JUSTICE MALALA | When will government see Russia for what it truly is?

Yevgeny V Prigozhin, the Russian tenderpreneur and leader of the notoriously violent and ruthless Wagner mercenary group that shook Moscow this weekend, is a terrible human being. He goes to war for profit. His hands are dripping with the blood of innocent men, women and children on this continent and elsewhere.

Prigozhin is also the founder of the notorious Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian company which engages in online disinformation and influences operations across the globe on behalf of Moscow’s interests and proxies. In 2018, the US accused the IRA of having “created and managed a vast number of fake online personas that posed as legitimate US people to include grassroots organisations, interest groups and a state political party on social media”. There are indications that the group has been involved in social media disinformation operations in Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique and Sudan. In 2022, a UK government report said the “troll factory is targeting politicians and baiting audiences across a number of countries including the UK, South Africa and India”.

In 2022, Prigozhin admitted to interfering in US elections: “Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere, and we will interfere ... Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once.”

So even as he railed against his former boss and benefactor, Russia’s warmongering President Vladimir Putin, this weekend, we know that Prigozhin is a warmonger and professional liar himself. His financial success is due to his closeness to Putin. He has, until this weekend, been Putin’s enforcer in Russia and across the globe. Wagner was essentially Putin’s criminal gang.

When Prigozhin speaks about the inner workings and thoughts of the Russian state, his words carry the weight of someone who is close to Putin himself. Indeed, this is a man who was known as “Putin’s Chef” because of his closeness to the Russian leader. So when Prigozhin talks about Russian attitudes towards this continent, he knows what he is talking about. His words are a window to the Kremlin — and we Africans should listen carefully.

So why does SA continue to support a regime whose most notorious fighter has called out its leadership for corrupt intentions in their invasion of Ukraine and in their African interventions?

His Telegram social media posts on Saturday are hugely revealing about what Russian insiders really think about their country’s involvement on our continent. In one of his posts, Prigozhin said: “When we fought in Africa, we were told that we needed Africa, and then they dumped it, because they stole all the money that was meant to come for help. When we were told we are fighting with Ukraine, we went and fought. But it turned out that the ammo, weapons, all money put towards this were also being stolen, while officials are sitting and saving them for themselves ...”

Here you have a man who fought for Russia’s generals saying that they are on the African continent for cynical, selfish reasons. They are corrupt, he says. They are similarly corrupt in their war on Ukraine.

So why does SA continue to support a regime whose most notorious fighter has called out its leadership for corrupt intentions in their invasion of Ukraine and in their African interventions? As John F Clark, a professor of politics and international relations at Florida International University, stated this weekend: “Wagner has done nearly nothing to make life better for Africans: its activities have served to entrench dictators and undermine democracies; to extend and deepen civil conflicts; to murder innocent civilians; to exploit natural resources for Russia’s gain; and to vilify the only alternative that Africans have to China for investment.”

Wagner is not an independent outfit. It was created by Russia and acts as part of Russian foreign policy. So Wagner destabilisation of the continent is Russian destabilisation of the continent.

Yet our leaders continue to behave like slaves to Russia and its leader.

South Africa banned mercenary activity years ago. From the 1970s to the 2000s this country was used as a launch pad for coup attempts all over the continent. Why do we support countries and outfits — like Russia and Wagner — that continue this destruction of the continent?

Lastly, SA is going into elections next year. We already know that Prigozhin, at the behest of the Russians and using his troll farm, used fake online accounts and personas to sway the outcome of the US’s 2016 elections. Anyone who uses social media in SA will know how these fake accounts have proliferated and that they were behind the fake support for the Gupta and Zuma families in the 2010s. Did they interfere here too? Will they interfere again?

The usefulness of Prigozhin’s attempted putsch this weekend is this: he is a window into the corrupt, soulless, repressive, lawless Russia that we call our ally and for whom our government has been shilling this past year. He is proof, if ever any was needed, that we are on the wrong side of history.