Russia admits private military company involvement in Russian Houses in Africa
Illustrative photo: militants from the former Wagner group involved in the deployment of Russian Houses (Getty Images)
Russia has for the first time publicly acknowledged that a private military company was involved in the opening and operation of its so-called cultural houses in African countries, according to the Center for Countering Disinformation under Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.
According to the statement, Yevgeny Primakov, head of the Russian state agency Rossotrudnichestvo, which is responsible for promoting Russian culture abroad, recently publicly admitted for the first time that "one well-known African private military company" was involved in the establishment of the so-called Russian Houses in Mali and the Central African Republic.
Moreover, Primakov stated that some representatives of this private military company later took up positions within Russian state structures. As a result, his statement completely undermines the propaganda narrative portraying these Russian Houses as having an "exclusively cultural" mission.
"Primakov admits that in practice, Russian Houses are not neutral platforms for cultural exchange, but an element of hybrid operations. Thus, Russia is actually admitting that it uses military and coercive instruments of influence under the guise of humanitarian and educational diplomacy," the Center said.
Importantly, Primakov’s remarks came amid numerous reports linking Russian private military companies to serious human rights violations in Mali and the Central African Republic.
"This once again demonstrates that so-called cultural initiatives of Moscow carry risks for stability and security in various regions of the world," the Center added.
In early December, it became known that Russian militants from the so-called African Corps, which replaced the terrorist Wagner Group, have been committing numerous killings, rapes, and other crimes in Mali, where several units of this corps are deployed.
Against this backdrop, reports have emerged that Russia has recently intensified information operations in Africa. In particular, increased attention has been observed in the Russian-African media space to the deployment of the African Corps in the Central African Republic, with efforts underway to portray the militants as heroes.
