In August 2023, Yevgeny Prigoyine broadcasts a video in an African landscape, his last appearance before his death in a plane crash. Razgruzka Wagnera
A report by independent expert group The Blood Gold estimates that the Russian paramilitary group's activities in Sudan, the Central African Republic and Mali have brought Moscow more than $100 million a month since February 2022.
Gold mined in Africa by the Russian mercenary group Wagner may have brought the Kremlin up to $2.5 billion since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to a new report. According to think tank The Blood Gold, the paramilitary group's occult and lucrative activities in Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali have generated revenue of $114 million per month since February 2022.
At a time when the country is heavily sanctioned by Western countries over the invasion of Ukraine, “gold mined from African countries and laundered in international markets” has brought billions to the Russian state, crucial to the conduct of its war , believes the team of researchers led by Jessica Berlin, expert on Afro-European relations. This trade “directly and indirectly financed Russia’s war against Ukraine,” the experts say.
From mining to cash payments
Researchers describe Wagner's financing method depending on the African country in which the militia is active.
- At MaliThe roughly 1,000 Russian mercenaries who are in the country to fight jihadism or protect the military in power are paid $10.8 million a month in cash by the junta, according to American intelligence . This relies on a small number of international mining companies. Among them, Canadian company Barrick Gold, the country's largest taxpayer, paid $206 million to authorities in Bamako in the first half of 2023 alone.
- In AUTOMOBILE, Wagner received exclusive mining rights for the Ndassima mine, the largest in the country. Currently, the exploitation of Russian mercenaries in this mine is estimated to produce gold worth $290 million per year.
- Speaking of which SudanWagner controls a large gold refinery there and has become the main buyer and exporter of unprocessed gold. Despite ample evidence of the extensive trade carried out by Kremlin-affiliated actors for more than a decade, Sudan's foreign trade statistics suggest that official gold exports to Russia are at zero. However, data from the Central Bank of Sudan revealed to CNN suggests that as many as 32.7 tonnes of gold were missing
2021, with Wagner smuggling being cited as the main source of this
Deficit.
This lucrative trade of Russian mercenaries in Africa serves not only to “fuel the Russian war machine” but also to “destabilize the region and.”
“Undermine the influence of the West” in these areas and “contribute directly and indirectly to an increase in refugee numbers.”
I ask for asylum in Europe,” emphasize the researchers at The Blood Gold. It is also thriving against a backdrop of abuses regularly documented by NGOs in Mali, a bloody civil war in Sudan, and the displacement or death of “tens of thousands of people across Africa and Ukraine.”