News 360 2 December 2022 - by Daniel Stewart
An international investigation has revealed Friday that the Russian mercenary group Wagner led by Yevgeni Prigozhin plunders diamonds in the Central African Republic and then sells 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 web of companies, with links to Wagner, the detailed analysis explains that a diamond expert moved in September 2018 to Central African Republic, where she appraised the gems and subsequently offered them for sale on her Facebook page.
A DELETED FACEBOOK ACCOUNT Diamville, the company at the centre of the investigation, was registered in the Central African Republic's commercial register in March 2019 and became in October 2019 a "gold and diamond export office authorized by government decree."
The email listed in the register 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".
On that profile, whose first post dates back to 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-stitching and sports.
Troitskaia, in addition to being an engineer specializing in diamond physics, has worked in various companies and has even taught at the Russian State University of Geological Prospecting (MGRI), according to data provided on her LinkedIn profile.
On this platform, Troitskaia herself assures that from August 2018 to August 2021, she has developed a "business project" on Russia and Africa through an international company, of which she does not cite the name. Its role: to value diamonds and offer technological support for their processing, export and import operations.
FROM FACEBOOK TO THE THEFT OF DIAMONDS IN AFRICA As this group of journalists has been able to find out, the person in charge of Diamville is a Central African national named Bienvenu Patrick Setem Bonguende, who is the driver of Dimitri Sitii, a well-known Russian figure with links 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 timber logging and linked to the mercenary group in Central African Republic, was registered on the same day as Diamville. Its director, Anastasie Naneth Yakoima, is a Facebook friend of Patrick.
Returning to Troitskaia, the report reveals that she appears in a photograph alongside Dimitri Sitii, named above, as well as with one of Prigozhin's top political advisors, Evgeny Kopot, in Lobaye, a region in the west of the country, where the Wagner leader has several companies, such as Lobaye Invest.
Documents provided by Dossier Center show that Troitskaia traveled from Moscow to Bangui via Casablanca in September 2018, when she worked for Russia's Service K LLC, a company owned by Yana Nikitina and who holds several positions in Human Resources in different companies linked to Prigozhin.
The investigation then provides different evidence and concludes that Troitskaia appears in documents forming a web of companies with links to Wagner, including M-Finance, to secure her job during the month she is working as a diamond appraiser in the country.
