An international investigation reveals that the Wagner Group loots and exports Central African diamonds to Europe

MADRID, 2 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

An international investigation has revealed this Friday that the Russian group of Wagner mercenaries led by Yevgeni Prigozhin loots diamonds in the Central African Republic to later sell them to Europe through an opaque company.

A joint investigation carried out by the European Investigative Collaborations network, the All Eyes on Wagner project and the Dossier Center has denounced that the Diamville company operates as an arm of Wagner in the Central African Republic.

Through a network of companies, with links to Wagner, the detailed analysis explains that a diamond expert moved to the Central African Republic in September 2018, where she appraised the gems and later put them up for sale on her Facebook page.

Diamville, the company that was the subject of the investigation, was registered in the Central African Republic's business register in March 2019 and became a "gold and diamond export office authorized by government decree" in October 2019.

The email in the record points to a Russian phone number and two accounts on two social networks associated with these digits. The Facebook page, the text explains, previously belonged to a user named "Lanadiamanter."

In said profile, whose first publication is from January 2020, there were photos of diamonds for sale, as well as personal photos of a woman they have been able to identify as Svetlana Troitskaia, who likes cross stitch and sports.

Troitskaia, in addition to being an engineer specialized in diamond physics, has worked in different companies and has even taught at the Russian State University for Geological Prospecting (MGRI), according to the data provided on her LinkedIn profile.

On this platform, Troitskaya itself assures that from August 2018 to August 2021, it has developed a "business project" on Russia and Africa through an international company, which it does not name. Their role: value diamonds and offer technological support for their processing, export and import operations.

According to what this group of journalists has been able to find out, the person in charge of Diamville has Central African nationality and is called Bienvenu Patrick Setem Bonguende, who is the driver of Dimitri Sitii, a well-known Russian figure who has ties to Wagner in the country's capital, Bangui.

Another piece of information provided by the investigation is that the Central African company Bois Rouge, dedicated to logging, and linked to the group of mercenaries in the Central African Republic, was searched the same day as Diamville. Its director, Anastasie Naneth Yakoima, is a Facebook friend of Patrick's.

Returning to Troitskaya, the report reveals that he appears in a photograph together with Dimitri Sitii, named above, as well as one of Prigozhin's top political advisers, Evgeny Kopot, in Lobaye, a region in the west of the country where Wagner's leader he has several companies, such as Lobaye Invest.

The documents provided by Dossier Center show that Troitskaia traveled from Moscow to Bangui via Casablanca in September 2018, when she worked for the Russian Service K LLC, a company owned by Yana Nikitina and who holds various positions in Human Resources in different companies linked to Prigozhin.

The investigation then provides different evidence and concludes that Troitskaia appears in documents that form a network of companies with ties to Wagner, including M-Finance, to secure her job during the month that she is working as a diamond appraiser in the country.