How Prighozin tried to steal Putin’s Africa summit

The Kremlin and Russian propaganda had been speaking up Russia’s redoubled concentrate on Africa and the pivotal significance of the St Petersburg summit for the previous month.

Putin himself revealed a ponderous op-ed about his new imaginative and prescient for Africa on the eve of the assembly.

It is unclear how a lot he spent on entertaining his African visitors as a result of the organisers, Roscongress, did not publish the contract.

However on condition that he paid 4.5bn rubles (€60m) for the same summit in 2019, the 2023 invoice was probably a minimum of as a lot — making it one of the vital costly public occasions within the Kremlin calendar.

There have been dancers in Cirque du Soleil-like costumes, welcome drinks in antelope horn-type goblets, fringe debate boards, and a naval parade.

Some delegations spent the entire week in St Petersburg.

A Roscongress supply stated he noticed a 3rd of the visitors from six delegations by no means collected their summit badges and opted to “spend their time within the metropolis as an alternative”, both as a result of they did not just like the necessary PCR take a look at for Covid on the summit venue, or as a result of they had been having an excessive amount of enjoyable on the town.

However for the principle VIPs who did go, Putin dug even deeper into his treasure chest.

For the leaders of Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic (CAR), Eritrea, Mali, Somalia, and Zimbabwe — 25,000-50,000 tonnes of free grain every.

For Somalia — $690m (€626m) of debt to Russia written off.

For Zimbabwe — an Mi-38 presidential helicopter price as much as $15m.

For Putin — picture ops to point out the world he isn’t so remoted, some applause, just a few fawning statements praising his conflict in Ukraine, and a few soundbites on Western neocolonial evils.

An official from Guinea’s embassy in Moscow even wore a Putin T-shirt and known as the Russian chief “his soul”.

Putin did not have all of it his personal approach — simply 17 leaders got here (as an alternative of 43 in 2019), some urged him to cease the conflict, others urged him to let Ukraine export meals to world markets.

Uninvited visitor

But when that was predictable, nobody had anticipated Prigozhin to out of the blue seem in St Petersburg, ending hypothesis whether or not he was lifeless or alive following his transient anti-Kremlin mutiny on 23 June.

And nobody anticipated a army putsch in Niger similtaneously Putin’s extravaganza to steal much more headlines.

Prighozin first popped up in a photograph on the Trezzini Palace resort in St Petersburg, which is owned by his Wagner Group buildings, shaking palms with Freddy Mapouka, the CAR president’s protocol chief.

This was posted by Dmitry Sytyi, stated by the US to be a Wagner spin physician, and went around the world amid feverish hypothesis if it was actual or not, earlier than Sytyi deleted it from his social media accounts.

A second picture, revealed on Wagner-linked Telegram channels, then confirmed Prighozin with Justin Tagouh, the director of Afrique Média TV, a Wagner-affiliated Russian propaganda outlet in Cameroon.

The channels stated this was taken within the “sidelines” of the summit.

However in response to the Roscongress supply, neither Prighozin or Tagouh had summit badges, indicating that the photographs had been a publicity stunt meant to make the mercenary chief look as if he performed a extra substantial function within the Africa talks than he actually did.

In the meantime, the Niger coup noticed some within the pro-junta crowds in Niamey on Thursday and Friday wave Russian flags, sing Russian songs, and put on Z-logo T-shirts (an emblem synonymous with help for the Ukraine conflict).

And whereas Prighozin stopped in need of claiming accountability for the Niger putsch, which represents a serious blow to French and US pursuits in Africa, he and his Telegram channels made probably the most of it to point out his potential usefulness to Putin going ahead.

Telegram channels confirmed pro-Niger junta and pro-Russian rallies additionally in CAR and Mali, the place protesters thanked Wagner for “preventing terrorism and restoring safety of their nations”.

Others advised a post-coup assembly between Prighozin and the Niger coup leaders could be afoot.

Based on a Russian supply who beforehand labored with Prighozin and who’s presently cooperating with Russian intelligence providers, neither Wagner nor the Kremlin had a hand within the Niger occasions.

“We did not work with them, however perhaps we should always,” the contact joked.

However joking apart, Prighozin’s publicity blitz got here amid a serious shake-up in Wagner within the wake of its 23 June rebellion in what’s more likely to have a severe influence on Putin’s marketing campaign to push Western powers out of Africa.

Wagner break up in two?

The Kremlin has determined to maintain Wagner’s fight models in place in nations comparable to CAR, Libya, and Mali — however to place them beneath the command of Andrei Troshev, a former Prighozin man seen as extra loyal to the Kremlin, our ex-Wagner supply stated.

Troshev was just lately pictured with Putin however did not go to the St Petersburg summit as a result of talks on Wagner’s army function in Africa had been being dealt with by “different channels”, the supply famous.

That leaves the query of who will take over Wagner’s political operations in Africa, which is but to be determined.

One choice is for the Russian overseas ministry to do the election rigging, slush funds, and propaganda, however there are considerations in Putin’s administration if the ministry has the suitable individuals for the job.

An alternative choice is to create a brand new subcommission beneath the Presidential Safety Council to tackle the duties.

However with the query nonetheless hanging within the air, Prighozin, in the interim, retains management of his Wagner “political technologists”, the Russian supply stated.

It was these identical consultants who organised the pro-Russian rallies in CAR and Mali by which Wagner was talked about in a optimistic mild.

And it was the identical spin-doctors who got here up with the concept of snapping these photographs of Prighozin in St Petersburg as if he was an essential summit visitor, the supply confirmed.