Is Russian influence in Bangui disguised as culture?

Russia's expanding influence in Africa is evident in the Central African Republic (CAR), which strengthened its ties with the Kremlin through a 2018 defense agreement that granted the Wagner Group, a private Russian military group, a greater role in the country. 

Russian military instructors supplied its army with weapons, trained soldiers to fight rebels and served as bodyguards for Central African President Faustin-Archange Touadera. 

Behind the cultural curtain

One of the central players in the Russian presence is Dmitri Sytyi, a 35-year-old marketing expert and economist, who heads Russian House, a Russian cultural center in the CAR's capital, Bangui. 

Sytyi likes to talk about Russian courses and evenings of Russian music and theater for locals.

But observers claim his influence is so significant that they suspect he is one of the key figures in the Wagner Group.

The Russian paramilitary organization is also accused of being involved in activities across Africa, including operations in Libya, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. 

It is also accused of playing a major role in Russia's war in Ukraine. Wagner's previous leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in a plane crash in Russia in 2023, a few weeks after the mercenary group staged a mutiny against the Kremlin.

"We are continuing what he started," Sytyi said, referring to Prigozhin.

 Sytyi described Prigozhin's death as a great loss for Africa, particularly the CAR and noted that Africa is a continent of the future.

"The aim of our policy is to help the CAR," he said. "Everything revolves around this aid policy. It's not about asserting our interests."

Wagner's strategic entry

From the CAR's perspective, Wagner gained a foothold in the country at the right time, according to Beverly Ochieng, a security analyst from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. 

"There was a feeling that France, the dominant power in the CAR and a former colonial power, and the UN had not done enough because the increasing violence of the rebels was threatening an elected government," Ochieng told DW.

She added that this allowed Moscow to dominate the security sector as well as the mining sector, which could not be controlled despite clear mining laws. 

"What bothers me about the Russians and their approach in CAR is the fact that they want to act with such impunity and take mines by any means necessary," said Philip Obagi, a Nigeria-based correspondent for The Daily Beast, who has researched mining in the conflict region.

Obagi accuses both the Russians and the rebels of greed. They want to control the mines and do not negotiate, according to Obagi, who said that this is why there has been no recent improvement in stability and peace in the CAR.

From bomb victim to influencer

Sytyi dismissed accusations of serious human rights violations against former Wagner mercenaries, made by journalists, NGOs, and the UK, as Western propaganda.

He himself was the victim of a parcel bomb attack at the end of 2022, a result of which he wears a prosthesis on his right arm.

"Journalists who claim in their articles that I was behind the attack are agreeing with this act of terrorism," he said. 

Sytyi is on US and European Union sanctions lists in connection with the rights abuse allegations. He is also one of the shareholders of Lobaye Invest, which is on international sanctions lists. 

The company is involved in the exploration of new raw material deposits and participates in the financing of Wagner's activities. 

Sytyi told DW that he is first and foremost a "cultural ambassador for Russia". However, he admits to carrying out other "disarmament missions" on behalf of President Touadera with the armed groups in Central Africa from time to time. 

Political influence instead of cultural work

According to Ochieng, Sytyi runs a cultural center — but he is also in a position to exert significant political influence over government negotiations and their conditions. "Sytyi is active in the security apparatus, he is the head of Russian military intelligence and the head of all those who rotate to train auxiliary troops in Berengo," said the security expert, referring to a planned Russian military base in the southern town of Berengo, equipped to meet the needs of 10,000 soldiers.  

"So officially they are Russian trainers, but in reality they are Wagner members who own companies," former Central African lawmaker Jean-Pierre Mara said in DW's 2023 French-language podcast QuiQuoiComment?

The planned base in Berengo — which already has an airport and other installments necessary for running a military base — is another piece of the puzzle with which Russia is obviously trying to expand its influence throughout Africa.  "The Central African Republic is a kind of pilot project for Russia's new Africa policy," Sytyi told DW.

Many other countries are closely watching how relations with the CAR develop, as it could signal the future of Russia’s influence in Africa.

This article was originally published in German

Zigoto Tchaya Tchameni, Sandrine Blanchard and Eddy Micah Jr. contributed reporting