Bangui, Central African Republic CNN —
On his latest trip to the Central African Republic (CAR) last month, former Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin visited the Maison Russe, the Russian House, a cultural center near the Russian embassy in the capital, where he posed for selfies with his lieutenants and Local people.
The institute and its diverse activities are a clear example of how the mercenary group has become a proxy for the Russian state in the country and a symbol of the challenges that lie ahead for President Vladimir Putin as he tries to regain control.
CNN
The Russian flag flies in front of La Maison Russe or the Russian House, a cultural center in Bangui.
Since Prigozhin’s attempted coup in June and subsequent death in a plane crash outside Moscow just two months later, Russia has been embroiled in a high-stakes battle to centralize its empire on the African continent, involving thousands of fighters and a wide range of corporate holdings and several soft power initiatives like this.
As the Kremlin attempts to capture Wagner’s sprawling commercial network, what comes next for the group remains unclear. But in Bangui, signs are beginning to emerge of what the future might hold in the Central African Republic, one of the organization’s first client states and its laboratory on the continent. Here, Russia appears to be consolidating Wagner’s operations while continuing to exert its influence. The message Moscow wants to convey seems to be: business as usual.
Russia’s dominance is visible everywhere. In street bars, locals sip Africa Ti L’Or beer and Wa-Na-Wa vodka, made by a company affiliated with Wagner. Meanwhile, fighter jets donated by Russia whistle overhead during missions.
A Russian tricolor flag flies over the cultural center. Outside in the courtyard, a carousel with an onion dome spins.
“The Maison Russe is the nerve center of all Wagner activity in the Central African Republic,” Nathalia Dukhan, senior investigator at The Sentry, a U.S. nonprofit that has monitored Wagner across the country, told CNN.
According to The Sentry, the center houses a variety of operations tied to Wagner’s business activities – the group uses it to sell its gold and diamonds and entertain VIPs. It hosts events aimed at “spreading Russian culture while promoting a pro-Moscow perception of international relations,” Dukhan said.
Wagner Group mercenaries have been operating in the Central African Republic since at least 2018 to protect President Faustin-Archange Touadera and train army recruits. Wagner troops have fought rebels in the country’s more than decade-long civil war while increasing Russia’s influence in the mineral-rich country. Wagner has secured a number of generous mining concessions in the country to prospect for diamonds and gold and is heavily involved in the timber industry.
CNN
Masked Wagner mercenaries in front of a grocery store in the capital.
All Eyes on Wagner, an open-source initiative that tracks the group, said the Russian House is registered as a business in Bangui but has no ties to the Rossotrudnichestvo Agency, the Russian state agency that coordinates cultural institutes worldwide.
“Maison Russe … is a prime example of how the Wagner Group has replaced the Russian state,” All Eyes on Wagner told CNN. It added that it served both Wagner’s and Russia’s interests: “promoting Wagner’s beers through exclusive events, screening Wagner films, hosting Prigozhin and inviting Russian Defense Ministry delegations to lectures on military cooperation between Russia and the Central African Republic.” hold.”
The center has long been headed by Dmitry Syty, a former Prigozhin MP who, according to the Wagner European Council, played a “leading role” in the Central African Republic.
But Syty, who is sanctioned by the European Union and the United States “for serious human rights violations” and survived an assassination attempt in December 2022, may have been replaced.
Local media recently reported that a new director had taken over the leadership of the Russian House, referring to her as Nafisa. She was pictured in the Photos by Prigozhin on his last visit to the Central African Republic, but there is no evidence that she had any connection to Wagner before April.
Access to the Russian House is extremely restricted. No Western journalists were allowed entry, and CNN’s requests to film at the center were repeatedly rebuffed by the supposed new director. When a CNN team visited the hidden camera website, she introduced herself as Nafisa Kiryanova.
All eyes on Wagner/Twitter
Anfisa Alexandrovna Kiryanova (right) appears in the background of a photo of Prigozhin in front of the Russian House last month.
CNN has discovered through social media accounts and other linked profiles that she also goes by another name: Anfisa Alexandrovna Kiryanova. A YouTube channel linked to Kiryanova reveals that just nine months ago she was sharing video reviews of cosmetics. In a CV published online, she claims to have worked as a translator and attended the Sorbonne in Paris and the Moscow State Linguistic University.
Dressed in local clothing and silver high heels, she gave CNN a brief tour of the institute. Russian lessons were held in three tents outside the center, while Russian films were shown in a cinema room.
A masked man who appeared to be a Wagner mercenary walked past the tents to a parking lot behind them. Kiryanova would not confirm who he was or show CNN the restricted area he was headed to.
When CNN pressed Kiryanova about her appearance in the background of Prigozhin’s photos in the middle, she was evasive, asking, “Oh my God, can you show me that?” After being shown the pictures, she reluctantly admitted, “Okay, Yes this is good.”
Speaking about Prigozhin’s visit and Wagner’s future in the Central African Republic, Kiryanova said his death meant nothing for Russia’s mission in the country.
“Does it change anything if, I don’t know, the president of your country dies? Does this mean your country ceases to exist? … The mission continues, the cultural mission of Russia continues,” she said.
Asked who now oversees the center, Kiryanova said Syty “is responsible for the head of the entire mission and he leads some other directions.”
Syty and Wagner’s security adviser to President Touadera, Vitali Perfilev, against whom the United States and the European Union have also imposed sanctions, are part of Wagner’s old guard who were still on the ground in the Central African Republic at the end of last week. A diplomatic official who spoke to CNN anonymously said the two men returned to Moscow and returned, suggesting they had signed new contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry.
Both have retreated into the shadows in recent months, declining CNN’s repeated requests for interviews.
The diplomatic official said Wagner left a lasting impression on the Central African Republic with only about 1,000 mercenaries on the ground. Now Russia is embarking on a concerted restructuring and seeking to reduce Wagner’s operating costs in the Central African Republic, the official said. These efforts have two goals: force fighters to sign new contracts and withdraw them to concentrate control in large population centers.
In July and August, Ilyushin IL-76 transport planes rotated weekly to bring fighters back to Moscow to sign contracts, the official said, adding that an estimated 150 did not return.
There are obvious signs of a reconcentration of troops across the capital.
Wagner mercenaries drive through Bangui in unmarked pickup trucks painted green or sand-colored. They take to the streets in balaclavas and shop at grocery stores for cookies, bananas and bottles of Coca-Cola. The Wagner Protocol requires them to cover their faces at all times – even in situations like looking for shoes at a flea market.
According to Fidèle Gouandjika, a senior adviser to President Touadera, despite the failed Wagner Mutiny and Prigozhin’s subsequent death thousands of kilometers north, little has changed in the Central African Republic’s relations with Russia.
CNN met with Gouandjika at his villa in the capital. Tall and graying, he wore a T-shirt that read “Je suis Wagner” – “I am Wagner” in French – and claimed it had been given to him by Prigozhin himself. “He was my friend, he was my best friend before all Central African people,” he said of the late mercenary boss.
Sebastian Shukla/CNN
Fidèle Gouandjika, a senior adviser to President Touadera, in front of his villa in Bangui.
“The Russians gave us peace,” he said, adding: “We are very happy that in a short time, a year, Mr. Yevgeny Prigozhin drove out the rebels and our country is 100% occupied by our army.”
Gouandjika claimed that Putin recently spoke to Touadera and assured him: “Everything will be like yesterday.” Tomorrow and the day after will be better. So we don’t regret anything.’”