Can we go to war in a tie? Part of the answer lies in the future “SMP Wagner Center”, an office complex located on Dal’nevostochnyy Avenue in Saint Petersburg (Russia). The Russian paramilitary group will inaugurate brand new premises for businesses on November 4. The future complex must in particular “hosting inventors, designers and computer scientists”said the founder Evguéni Prigojine, Monday, October 31, on the Russian social network VKontakte.
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The entrance to the building already bears the name of this militia present on several continents, and widely deployed in the Donbass against the Ukrainian forces. “Evgeny Prigojine and his group are gaining notoriety, and are rising in the hierarchy of Russian political and economic elites”explains researcher Maxime Audinet, a specialist in Russian influence strategies. “The ‘SMP [société militaire privée] Wagner’ seems to become a brand, a marketing object intended to recruit new recruits”while the existence of the private group was rather confidential a few months ago.
The claimed objective is to“increase Russia’s defense capabilities”explains Evguéni Prigojine on VK, with possible “branch openings”if the adventure is conclusive. “It will be necessary to monitor whether these ‘capabilities’ will also be informational”, comments Maxime Audinet. The founder of Wagner, in fact, is targeted by sanctions in Europe and the United States for having financed the Internet Research Agency (IRA), among others. This structure is known for its “troll factories”, aimed at fueling misinformation in Western societies.
The building was bought in 2019 by a group called “Sea Capital”, reports the Russian press, associated with the company Concord, a catering company which belongs to Yevgeny Prigojine. And at this stage, no one is still working in this imposing structure. A journalist from the Fontanka media was able to walk the aisles of the building on Sunday, which is still under construction and desperately empty, with the exception of a few workers.
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The premises are not intended to become a recruitment centre, but they could accommodate a “cultural center for patriotic citizens”, according to a representative of the place, questioned by the Russian media. In addition, Evguéni Prigojine did not specify whether the building will only accommodate workers recruited by the group or whether other companies will also be able to set up there.
The Wagner Group is officially a security company. But its profile is hybrid, “with actors entangled with the Russian authorities”, explains Maxime Audinet. This earned it both the qualification of a semi-private or semi-state actor. “This economic center embodies the double dimension of this influential entrepreneurship”analyzes Maxime Audinet.
“Evgeny Prigojine invests financial capital in order to serve official interests in the ‘grey zones’, where the Russian state does not want to go.”
Maxime Audinet, specialist in Russian influence strategiesat franceinfo
And the researcher continues: “It is growing its assets, and is now in a logic of expansion.”
It was only very recently, at the end of September, that Evguéni Prigojine admitted having founded the paramilitary group Wagner, which is present in particular in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Since his official exit from the woods, the billionaire has repeatedly criticized the Russian military commander alongside Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Colonel-General Alexandre Lapine notably paid the price for his chilling outings.
Moreover, even as this new Wagner temple is about to open its doors, Yevgeny Prigojine took the opportunity to write to the office of the general prosecutor to accuse, on thirty pages, the governor of Saint Petersburg, Aleksandr Beglov, of “embezzlement of public funds ‘ and ‘corruption’. A possible revenge, after an original partnership in 2019 between the two men. But also a show of force in the hometown of Vladimir Putin.
With a certain taste for staging, in fact, Evguéni Prigojine seems more and more interested in a space for political expression. “I’m not looking for popularity”he however evaded, still on the social network VK (in Russian). “My task is to fulfill my duty to the fatherland, and today I do not plan to open a political party, let alone go into politics.”