His bronze statue now stands in front of the Russian House in Bangui. On the Soviet-style edifice officially inaugurated on Tuesday, December 3, Yevgeny Prigozhin was depicted in fatigues, with a bulletproof vest lined with magazines. At his side, with a Kalashnikov in hand and a cold stare, is the man who was his right-hand man, the military chief to whom Wagner owes its name: Dmitri Utkin.
More than a year after perishing when their private jet crashed between Moscow and Saint Petersburg on August 23, 2023, the head of Russia's private military company and his lieutenant are revered as icons by many. Both in Russia, where some consider them true patriots, and in the Central African Republic and Mali, where their men are still on the ground.
Following the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who dared to defy Vladimir Putin by leading a rebellion that came to nothing in June 2023, the Russian authorities made it clear that they wanted to split up their African empire and take it back into their own hands. The Ministry of Defense and the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service, were tasked with integrating it into their new civil-military organization, Africa Corps.
Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger... In the months that followed, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, the deputy defense minister, and General Andrei Averyanov, a GRU figure, made numerous visits to their African allies to sell this new cooperation with Moscow, which was now official and fully accepted.
Despite this reorganization spurred on by the Russian authorities, the "musicians," as Wagner members call themselves internally, are still playing their part in their two African strongholds: the Central African Republic and Mali. In these countries, where Prigozhin's nebula successively established itself in 2017 and 2021, they are still thought to number around 1,500 and almost 2,500 respectively. In other words, as many as in the summer of 2023, before their boss's death. This semi-autonomous presence is validated by the Kremlin, which keeps a close eye on its military and commercial activities.
In the Central African Republic, Wagner is pursuing its lucrative gold, diamond and timber business, while continuing to secure the regime of President Faustin-Archange Touadéra, to whom its local managers retain direct access. Among them, the French-speaking Dmitri Sytyi, head of civilian operations, is at home in Bangui. Perfectly integrated into the upper echelons of the regime, he manages the group's many businesses and has made himself indispensable to many Central African officials.
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