Industry | Diamond and gold |
---|---|
Founded | 2019 |
Founder | Bienvenu Patrick Setem Bonguende |
Headquarters | Central African Republic |
DiamvilleSAU [1] is a Central African Republic based, Russian owned, diamond and gold trading company, affiliated with the Russian private military company Wagner Group.
In February 2023, Diamville became the subject of a set of economic sanctions imposed by the European Council against various people and organizations affiliated with the Wagner Group. The company had sanctions imposed by the United States in July 2023.
Diamville is a Central African Republic based, Russian owned, diamond and gold trading company. [2] [1] The official registered owner of the company is Central African Bienvenu Patrick Setem Bonguende, who works as a driver for Dimitri Sytyi, a senior executive at the Russian private military company Wagner Group. [3] According to a 2022 joint investigation and report from European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), the French organization All Eyes on Wagner, and the UK-based Dossier Center, Diamville is a shell company owned by Russian militia Wagner Group. [4] Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner Group, dismissed the report as "Western propaganda" and sarcastically [5] claimed that Emmanuel Macron was the owner of Diamville. [6] De Standaard newspaper also reported that "five sources from the diamond sector in Bangui" confirmed Diamville is a Wagner Group front organization. [7] [8]
De Standard reported that Diamville was founded in 2019 and exported €132,000 of diamonds from Central African Republic to Belgium in November 2019. [7] [9] The EIC report claimed that in total 1,000 carats of diamonds worth US$12 million were exported from Central African Republic between 2019 and 2021. [3]
In late February 2023, the European Council imposed sanctions against "individuals and entities linked to the Wagner Group" including Diamville for "their role in illegally trading gold and diamonds looted by force from local traders." [10] [11] [12] Other affiliated companies included Lobaye Invest Sarlu in Central African Republic and Meroe Gold and M-Invest in Sudan. [11] The United States imposed sanctions against Diamville on June 27, 2023, in the aftermath of the Wagner Group rebellion. Sanctions against the Wagner Group affiliated Midas Ressources were imposed at the same time. [13]
Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group private military company and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a rebellion in June 2023. Prigozhin was sometimes referred to as "Putin's chef" because he owned restaurants and catering businesses that provided services to the Kremlin. Once a convict in the Soviet Union, Prigozhin controlled a network of influential companies whose operations, according to a 2020 investigation, were "tightly integrated with Russia's Defence Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU".
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
Dmitry Valerievich Utkin was a Russian military officer and mercenary. He served as a special forces officer in the GRU, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was the co-founder and military commander of the Russian state-funded Wagner Group, with his military alias reportedly being Wagner. Utkin was reportedly a neo-Nazi. He rarely made public appearances, but was allegedly the commander of the private military company, while Yevgeny Prigozhin was its owner and public face. Utkin was awarded four Orders of Courage of Russia.
The battle of Bakhmut was a major battle between the Russian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control of the city of Bakhmut, during the eastern Ukraine campaign, a theatre of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is regarded by military analysts to be the bloodiest battle since the end of World War II.
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Redut, also known as Redoubt, Redut-Antiterror or Centre R, formerly known as "Shield", is a Russian Private Military Company (PMC) that is a part of the "Antiterror-family" — which consists of similarly named PMCs that protect commercial operations of Russian companies. It is currently deployed by Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to an RFE/RL investigation, "Redut" is fully controlled and managed by GRU.
The Wagner Group, also known as PMC Wagner, a Russian paramilitary organization also described as a private military company (PMC), a network of mercenaries, and a de facto unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) or Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, has conducted operations in the Central African Republic since late 2018.
On 23 June 2023, the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, engaged in a major uprising against the Government of Russia. It marked the climax of the Wagner Group–Ministry of Defense conflict, which had begun about six months earlier. Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who had been leading Wagner Group activities in Ukraine, stood down after reaching an agreement a day later.
Midas Ressources SARLU is a Wagner Group affiliated precious metals company based in Central African Republic.
The rivalry between the then-head of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and the leadership of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, headed by Sergei Shoigu, in the public sphere began in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ultimately led to the Wagner Group rebellion on the 23rd to 24th of June 2023. According to United States officials, Yevgeny Prigozhin had longstanding disputes with the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) "for years" prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, these tensions escalated and became more public during this stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War. During the initial stages of the invasion, the Russian Ground Forces suffered significant casualties, but the announcement of mobilization for reservists was delayed by Russian president Vladimir Putin. As a result, authorities actively sought to enlist mercenaries for the invasion, which led to a heightened influence and power for Prigozhin and the Wagner Group. Prigozhin was allocated substantial resources, including his own aviation assets. Additionally, starting in the summer of 2022, he gained the authority to recruit inmates from Russian prisons into the Wagner Group in exchange for their freedom. Western intelligence estimated that the number of Wagner mercenaries increased from "several thousand" fighters around 2017–2018 to approximately 50,000 fighters by December 2022, with the majority comprising criminal convicts recruited from prisons.
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