Russian mercenary group received tens of thousands of protective helmets from China late last year, the Financial Times reported. The report mentioned the period of time when the Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was apparently raising a massive prisoner army to attack Ukraine.
The report mentioned that entities used by the warlord to equip his operations in Africa have continued to freely export and import items across international markets despite Western sanctions.
The sanctions were aimed at curbing the private army that the US has designated as a “transnational crime organisation”.
The report mentioned that as seen in the customs filings and interviews, a Wagner-connected Russian company named Broker Expert purchased 20,000 polymer-based helmets from a small Chinese company called Hangzhou Shinerain Import And Export Co in November and December of last year.
The Chinese organisation claimed they were intended for “gaming purposes”. The helmets were reportedly split over four shipments with a combined value of more than £2m.
The Wagner chief told the media outlet in a voice message that he had “never heard of the name of the company” engaged in the helmet purchase.
Sarcastically, he also offered to send the FT “a large bag of my dirty laundry that I will collect over the course of a week or two so you can make a study of my underpants, socks, used toilet paper, and whatever else you want”.
The report mentioned that Broker Expert sent power generators, welding electrodes, and fireproof insulating materials to a Prigozhin-controlled logging company in the Central African Republic in August.
In January, the US charged Wagner fighters in CAR with crimes including as “mass summary executions, rape, arbitrary detention, torture, and civilian displacement.”
As quoted by FT, Marcel Plichta, who is a research fellow at the Centre for Global Law and Governance at the University of St Andrews, said: “That Prigozhin is still able to field armed contractors in Ukraine and at least three African countries, buy equipment from China, and smuggle resources show how resilient of a network he’s built.”
Who is Yevgeny Prigozhin?
Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch and a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He is sometimes referred to as “Putin’s chef” because he owns restaurants and catering enterprises that serve the Kremlin. He also admitted that he is the founder of the Wagner group.
In a recent development, he said that his army is leading the assault on the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut said in a Telegram message released on Friday (May 19). He claimed that “heavy, bloody battles” were continuing and also claimed his men were close to completing the capture of the city itself.
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