Before his death, Prigozhin tried to save his business in Africa from GRU encroachment - WSJ

Before the crash of his plane in Russia, the head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, visited Africa, where he tried to prevent the GRU from taking control of his operations, several informed sources said.

Prigozhin refused to step aside quietly and intended to maintain his business ties, three sources familiar with the situation confirmed to the Wall Street Journal.

In mid-August, the PMC chief flew to the Central African Republic (CAR), where his mercenaries were the strongest. There he met with President Foster Arkange Touadera.

According to WSJ sources, a month earlier, at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg, Prigozhin was unable to see Tuadera because Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had recommended that the African leader distance himself from the founder of the Wagner PMC.

Touadera considered reducing the influence of the Wagner PMC, but rejected the idea after realizing how much he depended on Prigozhin's mercenaries, a former senior CAR politician told the FT. Prigozhin also assured the CAR president that the failed June coup would not prevent him from attracting people and investment to the country's agriculture.

After his talks with Tuadera, Prigozhin met with five commanders of the Sudanese paramilitary group who had flown to the CAR capital Bangui by helicopter. They brought the PMC head gold bars in exchange for surface-to-air missiles.

"I need more gold," Prigozhin said, according to a WSJ source. He promised that he would make sure that Sudanese militants defeat the country's Islamist government.

The Wagner PMC mercenaries have been providing security for oil wells in Libya, so Prigozhin's June rebellion "made the president's inner circle nervous" about their continued presence in the country, the WSJ notes.

"The Kremlin is gradually taking formal control of Prigozhin's extensive client network, whose ambitions have surpassed the level that was comfortable for Putin," the WSJ concludes, noting that GRU General Andrei Averyanov is now in charge of the Kremlin's shadow operations.

The crash of Prigozhin's plane is connected with the competition for Africa, said Bellingcat journalist Khristo Grozev. According to him, the liquidation of the PMC head took place now because he "did not give up his claims to key African markets." The GRU was responsible for the operation to kill Prigozhin, Grozev said.

As a reminder, Prigozhin's Embraer Legacy 600 plane crashed on August 23 while flying from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It crashed in the Tver region, 50 kilometers from Putin's residence. There were ten people on board, including the commander of the Wagner PMC, Dmitry Utkin.

Background. The United States reportedly believes that Prigozhin's plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. The same cause of the crash was cited by an FT source, a Western official familiar with the intelligence.