Russian President Vladimir Putin is managing one of the most complex corporate takeovers in history, the Wagner Group, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Kremlin-backed military contractors are launching recruiting drives on social media to attract some of Wagner’s 30 000 mercenaries, hackers and moneymen deployed by Prigozhin to Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, the newspaper reports.
Agents from the Federal Security Services (FSB) have searched offices for evidence against Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner chief.
Russian law enforcement took computers and servers at Prigozhin’s Patriot Media Group (PMG). PMG once included the Internet Research Agency, the social media organisation that pumped millions of pro-Kremlin messages onto social media channels during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
A likely new owner of PMG is National Media Group, chaired by Alina Kabaeva, the Washington-sanctioned rhythm gymnast. The US government believes she is the mother of at least three of Putin’s children.
The Wall Street Journal reports that not since the British crown liquidated the East India Company in 1858 to assume direct rule over its colonies has the world seen a government try to swallow a comparable corporate empire.
Many of the deals Wagner-linked companies struck with African governments were informal, reliant on smuggling and illicit transfers, and negotiated by Prigozhin himself.
Prigozhin’s empire included finance, construction, supply and logistics, mining and natural resources, and Sporthorses Management.
In the Central African Republic, a Wagner-controlled company has taken control of production at the Ndassima gold mine; unexploited resources are estimated to be $1 billion. The gold and diamonds mined are exported by another Prigozhin firm to markets in the United Arab Emirates and on to Europe.
[Image: Дмитрий Осипенко from Pixabay]