Russian Wagner chief offers to finance joint security project with US in Africa

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The head of the private military company (PMC) Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, wrote a letter Wednesday to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offering to finance a joint security project in Africa.

Commenting on Blinken's accusations that Wagner sows "violence and instability" in Africa, Prigozhin said he has noticed that while his group has been "busy" in Ukraine, the US and other countries are "actively trying to divide the African pie" and impose sanctions on everyone who hinders this process.

Prigozhin claimed that "long-term attempts of the US and its satellites" to restore order and ensure security in Africa have "led to nothing," while back in 2017-2018, when Wagner started actively operating in Africa, it “managed to achieve great results in establishing security and order in every country we have been present in.”

"Therefore, I suggest that you support the efforts of PMC Wagner in ensuring security in Africa and finance a new Wagner project named Wagner. Safe Africa (WSA), where you can become one of the investors of the project and thereby save the resources of US taxpayers," he said.

The Wagner chief pledged "to do everything more effective than American proxies, which receive a large amount of money but do not provide security in Africa."

"Since most Africans do not trust the policies of France and the US, and their trust ratings are very low, I suggest that you abandon the attempt of political influence in Africa and focus solely on the security that Wagner can provide," he said.

Prigozhin noted that if the Wagner. Safe Africa project is successful, the experience may be spread to other continents.

"In case the joint WSA project proves successful, I suggest we expand it to the American continent. Furthermore in the case of fruitful cooperation, we can expand our area of influence and launch projects WSA-2 -- Wagner. Save America, WSA-3 -- Wagner, Safe Asia, WSA-4 -- Wagner. Safe Australia and WSA-5 -- Wagner. Save Antarctica. Please send your representative to discuss this issue," he said.