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'.

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