Wagner, like nobody’s business

Wagner is dead, long live Wagner. Yes, but what is left of the Wagner Group and the Concord holding company, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s business empire? Although the question is not obvious – there are, after all, hundreds of companies belonging to the Concord Group that were used for the Wagner Group’s operations – All Eyes On Wagner takes stock of the information known about the Wagner Group after Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death.

Breaking up the family business and finding cash

On September 30, 2023, a Telegram account whose integrity is difficult to assess published a piece of document presented as Prigozhin’s will in which he bequeathed all of his assets and companies to his son Pavel Prigozhin. Evgeny Prigozhin was then a direct shareholder of five companies that formed the top of the Concord holding company.

AEOW manages to follow the movement with the transfer of a stake by Prigozhin Junior on November 30, 2023 via a trust in Concord Management & Consulting LLC and Concord Catering LLC, the two flagship companies of Prigozhin’s Concord holding company involved in the catering sector but also the other operations of the holding company and the Wagner group. Pavel Prigozhin also has at that time majority shares in the companies Aurum LLC and de facto Concord M LLC. The family business remains in the hands of the Prigozhins at the end of 2023 despite rumors of pressure from the Russian Ministry of Defense for the transfer of the group’s mining and oil assets.

On December 18, a new general director was appointed as head Concord Management & Consulting LLC and Concord Catering LLC: Vladislav Vladimirovich Pisarenok. This man from Murmansk and resident of Saint Petersburg has a strange profile since he worked until 2021 as a “specialist” for the company Oasis LLC specialized in the online sale of alcohol under the Blanc Rouge brand and subsidiary of the Mercury Retail group specialized in distribution, real estate investments, etc. He also worked for a private detective agency Vash Detektiv run by Dmitri Efimov (a former FSB) who claims to be particularly close to the Russian intelligence services.

Since Pisarenok took over as CEO of Concord, the names of the shareholder companies are now protected in the Russian commercial register. It is not possible to know whether Pavel Prigozhin still controls them or not. In March and April 2024, Evgeny Prigozhin is removed from the shareholders of Ritm LLC, Aurum LLC and Concord M LLC without knowing who replaces him. According to the Russian media, AURUM LLC could be liquidated.

According to our research, the Concord empire is crumbling and falling apart.

Prigozhin’s wife, Lyubov Prigozhina, divorced and heavily involved in Concord’s affairs, reverted to her maiden name – Kryazheva – in October 2023 and retains control of the following companies: Eliseev Merchants’ Shop LLC, Chocolate Museum and Agat-A LLC.

Prigozhin’s daughter, Veronica Prigozhin, who was absent from her father’s will, retains control of RedStars LLC for the 4-star Red Stars Hotel in St. Petersburg. Polina Prigozhin, who was absent from the will, also has control of the famous Trezzini Hotel.

Pavel Prigozhin retains the real estate and construction assets of the Concord group (Lakhta Park LLC, Lakhta Park Premium LLC, Lakhta Plaza, Beta LLC), but had to liquidate the following companies:

• The Prigozhin dacha in Gelendzhik through Turstatus LLC, valued at 150 million rubles (1.5 million euros) was sold on November 27, 2023 to Maryina Roshcha Estate, created for a wine project in the same area, owned by billionaire Andrei Bokarev, director of Transmashholding, Viktor Griboriev, deputy director of a Russian industrial company, and billionaire Albert Avdolyan.
• RTG Development, a subsidiary of Lakhta Plaza LLC, which was developing an IT cluster near the Gulf of Finland in St. Petersburg, was liquidated in August 2024.
• Some buildings on Universitetskaya Embankment
• The Wagner Center for Suitable Buildings in St. Petersburg has become a Consalt company and is expected to be excluded from the commercial register soon.
• A Yanino plant, a subsidiary of Pitanya Plant LLC, which produced 100,000 rations per day for the Ministry of Defense, was sold in May 2024 to Andrey Shokin’s RBE group, which took over Concord’s catering contracts.
• Prigozhin’s media division, Patriot Media, was reportedly not bought out, and Ilya Gorbunov, the alleged mastermind of the troll farms who allegedly continued to work for Pavel Prigozhin, was arrested on June 21.

The companies known to manage Prigozhin’s assets abroad have also changed:

• No changes for the companies Service K LLC (management of civilian personnel abroad), M-Finance LLC (Russian historical company for business in the Central African Republic), Nika Fruit LLC (rental of Chinese satellites), Broker Expert LLC (logistics), M-Invest (Russian historical company for business in Sudan).
• The director of Kapital LLC (oil in Syria) changed in November 2023.

FSB to take over most of Syria’s oil assets?

Shareholders of several companies on oil in Syria have changed.

• Vladimir Zlenko becomes a shareholder of Velada LLC (oil in Syria). He works until (at least) 2021 in the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Primorsky District of St. Petersburg.
• Anna Sergeyeva takes over the shareholding of Mercury LLC (oil in Syria and a catering contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense) in July 2024. She also works until (at least) 2021 in the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Primorsky District of St. Petersburg.
• Shareholders of the companies Neva (weapons), Evro Polis LLC (oil in Syria, payment of fighters and weapons) have changed and have been hidden. The new director of Evro Polis has been an employee of the structure since 2019.
• The new director of Neva since December 2023, Denis Larin, worked until (at least) 2021 at the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Primorsky District of St. Petersburg. Neva was previously controlled by Valery Chekalov who managed all the management of fighters and the purchase and logistics around weapons.

Wholesale of Wagner fighters on the Ukrainian front

At the same time, Prigozhin junior seems to be involved in negotiating part of Wagner’s personnel with the National Guard as a special division and under the guarantee of maintaining the Wagner brand for participation in the Ukrainian front. It seems that the personnel located in Belarus and those on leave will be absorbed by the National Guard as of October 28, 2023 with individual contracts.

The Central African Republic – Cameroon Axis: between security and business

In the Central African Republic, there has been a key figure for several years: Dimitri Sytyi, a former student of the major European and St. Petersburg schools and a historic Wagner executive in the country. AEOW was able to read his address book obtained by the Dossier Centre and revealing Sytyi’s central role in organizing the Wagner group’s operations and the group’s strategic relations with the Central African government, making the young executive the key man in the country. Sytyi knows everyone and everyone knows Sytyi. Injured in December 2022 in the hand, Sytyi had left the country for several months in Russia before returning in April 2023 supported by a real communication campaign.

After the Prigozhin mutiny, he reaffirmed his allegiance to Putin’s chef and began expanding the missions of the Russian House, of which he is a priori the director, or even the shareholder from 2021. The organization is not part of the classic diplomatic system, since it is a limited liability company created in the Central African Republic. Until now, the Russian House organized conferences, evenings or events related to the promotion of Russian interests but also directly from Evgeni Prigozhin, such as screenings of his films. In its new version launched shortly before Prigozhin’s death, the Russian House also becomes an organization of Russian humanitarian aid in Africa and a window for supporting Russian investment in the Central African Republic.

According to our contacts and independent information, Dimitry Sytyi would therefore play a more important role in the reorganization of the Wagner group by keeping the historic Wagner in Central Africa but dedicated to business (notably via the Ndassima mine) and a fighting force, mainly located in the provinces.

Central African business would continue to prosper. While verification is difficult to do, AEOW sources have confirmed a reorganization of the historic Wagner companies in the Central African Republic with:

• replacement of Wood International sarlu/Bois Rouge by Ripperwood sarlu
• replacement of IGL by Sobre as logistics partner for the commercial activities of the Wagner group
• Mining Industries sarlu, under OFAC sanction, with Stella Kougue Ibanga as director, would have obtained on November 23, 2022 a permit to exploit a gold and diamond deposit in the Birao region for three years (coordinates: 21°36’11.36/9°49’31.47”).

Mali – a historical affiliation with the Wagner group

The Battle of Tin Zaouatine has provided more information about the reorganization of the Wagner group following the death of Prigojine in Mali. AEOW had initially established and documented the chain of command of the group led by “Miron” aka Ivan Maslov for military operations and the role of “Kep” aka Andrey Ivanov in charge of negotiating access to the gold mines at the time of the historical Wagner.

Documents obtained on the battlefield suggest that the historical Wagner may have continued to operate in one way or another in Mali. New, very specific documents concerning the 13th Assault Battalion (13SHO) allow us to say that this battalion established no less than 36 temporary military posts in Kidal, Tessalit, Aguelhoc and Anéfis with no less than 142 fighters from the Wagner group spread across this area. The 13SHO was long led by a commander whose callsign is Rusich, identified as Ruslan Petrovich Zaprudskiy. The battalion participated in the fighting of Bakhmut but also in the famous capture of Kidal in December 2023 since we see the commander in the photo. In July 2024, the latter indicated that he was leaving “the Company” due to fundamental disagreements and that he was seeking to continue supporting the Russian Ministry of Defense.

The disaster of the battle of Tin Zaouatine for the Wagner group could hasten its replacement by the units of the GRU Africa Corps.