‘Exiled’ Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin spotted at Vladimir Putin’s Africa summit

Yevgeny Prigozhin was pictured shaking hands with a senior aide to President Touadera of the Central African Republic, whose regime is propped up by Wagners.

Yevgeny Prigozhin is rumoured to have attended the summit in St Petersburg after photographs appeared to show him meeting Central African Republic officials. Picture: Facebook.

The leader of the Wagner mercenary group appears to have been photographed on the sidelines of a summit in St Petersburg hosted by President Putin, a month after agreeing to go into exile following his failed insurrection.

A smiling Yevgeny Prigozhin, dressed casually in white polo shirt and jeans, was shown in one picture shaking hands with a senior aide to President Touadera of the Central African Republic (CAR), whose regime is propped up by Wagner fighters.

When exactly the image was taken is not known, but it was posted to Facebook yesterday by Dmitry Sytyi, a senior Wagner figure in the CAR who has been sanctioned by the UK, EU and US for his links to Prigozhin.

The meeting with Freddy Mapouka, Touadera’s chief of protocol, apparently took place at the Trezzini Palace hotel, which is owned by the Wagner chief. The pictures purport to be the first recorded sightings of Prigozhin in Russia since he called off his mutiny.

Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist, said that Prigozhin’s security detail had previously used the hotel’s basement as a private prison.

In a second photograph, Prigozhin is seen with Justin Tagaugh, an editor of the Russian-backed Afrique Media.

Selfies of Yevgeny Prigozhin in various disguises were found in one of his mansions. Picture: Fontanka website.

The images underscore the Kremlin’s failure or unwillingness to remove Prigozhin as Wagner’s head. His appearance would, though, be reassuring to some of Moscow’s African partners who have come to rely on his military and disinformation services.

There are also possible new deals to be made. A Telegram channel linked to Wagner hinted at meetings between Prigozhin and officials from Niger, where an attempted military coup is under way that threatens to destabilise one of the last western allies in the restive Sahel region.

Putin opened the Russia-Africa summit, the second since 2019, with a promise of tens of thousands of tonnes of free grain to six countries. Russia’s recent withdrawal from the Ukraine grain export deal triggered fears of shortages and rocketing prices. Instead, Putin may use the gathering to push a plan to supply grain directly to Africa and cut Ukraine out of the market.

Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said a “handful of donations to some countries” would not correct the dramatic impact the end of the deal would have.

Putin told African delegates that sanctions imposed by the West had prevented him doing more and that the grain deal had benefited “well-fed European markets” rather than Africa’s population.

“A paradoxical picture is emerging. On the one hand, western countries are obstructing supplies of our grain and fertilisers, while on the other they hypocritically blame us for the current crisis situation on the world food market.”

The Times