‘Blood gold’ has swollen Vladimir Putin’s coffers by whopping £2bn

Wagner Group mercenaries are shipping vast quantities of so-called ‘blood gold’ out of Africa, boosting Vladimir Putin’s war chest by £2billion since the start of his war on Ukraine, a new study has suggested.

The Blood Gold Report, which was published today by a team of human rights campaigners, tracks destabilising activities and human rights violations committed by Kremlin-backed mercenaries, including the Wagner Group, in support of resource extraction schemes in several different countries.

One of its authors accused Wagner – formerly led by Yevgeny Prigozhin until his death in a plane crash earlier this year – of “spreading violence and instability across the continent”. Meanwhile another said complicit Western companies “needed to be held accountable”.

The report identifies three distinct models of Blood Gold extraction related to three African nations.

In the Central African Republic (CAR, a Wagner front company has been handed exclusive rights to the Ndassima mine, which is the country’s largest gold mine, in return for propping up an authoritarian regime.

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In Sudan, “the Russian company” controls a major refinery which has allowed Wagner to become the dominant buyer of unprocessed Sudanese gold, with multiple accounts of Russian military transport planes shipping processed gold out of the country.

In Mali, Russian mercenaries are paid in cash – £8.6 million per month according to US Intelligence services – by a military junta which relies on a small number of international mining companies for the majority of its tax revenue. Canada’s Barrick Gold – the country’s top taxpayer – paid £164 million to the junta in the first half of 2023 alone.

In CAR and Sudan, where Wagner-linked entities are already subject to international sanctions, Kremlin actors use complex smuggling routes and corporate subterfuge tactics in order to extract large amounts of blood gold out of Africa. They are transported to destinations including Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where it can be mixed with other legitimate sources of gold and then converted to cash.

The Kremlin’s approach to Mali is specifically designed to avoid sanctions, the report explains. Research indicates that the four biggest mining companies operating in Mali – Barrick Gold Corporation, B2Gold, Resolute Mining and Allied Gold Corporation – continue to deliver millions in revenue to the military junta which seized control in May 2021. This is despite the growing concerns about the humanitarian situation and documented human rights abuses including the Moura massacre in which more than 500 civilians were killed by Malian troops together with Wagner mercenaries.

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The report recommends a range of measures which, if taken collectively, have the potential to disrupt Wagner and Russia’s Blood Gold operations, and deliver a sizeable financial blow to the Kremlin, benefiting both African security and the defence of Ukraine.

These measures include: widening sanctions; introducing stringent supply chain controls; demanding real responsibility from international mining companies; designating Wagner a terrorist group; closing gaps in the existing sanctions framework; and increasing support to African democratic states threatened by Wagner operations.

The report was authored by a team of researchers including Jessica Berlin, Political Analyst & African-European Relations Expert, David Clement, Senior Fellow, 21 Democracy, Elizabeth Hicks, US Affairs Analyst at Consumer Choice Centre, Lanre Peter Elufisan, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Ominira Initiative for Economic Advancement, Zoltan Kesz, Former Hungarian MP and civil activist.

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Ms Berlin said: “Wagner’s operations in Africa spread violence and instability across the continent and generate millions of dollars in monthly revenue for the Kremlin, financing both Russia’s war on Ukraine and its hybrid warfare against democracies worldwide. Every government opposed to Russia’s crimes must take action to stop the Blood Gold trade, and pressure gold mining companies and investors to do the same.”

Mr Clement added: “Western companies who facilitate this system of Blood Gold need to be held accountable. It’s not acceptable to do business with Russia, and it’s not acceptable to prop up the Blood Gold system that delivers billions to Russia. If these companies won’t follow their own CSR policies and withdraw from Mali immediately, they should be forced to do so by their investors, or else by Government sanctions.”

The Blood Gold Report research programme was launched in September 2023 to investigate the links between western mining companies, authoritarian African governments and Russian mercenaries.

To find out more please visit: www.bloodgoldreport.com 

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