests. The company’s mercenaries also entered Syria to help the Russian military empower forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad’s Moscow-backed government. In exchange for a percentage of the expected oil profits, the Wagner Group took on the responsibility of securing Syrian oil fields amid the civil war.
During an incident in 2018, the U.S. military took actions “in self-defense” that resulted in the death of 200 to 300 Wagner Group fighters in one of Syria’s oil-rich areas.
During an incident in 2018, the U.S. military took actions “in self-defense” that resulted in the death of 200 to 300 Wagner Group fighters in one of Syria’s oil-rich areas. The clashes, which lasted for four hours, marked the first incident of direct confrontation between the U.S. military forces and Russian combatants.
According to numerous western media outlets and think tanks, the Wagner Group deployed to Venezuela in early 2019. At that time, the U.S. had endorsed opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s “legitimate” president and Russia was supporting the government led by Nicolas Maduro with billions in aid, diplomatic backing, and reported security assistance via the Wagner Group.
Africa: The Russians are Back
Since the Wagner Group’s actions in Ukraine and Syria provided the force with war experience outside Russia’s borders, the company has shifted its attention toward Africa.
Today, officials in Moscow are very open about Russia’s ambitious plans across the continent. As the Kremlin sees it, the Soviet Union was extremely influential in certain parts of Africa, and Russia must build on this history and existing Russian-African networks established in the Cold War era to position Moscow as a capital for African governments to turn to for deeper relations.
The Wagner Group has been providing a major boost to General Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) amid the commander’s campaign to take over Tripoli.
Libya’s conflict is one example of the Russian military company playing, what some experts understand to be, a game-changing role. Beginning last year, the Wagner Group has been providing a major boost to General Khalifa Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) amid the commander’s campaign to take over Tripoli.
Like Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR) is another natural resource-rich African country where the Wagner Group has been playing a role to advance Russia’s interests. In CAR, firms linked to Prigozhin have received rights to explore for diamonds, gold, and other resources.
In CAR—one of the world’s poorest and most lawless countries—the central government maintains little control outside of the capital, Bangui. Thus, the arrival of Russian military advisors to places outside of Bangui has been received favorably by many in the country who are grateful to the Russians for coming in and providing arms and training to the Central African army, which Europeans were restricted in doing. By the same token, others in CAR have concerns that Russian intervention will only inflame tensions between various armed factions, dimming the country’s prospects for achieving peace and stability.
When Sudan’s government was coming under growing opposition from citizens who took to the streets , the Wagner Group allegedly went to Sudan to help al-Bashir’s forces.
In 2018/2019, when Sudan’s government led by Omar Hassan al-Bashir was coming under growing opposition from citizens who took to the streets demanding regime change, the Wagner Group allegedly went to Sudan to help al-Bashir’s forces. Roughly 100 fighters from the outfit deployed to Sudan during that period.
Around that time, Russia’s Ministry of Defense began supporting Madagascar’s government in response to unrest in the island country. According to some sources, prior to the Russian government officially and openly deepening its defense relations with Madagascar, the Wagner Group arrived there “armed to the teeth” in order to protect Russian political strategists and geologists. In Zimbabwe and South Africa, the Wagner Group has been reportedly active as well.
Despite being deployed to a list of African countries, not every experience in the continent has worked out favorably for the Wagner Group. According to Meduza (a Latvia-based Russian news outlet), in September 2019, the Wagner Group lost up to 35 of its fighters in clashes near Libya’s capital, Tripoli.
That same month, 200 to 300 of the Wagner Group’s members arrived in northern Mozambique, a few weeks after President Filipe Nyusi met with Putin in Moscow to sign agreements to deepen bilateral cooperation in military and economic domains. The “private” military force faced a major setback in Cabo Delgado while under attack from local Islamist insurgents who pushed the Wagner Group into taking a “strategic retreat.”
Two months after the Wagner Group’s deployment to the gas-rich part of Mozambique, The Globe and Mail reported that media outlets in Mozambique, South Africa, and Moscow suggested “at least 10 or 11 of the Russian military contractors were ambushed and killed in several battles in densely forested districts of Cabo Delgado, and several of the Russians were beheaded.” Some bodies were reportedly taken back home to Russia for burial.
Clearly, experiences from eastern Ukraine and Syria are not necessarily applicable to all the countries where the Wagner Group has recently deployed.
Clearly, experiences from eastern Ukraine and Syria are not necessarily applicable to all the countries where the Wagner Group has recently deployed. Fighting militants in the Levant does not provide all the right lessons for countering insurgents in Southeast Africa where the cultural, geographic, political, religious, social, and historical landscapes are extremely different.
High Geopolitical Stakes
There is hardly any doubt that Africa is Russia’s new-found love. As Moscow attempts to regain influence that the Soviet Union once had in parts of the Global South, Russia views Africa as a “‘low-cost, high-profile’ opportunities” continent as the Nairobi-based writer Patrick Gathara put it. Through metals, energy, and arms sales, Moscow is strengthening its relations with a number of African regimes, making Russia (again) a power to contend with in Africa.
In various African countries, Moscow is helping Russia-friendly governments strengthen their armed forces while also providing election strategies. Straftor’s Eugene Chausovsky explained how the Kremlin is focused on backing African regimes that may face internal threats, or are somewhat isolated internationally, ultimately referring to this as the “Syria model.”
In countries such as CAR, where security is an elusive concept, the Wagner Group appears to be carrying out operations aimed at establishing new security environments that can permit more Russian companies to come in for natural resource extraction projects.
More than three decades after the Berlin Wall fell, Russia’s influence in Africa is far less than what the Soviet Union exercised in the post-Stalin period. Yet Moscow has fully realized how it can capitalize on the history and legacies of Soviet-African relations in the present era through many political, educational, and economic links that outlived the Soviet Union’s existence.
This parallels Putin’s foreign policy strategies in other regions too, such as the Middle East and Latin America, where Russia is capitalizing on its Soviet past to grow its power as it rivals other governments for geopolitical clout.
This parallels Putin’s foreign policy strategies in other regions too, such as the Middle East and Latin America, where Russia is capitalizing on its Soviet past to grow its power as it rivals other governments for geopolitical clout.
In unstable, conflict-ridden countries with historically weak or failed states such as CAR — where Moscow and Paris compete to be Bangui’s top partner – the Wagner Group’s activities on the ground have been pivotal to Russian strategies aimed at countering competitors on the international stage.
Along with France, another rival of Russia’s in the scramble for Africa is the United States. As then-National Security Adviser John Bolton stated in late 2018, Russia carries out “predatory practices” in Africa that “stunt economic growth…threaten the financial independence of African nations, inhibit opportunities for U.S. investment, interfere with U.S. military operations, and pose a significant threat to U.S. national security interests.” Bolton also argued that Russia’s actions in Africa “keep strong men in power, undermine peace and security, and run counter to the best interests of the African people.”
Doubtless, in numerous hotspots across the African continent the U.S. will see Russia as a threat to its interests and will naturally continue seeing the Wagner Group as a threat as well.
