During the Midsummer weekend, we closely followed what Wagner was doing in Russia and how the rebellion he started was progressing. However, the group’s handprint can be seen most strongly outside Russia’s borders.
Wagner’s financial and political connections extend to many developing countries in conflict. From them, Wagner has received income through military operations and exploitation of natural resources.
In this article, we will tell you about Wagner’s financial activities and how it finances its operations.
Profiteering by killing
Wagner is often described as a mercenary group, a private mercenary army, or simply the Wagner Company. The use of the word “company” is no wonder, because at the center of Wagner’s operations is the ruthless pursuit of profit. In general, the idea of private mercenary armies is simply to fight a war for someone else and get money for it.
Wagner has carried out this task especially in Africa and the Middle East. The group, founded in 2014, has offered several countries in Africa and the Middle East its security, military and training services – and at the same time sought to increase Russia’s influence in the regions. The group has also fought in Ukraine.
Wagner’s operating model is copied from Western private security companies, but it is more brutal and aggressive than them. For such private armies, the unrest in the Middle East and Africa is a real gold mine, according to a researcher familiar with the commercial military industry Nicolai Due-Gundersen For the foreign policy magazine in 2019.
There are many examples of Wagner’s cruelty. In March of last year, the Malian army and soldiers identified by several sources as Russians killed at least 300 people, most of whom were civilians, in the village of Moura. The carnage describes Wagner’s actions: the soldiers don’t even try to distinguish who is a possible member of the terrorist group, but target everyone.
Wagner has been linked to several serious human rights violations in the countries where he operates, such as torture and rape.
Read more: Who buried the bodies in the desert sand?
More like a mercenary army
However, Wagner is not only a brutal group of mercenaries. It also has political influence in conflict countries and extensive financial connections through its companies operating in various fields.
Wagner’s financial operations operate in a legal and gray area, but there are also clearly illegal elements, says a senior analyst familiar with the company’s operations in Africa Julia Stanyard In an interview with . He works in the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime network.
– Although Wagner has founded companies and operates through them, the group has also been documented, among other things, to have smuggled gold, been involved in the illegal diamond trade, and illegally taken over natural resources that it wanted to exploit.
For example, in Sudan, according to various reports, Russian actors are smuggling gold from the mines, which has been fattening the president for years Vladimir Putin checkout.
According to Stanyard, human rights violations go hand in hand with Wagner’s financial activities. For example, the group has systematically evicted local communities and miners from areas so it can take over and killed people while looting their businesses, Stanyard says.
Businesses related to natural resources have also enriched the group’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. Economic magazine The Financial Times reported in Februarythat he earned about 250 million dollars, or about 230 million euros, through his empire in the four years before the Russian war of aggression, despite the fact that Western countries have imposed sanctions on the group.
According to the newspaper, the money has come from oil, gas, diamonds and gold. The Financial Times estimate does not take into account Prigozhin’s Russian transactions related to the restaurant industry and real estate, which account for a significant part of his fortune.
Arrangements related to mining are a big source of income
In practice, Wagner has made arrangements with the administrations in several African countries, in which the soldiers receive the right to a share of, for example, mining revenues for the services they provide.
– Arrangements in which security services are exchanged for natural resources are a very central part of Wagner’s operations, says Julia Stanyard.
The most advanced example of the group’s African business model can be found in the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime network according to the published report from the Central African Republic. There, the administration has given Prigozhin-linked companies access to the country’s rich natural resources, even though in many cases similar rights have already been granted to other companies. At the same time, Wagner has been supported by the country’s president Faust’s Archange-Touadéra politically and militarily, as rebel groups have challenged his rule.
According to Stanyard, Wagner operations in the Central African Republic extend from the gold and diamond business to the wood and food industry.
Similar arrangements have been made elsewhere.
In Syria, for example, Wagner has also signed similar agreements, according to which the company receives a certain share of the income from the oil and gas fields that have been recaptured from the rebels.
What will happen to Wagner’s financial operations?
The rebellion started by Prigozhin ended up being short-lived in Russia. It is unclear how the aftermath of the rebellion will affect the company’s operations in developing countries.
Russia announced on Saturday that it would merge the Wagner forces into the Russian armed forces and said that Yevgeny Prigozhin would move to Belarus. Doctoral researcher at the University of Tampere Mikko Räkköläinen assessed to on Monday that the change is the end of the notorious salary army. On Monday, Putin said in a televised speech that Wagner’s soldiers could go to Belarus, join Russian forces or go home to their families if they wanted.
The governments of African countries are in a difficult position in this situation, says Julia Stanyard. According to him, they have cooperated with Wagner with the understanding that they are cooperating with the Russian administration.
– Now the question is, do they have a relationship with the Russian administration or with Wagner?
However, Stanyard believes that whoever takes over Wagner’s operations in Africa will likely want to continue the lucrative business. He also considers it possible that Wagner will break up into most of the smaller groups in Africa.
Listen to an episode of the Mercenaries podcast below, which explores Wagner’s rapid development path through Syria and Africa to Ukraine.
27.6 has been corrected in the story. at 12:28 the spelling of Yevgeni Prigožin’s name.
The subject can be discussed until Wednesday, June 28, at 11 p.m.