Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has moved to reassure allies in Africa that thousands of Wagner group fighters deployed to the continent will not be withdrawn after the mutiny led by their commander Yevgeny Prigozhin over the weekend.
In an interview with Russia Today, Lavrov pledged that “instructors” and “private military contractors” would remain in Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, the two countries in sub-Saharan Africa where Wagner has the biggest presence.
Both are considered strategic prizes by the Kremlin, which sees them as a springboard to greater influence on the continent and a source of lucrative natural resources.
“At their request, several hundred servicemen are working in the CAR as instructors – this work, of course, will continue … Both the CAR and Mali appealed to the Wagner PMCs with a request to ensure the safety of their leadership,” Lavrov said. “Regarding the reports about who is panicking and about what, I did not see any panic. I did not see any changes in the relations of the relevant African countries with the Russian Federation.”
BTW: Wagner has made action movies about Russian “instructors” in Africa.
If Wagner forces are stationed in Belarus, just across the border from Lithuania, Vilnius will have to prepare for possible hybrid actions of the mercenary group, says an adviser to Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda.
I’ve said this same thing on the regular about groups like the Taliban… This is a long standing discussion about Islam among scholars studying Islamic history, such as Lara Deebs book:
When I said that actually Finland was a well defined ethno-geographic entity before Swedes came, I was accused of racism because “Swedish empire was a multiethnic state and finnish tribes were just one the many minorities living inside of it”. Hence “Finland wasn’t even a thing, it just stemmed out from russian conquest”.
