Russian businessman Evgueni Prigojine, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin and suspected of being linked to the paramilitary group Wagner, hailed the putsch in Burkina Faso on Tuesday as the sign of a “new era of decolonization” in Africa.
“All these so-called coups are because the West is trying to rule states and suppress their national priorities, to impose foreign values on Africans, sometimes with a clear mockery of them,” he said. Prigozhin said in a comment posted on Russian social network VK by his company, Concord. “It is not surprising that many African states are seeking freedom. This is happening because the West is trying to keep the people of these countries in a semi-animal state,” he said.
Welcoming the military putsch in Burkina Faso, Prigojine said that a “new liberation movement” is currently taking place in Africa, as well as a “new era of decolonization”.
Yevgeny Prigojine is accused of financing the private military company Wagner, whose presence has been reported in Ukraine, Syria, Libya and several countries in sub-Saharan Africa d. Wagner, with whom the Russian authorities deny any link and who has been the subject of EU sanctions since December, provides maintenance services for military equipment and training, but this SMP is accused, in particular by France, of act on behalf of the Kremlin where he does not want to appear officially.
Prigojine, himself under European and American sanctions, denies any connection with the Wagner group.
Also on Tuesday, Alexandre Ivanov, known to be one of the representatives of Russian “instructors” in the Central African Republic, also praised in a press release published on Twitter the putschists of Ouagadougou, considering that France had obtained “no success” in the fight against terrorism in the region. He said he was ready to “share the experience” of Russian instructors in the Central African Republic for the training of the army of Burkina Faso if the authorities so requested.
Above is his text in a letter on the letterhead of the association “Community of officers for international security” which lobbies for the Russian PMCs:
