Gun-toting warlord Prigozhin vows to ‘make Russia even greater on all continents’ as Wagner chief appears in Africa for first recruitment video since his failed coup against Putin

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin published his first recruiting video for the Wagner Group since he staged a short-lived mutiny against defense officials in Russia yesterday, according to information posted on Russian social media outlets.

Prigozhin came to the global spotlight in June with a dramatic, short-lived uprising that posed the biggest threat to President Vladimir Putin during the Russian leader’s 23-year rule.

Wagner’s founder benefited from Putin’s strong patronage, including as he built a private army that fought for Russian interests abroad and took part in some of the war’s deadliest battles in Ukraine.

In the video, a person who appears to be the 62-year-old mercenary leader says that the Wagner Group conducts reconnaissance and search activities and “makes Russia even bigger on all continents and Africa even freer.”

“We will hire real strong men and continue to fulfill the tasks that have been assigned to us and that we have promised to carry out.”

The disturbing message comes just a month later Prigozhin hailed Niger’s military coup as good news and offered its fighters the services of bringing order.

Yevgeny Prigozhin watches from a car as he exits the headquarters of Russia’s Southern Military District in the city of Rostov-on-Don after his short-lived mutiny in June

The speaker in the video – which was posted on Telegram messaging channels believed to be affiliated with Prigozhin – can be seen carrying an assault rifle and military gear.

Pickups and other people dressed in uniform drive in the background.

The Associated Press could not independently verify the authenticity of the video or when and where it was taken.

Russian social media outlets linked to the mercenary leader said that Prigozhin recruited fighters to work in Africa and also invited investors from Russia to pour money into the Central African Republic through Russian House, a cultural center in the African capital. country.

The Central African Republic is one of the countries where Wagner’s mercenaries operate and are accused of human rights violations.

In the video posted Monday, the person who appears to be Prigozhin says Wagner “gives hell to ISIS, al-Qaeda and other mobsters” in temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius.

The Kremlin has been using the Wagner Group as a tool since 2014 to expand Russia’s presence in the Middle East and Africa.

The Wagner Group has had extensive operational reach in numerous African countries, including the CAR, Libya, Mali, Sudan, Mozambique and Burkina Faso.

Prigozhin spent months criticizing Russia’s military performance in Ukraine before calling for an armed uprising on June 23 to oust the defense minister and marching from Ukraine towards Moscow with his mercenaries.

Under a deal brokered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin agreed to end his rebellion in exchange for amnesty for him and his fighters and permission to move to Belarus.

Before moving to Belarus, Wagner handed over his weapons to the Russian military – part of the Russian authorities’ efforts to defuse the mercenary threat.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin (pictured) made a surprise appearance at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg just weeks after his group of mercenaries broke up the uprising against the Russian Defense Ministry

Putin branded Prigozhin a traitor as the uprising unfolded and vowed harsh punishments, but the criminal case against the mercenary chief on charges of rebellion was later dropped.

Unusually, the Kremlin said Putin had a three-hour meeting with Prigozhin and Wagner Group commanders days after the uprising.

A video in July apparently showed Prigozhin in Belarus, but he was then photographed on the sidelines of a Russia-Africa summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg. His current whereabouts are unknown.

Last month Prigozhin hailed Niger’s military coup as good news and offered its fighters the services of bringing order.

In a voice message on Telegram app channels related to Wagner, Prigozhin claimed not to be involved in the coup.

However, he described it as a moment of long-awaited liberation from Western colonizers and made what appeared to be a pitch to his fighters to help keep order, suggesting he has plans to expand Wagner’s influence in the region.

“What happened in Niger is nothing but the struggle of the people of Niger with their settlers,” said the voice message posted to Telegram on Thursday – believed to have been recorded by Prigozhin.

‘With settlers who try to impose their rules and conditions on them and to keep them in the state Africa was in hundreds of years ago.’

The speaker had the same distinctive intonation and expression in Russian as the Wagner boss, although it was impossible to confirm with certainty that it was him.

“Today this is basically winning their independence. The rest will no doubt depend on the people of Niger and how effective the governance will be, but most importantly, they got rid of the settlers,” the report read.