Vladimir Putin is trying to repair the damage done by his decision to pull out of the grain deal which had supplied many African countries.
EPA-EFE/Sergei Bobylev/Tass
Vladimir Putin is engaged in a bid to woo support among African leaders, but the summit masks the darker reality of Russian influence-seeking in Africa
Delegates at the Russia-Africa Economic Forum in Sochi, 2019.
Kremlin Press Office / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
African leaders at the second Africa-Russia summit need to speak with one voice.
Seeking divine help? Neither Moscow nor Minsk wants Wagner Group mercenaries stationed in Belarus to get out of control.
EPA-EFE/Alexander Demyanchuk/Sputnik/Kremlin pool
Wagner Group mercenaries in Belarus remain a worrying wild card with possible consequences for the conflict and the wider region.
Vasily Deryugin/Kommersant Publishing House/AP
Russia has long been a ‘paramilitarised’ regime, where the state can be challenged and undermined, but is not completely destroyed, by paramilitary or criminal groups.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa Summit in 2019 in Sochi, Russia.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
The Russia-Africa summit has obvious benefits for Moscow: it conveys a perception of normalcy and the tacit approval of African elites.
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, new ECOWAS chairman.
Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images
The new ECOWAS chairman must focus on strengthening democracy and security in west Africa.
Members of the Wagner Group on a tank in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, during the lightning march on Moscow on June 24 2023.
AP/Alamy
Machinations over the march on Moscow are continuing.
Face masks depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin and owner of private military company Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin.
AP Photo
Russian authorities have given no legitimate justification for dropping criminal cases against rebel troops – undermining both President Vladimir Putin and the legal system.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on June 29, less than a week after the rebellion by the mercenary Wagner Group.
Contributor/Getty Images
The revolt by Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops put the US in an unusual situation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping during happier times?
Mikhail Tereshchenko/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
China has provided Russia with economic support during the war in Ukraine. But Beijing may be concerned over recent events in Moscow.
Ukrainian soldiers on a Swedish CV90 infantry fighting vehicle at their positions near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on June 25.
(Roman Chop via AP)
Euphoria in the West about the short-lived revolt by the Wagner Group hasn’t yet resulted in military gains for Ukraine.
10 tons of ammunition previously laid in civilian settlements by Libyan militia and Wagner group mercenaries .
Hazem Turkia/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The Wagner rebellion in Russia has implications for African countries that depend on mercenaries and non-state armed groups for security.
Members of the Wagner Group sit atop a tank in a street in the city of Rostov-on-Don, on June 24, 2023.
Roman Romokhov/AFP via Getty Images
A historian explains how Russian President Vladimir Putin, weakened by a short-lived mutiny, might find a path to peace with Ukraine.
EPA-EFE/Gavril Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin poolAVRIIL GRIGOROVSPUTNIK/KREMLIN
For the past few years Alexander Lukashenko has had to depend on Moscow’s help to keep him in power. Now he appears to have returned the favour.
Prigozhin Press Service/AP
Putin has ignored his own role in the transformation of Prigozhin from a convicted criminal into a formidable political force.
‘March for justice’: Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin poses for a picture with a supporter in the Russian city of Rostov.
Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo
The Russian president has been severely wounded by this open show of defiance. It remains to be seen whether Ukraine can take advantage of this weakness.
Open defiance in Rostov-on-Don.
Feodor Larin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Signs of discontent among Russian nationalists and Wagner had been growing before a column of paramilitaries began an aborted march on Moscow.
Gavriil Grigorov/Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP
Perhaps the gravest concern for Putin: having for years encouraged the Kremlin’s powerful elites to compete for his favour, he’s now given them a powerful reason to unite against him.
Wagner has assisted rebel leader Khalifa Hiftar’s Libyan Arab Armed Forces.
GettyImages
The African Union (AU) and responsible African governments are likely to grow to resent the Wagner Group’s presence and regret their failure to oppose it.
A man takes down a poster reading Join us at Wagner in Russian amid an insurrection by the Wagner Group, a private military contractor, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on June 24.
(AP Photo)
If Vladimir Putin can shift blame for a failed war in Ukraine onto Wagner Group forces as they engage in an armed rebellion on Russian territory, it could provide him an escape hatch from Ukraine.