The Wagner mercenary group has offered fighters for rent throughout Africa and different international locations, with the Kremlin’s approval. However what’s subsequent for the worldwide community — and the international locations Wagner operates in — is unsure after the group’s founder and chief, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, on Saturday known as off a 24-hour mutiny towards his onetime ally and benefactor, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s high diplomat, Sergei Lavrov, provided some assurance, a minimum of within the fast time period, to Wagner’s world clientele Tuesday. He advised RT, a state-controlled outlet, that “instructors” and “personal army contractors” will stay in Mali and the Central African Republic, two strategic Russian and Wagner strongholds in Africa. Lavrov denied experiences of panic in international locations the place political and financial elites have come to depend on Russia’s mercenaries for arm energy and/or safety. “I didn’t see any modifications within the relations of the related African international locations with the Russian Federation,” Lavrov mentioned.
However what Wagner operations will come to seem like within the mutiny’s aftermath stays in query. State Division spokesman Matthew Miller mentioned at a information briefing Monday that the company “doesn’t know what’s going to occur to Wagner” or any doable “successor organizations.”
Prigozhin vowed Monday in a Telegram message to proceed working Wagner from Belarus, the place he agreed to enter exile after refusing to let Russia’s common military take up his items in Ukraine. Hours later, Putin mentioned that fighters who sided with Prigozhin may go to Belarus, be a part of the Russian safety forces or head residence.
Whereas Prigozhin’s rise up involved items of mercenaries in Ukraine, over the past 9 years Wagner fighters have popped up in additional than a dozen international locations. They’ve served as safety for Russian property or host governments. Others have fought on the battlefield. Wagner mentioned Monday that he all the time operated internationally “within the pursuits of the Russian Federation.” On Tuesday, Putin for the primary time mentioned that Wagner was “totally state funded.”
Right here’s what to find out about the place Wagner Group has labored and the affect of its operations.