a year after the death of the leaders of the Wagner group, the mercenary under the tutelage of the Kremlin

A year after the death of the leaders of the Wagner paramilitary group, the Russian government has completely overhauled the group. It is now under the supervision of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

On June 25, 2023, Yevgeny Prigojine, the boss of the Wagner paramilitary group, sent his mercenaries to march on Moscow, weapons in hand, in the middle of the war against Ukraine, shooting down Russian army helicopters. A challenge to Vladimir Putin which resulted in the death of Evgeni Prigojine, a few months later, and a takeover of Russian mercenarism by the Kremlin which does not want to see such a scenario repeat itself.

After the “accidental” death of Wagner’s founders, Evgeni Prigozhin and Dimitri Outkin, a few months after their attempted march on Moscow in June 2023, the Russian state attempted to bring Wagner into line, by restructuring it in the form of a new group. This group is called Africacorps, it is controlled by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service. There is no longer any question for Moscow of being overwhelmed by possible free electrons.

However, not all Wagner alumni have joined its ranks. During the years of growth of the group, they were the architects of the Wagnerian conquest: an offer of mercenarism with unlimited violence, coupled for its financing with the extraction of raw materials, and the establishment of a strategy of influence, based on anti-Western sentiment. A power and autonomy that some intend to maintain.

In the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya, Mali and Niger, where Russia is seeking to establish itself, Wagner’s men are still very present. As in Burkina Faso where hundreds have been sent in recent days to protect the head of the junta Ibrahim Traoré, weakened by the mistrust of part of his army.