Russian military involvement in Africa

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

A tribute to the three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic (CAR), journalist Orkhan Dzhemal, cameraman Kirill Radchenko, and producer Alexander Rastorguyev, is seen at the Central House of Journalists in Moscow on August 1, 2018. Alexander Shcherbak—TASS/Getty Images

On July 30, 2018, three Russian journalists were shot to death and their bodies left on the side of a road near a conflict zone in central Africa. Their names were Orkhan Dzhemal, a renowned conflict reporter; Alexander Rastorguev, an award-winning filmmaker; and their cameraman, Kirill Radchenko. The purpose of their trip to the Central African Republic was to film a documentary about the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company which has been active in several African countries in recent years, and which is believed to have ties with the Russian military and the state.

Authorities in Moscow say the reporters were killed in a random act of violence. It was a robbery gone wrong, goes the official line. But the colleagues of the victims have investigated the murders independently over the past year, and have come to a different conclusion — that known associates of the Wagner Group were involved in these murders.

The victims’ friends and families have meanwhile pled with the authorities in Russia to consider this evidence. Among the most vocal has been Dzhemal’s ex-wife, Irina Gordienko, who is also one of Russia’s most famous reporters. Ahead of the one-year anniversary of the murders, Gordienko described her experience not as a journalist but as a person bereaved and looking for justice.

A version of her account was first published in Novaya Gazeta, one of Russia’s last independent newspapers, where Gordienko is a correspondent. With her permission, TIME is publishing an edited translation of the piece as part of its Guardians series on the escalating war against the freedom of the press worldwide.

Source: time.com/5637539/russia-central-african-republic-militia-anniversary/

[pieter]

The Wagner Group (Russian: Группа Вагнера, romanized: Gruppa Vagnera), also known as PMC Wagner, ChVK Wagner (ChVK being the Russian abbreviation for Private Military Company), or CHVK Vagner (ЧВК Вагнера ChVK Vagnera, Частная Военная Компания Вагнера), is a Russian paramilitary organization. Some have described it as a private military company (or private military contracting agency), whose contractors have reportedly taken part in various conflicts, including operations in the Syrian civil war on the side of the Syrian government as well as, from 2014 until 2015, in the war in Donbas in Ukraine aiding the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

Others, including reports in The New York Times, are of the opinion that ChVK Wagner is an arms-length unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and/or the GRU[32] in disguise, which is used by the Russian government in conflicts where deniability is called for, as its forces are trained on MoD installations. It is believed to be owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman with close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagner_Group

[pieter]

[pieter]

[karl]

Pieter

It would appear for as the more a person digs in to the dirt, the more is dug up. To follow the money trail then to not be surprised to find ones self in Moscow.

www.csis.org/blogs/post-soviet-post/band-brothers-wagner-group-and-russian-state

Karl