With help of Wagner, Kremlin earns billions on African gold trade - Blood Gold Report investigation
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has earned more than $2.5 billion from trading in African gold. It does this with the help of the so-called Wagner Group.
This is stated in an investigation by Blood Gold Report, a group that investigates the links between Western mining companies, military regimes and Russian mercenaries in Africa, Censor.NET reports citing Economical Pravda.
Its representatives found that in the Central African Republic (CAR), Wagner's front company received exclusive rights to the Ndassima mine, the largest gold mine in the country, in exchange for supporting the authoritarian regime.
In Sudan, a "Russian company" took control of a major oil refinery, which allowed Wagner to become the dominant buyer of Sudanese raw gold, with several accounts of Russian military transport aircraft flying processed gold out of the country.
In Mali, the military junta linked to Wagner, which seized control of the country in May 2021, earns millions in revenue by controlling the four largest mining companies - Barrick Gold Corporation, B2Gold, Resolute Mining, and Allied Gold Corporation. Moreover, most of the proceeds are received in cash - at least $10.8 million per month. And buyers are even in Western countries. For example, the Canadian company Barrick Gold, the country's largest taxpayer, paid $206 million to the Malian junta in the first half of 2023 alone.
In the CAR and Sudan, where Wagner-linked organisations are already subject to international sanctions, Kremlin proxies rely on sophisticated smuggling routes and corporate backstabbing tactics to extract large volumes of blood gold from Africa to places like Russia and the UAE, where it is mixed with other legitimate sources of gold and turned into cash.
The Blood Gold report also contains a number of recommendations - a set of measures that would disrupt Wagner's and Russia's African gold operations and deal a severe financial blow to the Kremlin.
These measures include:
- Expanding sanctions that should automatically apply to any party that uses the services of the Wagner Group.
- Ensuring strict control over the supply chain to prevent blood gold from reaching the civilised world.
- Imposing real accountability on international mining companies that do business with regimes that employ and finance the Wagner Group.
- Designating the Wagner Group as a terrorist organisation and engaging the International Criminal Court to convict the mercenary group.
- Deepening cooperation between allies and international partners to address gaps in the existing sanctions system.
- Increasing support for African democracies, independent media and civil society groups directly or indirectly threatened by the Wagner Group on the African continent to strengthen resilience against the group's hybrid tactics and demonstrate strength against Kremlin interference.
