A recent report revealed that Vladimir Putin is allegedly making £80 million monthly by laundering gold to support his ongoing war efforts in Ukraine.
The report, titled the Blood Gold Report, exposed how Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, known for their involvement in secret wars and resource plundering, are contributing to Putin’s war chest.
The Wagner Group, previously led by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been operating clandestinely in Africa for decades, leaving a trail of instability and proxy wars. The report emphasised that gold plays a central role in Wagner’s operations, providing a massive source of revenue for the Kremlin.
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As Putin benefits from the lucrative gold trade, the report highlighted the human cost, stating: “The price is being paid in lives across Africa and Ukraine.”
The investigation focuses on Wagner’s activities in the Central African Republic (CAR), Sudan, and Mali, exposing their brutal campaigns to secure gold through suppression, disinformation, and human rights abuses.
The report claimed that Russia, facing financial strain due to increased defence spending, has earned over £2 billion by trading African gold since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Wagner’s resource extraction in Africa alone reportedly contributes £80 million monthly to the Kremlin.
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Wagner’s presence in African countries has been challenging to track, with the group’s militants operating without identifiable uniforms and using unmarked vehicles. The report aims to uncover Wagner’s “deadly bargains” with authoritarian regimes and Western mining companies, accusing them of supporting anti-democratic regimes, spreading instability, and committing human rights abuses.
The authors call for international action to dismantle Wagner’s revenue-generating apparatus in Africa.
The report calls for wider sanctions, new supply chain controls, and increased accountability for international mining companies involved with regimes funding Wagner. It characterises Wagner’s actions in Africa as part of Russia’s broader geopolitical strategy to distract and challenge the democratic West.
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