Russia is using unconventional methods to expand its influence, evade containment, and destabilize and disrupt its adversaries, including a rebranding of the private Wagner mercenary group that is making progress in forwarding the Kremlin's Africa policy to gain access to natural resources, according to a new report.
The report, published on February 20 by the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says that at a time when many Western states are trying to economically isolate Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin saw the development of economic ties with Africa and the Middle East as a means to "sanction-proof" Russia.
SEE ALSO: With Wagner In Disarray, Russian Diplomat With Spy Links Surfaces In Central African RepublicRUSI said that Wagner, broken up in June last year after its leader, the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, led a short-lived revolt against Putin, was placed under control of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU), which has since operated as the Expeditionary Corps that was tasked in Africa and the Middle East with "exploiting access for a more concerted attack on Western interests" in the region.
"The GRU has taken the Wagner Group’s functions in house and is aggressively pursuing the expansion of its partnerships in Africa with the explicit intent to supplant Western partnerships," the report says, noting Russia's "Entente Roscolonialism" is making progress "in several directions."
"Russia’s mandate is due to the West’s strategic neglect and its failure to address the problems that its partners face. Russia may also fail to do this, but for now frustration with the West in both Africa and the Middle East is high," it adds.
Prigozhin died in a suspicious plane crash several weeks after the failed insurrection, leading to questions over what would happen to the group, which had provided a crucial backbone to the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine.
The report also says that the leader of Russia's republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, is being used to build a broad network of influence among Chechen and Muslim populations in Europe and the Middle East, with the aim of contributing to the subversion of Western interests.
"The combination of social status and access to a range of constituencies – both secular and religious – makes Kadyrov a valuable proxy diplomat of the Russian Federation," the report says, noting that the refusal of several states to join international sanctions against Russia associated with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine "is partly shaped by Kadyrov’s diplomatic efforts."