Now we must help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and I hope the summit will bring good news for them.” “They are even bringing Patriot missile defenses over here. “Never in its history was Lithuania this safe,” says Jonas Braukyla, an IT engineer, who brought his family to see the U.S.-made Abrams tanks, German Leopards and Marders and other military hardware brought out to project NATO power ahead of an alliance summit next week. The area, usually busy with cars, cyclists and pedestrians, is closed to traffic and packed with heavy armored vehicles. Prigozhin is also wearing the same outfit in each - an indication the photos could have been taken at the same event.VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) - A pair of colorful children’s scooters rest against the yellow tracks of a battle tank, parked in the shade of skyscrapers in the Vilnius business district. Sky News has been unable to verify that the images were taken today, which is the first day of the Russia-Africa summit.īut both images don't return results before today when using a reverse image search, which scans the internet for uses of an image. These posts also claim Prigozhin is in St Petersburg and meeting African leaders. This hotel is listed by the Russia-Africa Summit website as one of the hotels being used for the event.Īnother image has been posted within Wagner-supporting channels. ![]() It exactly matches existing imagery of the hotel on Google. Sky News has verified that the image was taken in the Trezzini Palace Hotel in St Petersburg. The image is the first post on his Facebook account. The image below was posted to a Facebook page that appears to be for Dimitri Sytyi, a reported associate of the Wagner Group, based in the Central African Republic. We heard claims last week he's had tea with Mr Putin and have seen a video appearing to show him with his troops in Belarus. The whereabouts of Prigozhin has been subject to much speculation since his failed mutiny and apparent exile to Belarus in June. Images posted online, and in Russian media, suggest Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may be at a summit in St Petersburg - where Vladimir Putin is also in attendance. The CAR is heavily reliant on Wagner's support, an example of "state capture", MPs from the UK's Foreign Affairs Committee said this week.Īnd as Vladimir Putin promises free grain to countries which need it most, it is Prigozhin who does the Kremlin's dirty work on the African continent, steadily extending Russia's influence and exerting just the kind of pseudo-colonial control Mr Putin professes to be saving Africa from. He'll zero the number of terms he can run for president, just like Vladimir Putin did in 2020. It is possible the photo was taken some other time, but it would also make sense for Prigozhin, out of his army fatigues, to be meeting with African officials when they're in Russia seeing as Wagner's African activities are still very much on track.Ī case in point - Wagner is providing the security around this weekend's referendum in the CAR which will see President Faustin-Archange Touadera rewrite the constitution so he can extend his time in power. You would have thought Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin would be persona non grata in Russia, having set his men on Moscow last month but, it appears, he is still most definitely not.Ī photo apparently published to the Facebook account of one of Wagner's top men in the Central African Republic, Dimitri Sytyi, appears to show Prigozhin shaking hands with a smiling CAR official at the Trezzini Palace hotel in St Petersburg, one of the hotels being used for the Russia-Africa summit. "Africa needs these vital products today," he said. Meanwhile Sawadogo Mahamadi, head of Burkina Faso's chamber of commerce and industry, called Mr Putin's grain offer "a very good thing". It comes after Moscow pulled out of a landmark deal which had allowed the safe export of grain from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea to global markets.Ī Russian news agency cited Uganda's foreign minister as calling the decision "understandable". Mr Putin told African leaders earlier that he was ready to replace Ukrainian grain supplies to the continent and could ship tens of thousands of tonnes of free grain within months (see our 11.36 post). ![]() ![]() "We are food-secure, he is just adding to what we are already have," he said. Zimbabwe's president has said he is "grateful" for Vladimir Putin's offer of free grain - but insisted his country is "food-secure" and not in need of handouts.Įmmerson Mnangagwa told reporters at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg that "we are not in any grain deficit at all".
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |