Bad omen for boss Wagner just before plane crash?

Reuters quoted a Libyan official as saying that during a meeting in Benghazi City - Libya on August 22, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on August 22 told the commander of the eastern Libya region Khalifa Haftar that the Wagner force would "report to a new commander".

On August 23, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was reported dead after a plane crash in the Tver region of Russia.

Libya researcher Jalel Harchaoui, from the Royal United Services Institute, said Mr Yevkurov's visit showed that Russia's influence in Libya could be deepening and expanding, not shrinking.

Now, the fate of Wagner is in the spotlight after the plane crash. Wagner has fought major battles in Ukraine, and has been involved in conflicts in Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali, seizing control of gold and oil fields along the way.

Wagner forces on tanks in Russia's Southern Military District. Photo: Anadolu

Since the Wagner uprising in Russia in June, the private military company's Ukraine-based force has handed over a base to the regular Russian army and begun moving to a military camp in Belarus.

Meanwhile, in Africa, Wagner could remain intact under new management or be taken over by another Russian mercenary group, according to Reuters .

"Wagner is a company that is operating. There are contracts and it is a business that needs to continue. From a reputational perspective, (Wagner) will try to show that everything is going on normally and they are still partners," said John Lechner, a US-based researcher who is writing a book about Mr Prigozhin.

After the June uprising, Mr Prigozhin has worked to bolster Wagner’s presence in Africa. In a video released earlier this week, he declared: “Wagner makes Russia greater on all continents and Africa – freer.”

In countries where Wagner operates through formal agreements with Moscow, analysts do not expect much change, at least for now.

In Libya, Russia has no formal military role and cannot intervene directly without violating a UN arms embargo, so Moscow's influence there must still be through Wagner or a similar organization.

In the Central African Republic, President Faustin-Archange Touadera's political adviser, Fidele Gouandjika, lamented the "death of Mr Prigozhin" as "a great sadness".

Reuters said it was difficult to determine the fate of Wagner's assets and there was no information about Evro Polis, the company believed to be run by Wagner that owns oil assets in Syria.

Little is known about how much money Wagner has made from its mining and logging operations in the Central African Republic and other African countries, but any attempt by Russia to take control of these assets or transfer them to another contractor would be difficult.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/thoi-su-quoc-te/diem-xau-cho-trum-wagner-ngay-truoc-ngay-may-bay-roi-20230825144207952.htm