What did Yevgeny Prigozhin do before boarding the plane that took his life? In a lengthy investigation published at the end of August, the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal traced the final days of Russian militia leader Wagner, who died in a plane crash about 100 kilometers north of Moscow on Wednesday, August 23. According to the American press, Yevgeny Prigoyine visited several African countries to try to “save his empire” and “plan for the future.”
A video, probably shot shortly before his death and published on Telegram on Wednesday evening, confirms that Wagner’s boss was on the African continent. “For those who are wondering if I am alive and how I am, it is the second half of August 2023 and I am in Africa,” he explains to the camera on board a moving vehicle, without specifying the country in which it is located. “I’m fine,” he adds.
Already on Monday, August 21, two days before his death, the former “Vladimir Putin’s chef” appeared in an undated video broadcast on Telegram in a military uniform, bulletproof vest and machine gun in hand on then-unidentified African terrain. ” We work. “Wagner makes Russia even bigger on all continents and Africa freer,” he explained.
What was he really doing there? Thanks to dozens of interviews and examination of the flight logs of his private jet, The Wall Street Journal managed to decipher the 62-year-old paramilitary leader’s latest movements and actions. “He had no idea that this would be his farewell tour,” writes the New York daily.
Calm African countries
According to information from the American newspaper, on the Friday before his death, Wagner’s boss landed in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, to speak with President Touadera and his head of the secret service, on which his regime was largely dependent on the presence of Russian mercenaries on its soil.
Since Prigozhin’s failed coup in Russia in late June, the Kremlin has sought to strengthen its ties with certain African countries and seize control of the warlord’s dense and opaque network. Beyond the 5,000 men dependent on the paramilitary group stationed on the African continent, Wagner has managed in recent years to create in Africa a nebulous galaxy of front companies and various holding companies in construction, finance or the exploitation of natural resources .
Evgueni Prigojine would therefore have wanted to personally assure the Central African president of his support and the strength of their relations, assuring him that his failed mutiny “would not prevent him from bringing new fighters and investments to his trading partners in Central Africa,” the American newspaper reports .
A delivery of gold bars
Shortly after this meeting with Touadéra, Evgueni Prigojine received in Bangui a delegation of five commanders from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group dependent on Wagner. He gave him a load of gold bars from the mines of Darfur. According to the American press, it was a “gift” to thank him for the recent delivery of surface-to-air missiles.
At the same time, across the Sahara, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Evkourov visited Libya to deliver a “contradictory message” to the “Wagner countries,” the Wall Street Journal points out. On Tuesday, August 22, a day before Prigozhin’s plane crashed, Yunous-bek Evkourov met with General Khalifa Haftar to finalize a partnership between the two armies. The soldier reportedly told him that he doubted Wagner’s reliability.
Evgueni Prigojine then made a stopover in Mali. From there he made his way to Russia, along with his close guard, which included his right-hand man Dmitri Outkin, a former officer in a special military intelligence unit and Wagner’s operational commander. The warlord disappeared during a connection between Moscow and Saint Petersburg.