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Yevgeny Primakov Jr., head of Rossotrudnichestvo — the Russian “Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States Affairs, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation” — has officially confirmed that so-called “Russian Houses” (Kremlin-funded vectors for cultural exchange and political influence) in several African countries were opened by a “well-known private military company.” In a recently released interview with the business daily Vedomosti, he also said that some representatives of that PMC are now working at Rossotrudnichestvo.
“We have signed about 26 agreements on partner Russian Houses. Fourteen of them are in Africa. With great pleasure, we signed such agreements with Russian Houses that a well-known African PMC opened in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR),” Primakov said.
“Several very capable guys from that team — ‘eggheads’ — have come to work with us. Incredibly capable. They know the field and can work miracles with limited means. Even with our constrained resources, they do amazing things. We would like to be more helpful to our partner Russian Houses. To do that, we need to change legislation or look for other support tools through foundations, friendly organizations, and NGOs,” he added.
In December, the state news agency TASS reported that nine Russian Houses are currently operating in Africa: two in Egypt and one each in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Morocco, Tanzania, Tunisia, Ethiopia, and South Africa.
As early as 2024, German public media outlet Deutsche Welle described Dmitry Sytyi, head of the Russian House in the Central African Republic, as a key figure in the leadership of the Wagner private military company. Due to his alleged ties to the group, Sytyi was sanctioned by the U.S., EU, and Canada. In his interview with the outlet, Sytyi said he considered himself a “cultural ambassador of Russia,” but acknowledged that he had at times carried out “disarmament missions” of armed groups in Central Africa at the request of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera.
For much of the decade leading up to June 2023, mercenaries from the Wagner Group cooperated with the authorities of the Central African Republic and Mali, helping them fight militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group. After the death of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash two months after his abortive march on Moscow, Russian authorities replaced Wagner mercenaries in Africa with those of the Defense Ministry’s Africa Corps (even if many of the individual mercenaries remain the same).