Is Wagner’s brewery in the Central African Republic up for sale?

Russia | Following the 23 August plane crash, which killed Wagner’s chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin and several other Wagner top brass, a Brauwelt International reader asked if Wagner’s brewery in the Central African Republic (CAR) is up for sale?

It could well be. Bereft of its leadership and strapped for cash, the future of Wagner now lies entirely in the Kremlin’s hands.

Two days before his death, Mr Prigozhin released a video on 21 August, which showed him standing in an unidentified location in the desert, wearing a camouflage bucket hat and holding a rifle. In his first video since the aborted mutiny – which also proved his last – Mr Prigozhin said that Wagner continues “to work and is looking for real bogatyrs” – Russian folklore heroes famed for their strength – to advance Russia’s goals on the African continent.

It was widely regarded as an attempt by Mr Prigozhin to drum up new business. After the mutiny, Wagner reportedly lost some or all of its lucrative state contracts. Between May 2022 and May 2023, Wagner received 86.3 billion rubles (USD 1.01 billion) from the state budget. Another 110 billion rubles was spent on insurance payments to mercenaries. Mr Prigozhin’s catering firm, Concord, earned 80 billion rubles supplying food to the military during the same period.

The same day, new ads posted on Wagner-linked channels alongside Mr Prigozhin’s address suggested that the group is returning to its pre-war recruitment strategy, looking to attract experienced soldiers with clean records. The group was offering six-month contracts in the Middle East and Africa with monthly salaries ranging from USD 1,600 to USD 2,600.

Russia House in CAR is looking for investors

Wagner-linked social media accounts have also spread a recent ad posted by Russia House, a cultural centre in CAR, headed by Dmitry Sytyi, a Prigozhin associate, which said it is looking for “Russian investors”. “We will help remove all barriers to investment in Central Africa and will become your guide in the CAR,” the ad read. It was Russia House which officially built the brewery in CAR. Never before has Russia House posted such fund raisers.

What becomes of Wagner’s businesses in Africa remains to be seen. The plane crash also killed Valery Chekalov, 47, who ran Wagner’s non-military business interests, which were used to finance the mercenary group. Per the BBC, Mr Chekalov is believed to have been in charge of Wagner's business projects across Africa.

But much of Wagner’s African empire, combining disinformation operations, murky commercial interests and mercenary work, relied on the unscrupulous connections that Mr Prigozhin and his close associates had forged over the years, The Guardian newspaper commented.

What is clear is that Wagner, as it was once constituted, is no more.

See also our article from 14 July 2023: Wagner’s sprawling business empire in Africa: gold, diamonds and beer