General Andrei Averyanov was selected to lead the African operations of the Wagner Mercenary Group after the death of Evgeny Prigozhin.
Averyanov, now head of covert operations for the Russian military intelligence service, is accused of ordering the assassination of a Russian dissident. He is now tasked with maintaining Wagner’s operations in Africa after the architect’s death. The Wall Street Journal reported.
Averyanov met with African leaders at the Russia-Africa Summit in July. The summit was also Prigozhin’s first public appearance after a brief uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Wagner lost its leader and several executives when Prigogine’s private jet crashed last week. Prigozhin’s deputy commander Dmitry Utkin and Wagner’s non-military logistics director Valery Chekalov were also on board.
Wagner unit mourns Prigogine after plane crash
General Andrei Averyanov was selected to lead the African operations of the Wagner Mercenary Group after the death of Evgeny Prigozhin.
Putin forced Wagner mercenaries to withdraw from operations in Ukraine following an uprising earlier this year. However, the group is still active in Africa.
Pentagon Says Wagner Secretary Evgeny Prigozhin Likely Died in Plane Crash, No Evidence of Missile Attack
It is unclear what caused Prigozhin’s plane to crash, but experts believe Putin ordered the assassination.
Rescuers said they had found 10 bodies in the wreckage, and Russian officials said on Sunday that DNA analysis confirmed that Prigogine was among them.
Last week, Evgeny Prigozhin’s private jet crashed, leaving Wagner with the loss of its leader and several other executives. Also on board the plane were Prigozhin’s deputy commander, Dmitry Utkin, and Wagner’s head of non-military logistics, Valery Chekalov. (Razgruzka_Vagnera telegram channel via AP)
Who is Evgeny Prigogine?
In his post-crash comments, Putin described Prigozhin as “a man who made a grave mistake in his life and suffered a difficult fate”, but he needed it for himself and for the common cause. said to have achieved good results. He was a talented man and a talented businessman, as he has been for the last few months. “
It is unclear what caused Evgeny Prigozhin’s plane to crash, but experts believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assassination. (Reuters)
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“It’s harmful to make changes too quickly,” one Wagner employee in Africa told the WSJ. “The primary concern at the moment is not to lose control of the situation while waiting for one (or more) successors to be appointed.”
