Group linked to Wagner buys helmets from China despite sanctions

A front company for the Russian mercenary group Wagner acquired tens of thousands of protective helmets from China late last year, at the same time as the group’s head, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was raising a massive prisoner army to invade Ukraine.

The Financial Times has found that entities used by warlords to equip their operations in Africa continue to freely export and import goods to international markets despite Western sanctions, which aim to create an “international crime organization”. to stop a private army designated as We.

Broker Expert, a Russia-based company linked to Wagner, bought 20,000 polymer-based helmets from a small Chinese company called Hangzhou Xinren Import and Export Co in November and December last year, according to customs declarations and interviews analyzed by the FT. The Chinese group claimed they were for “gaming use”.

The purchase of the helmets, divided into four shipments for a declared value of more than $2 million, occurred as Prigozhin was recruiting tens of thousands of Russian defectors to send to the front lines in Ukraine.

Since then a significant number of these Wagner forces have died in brutal fighting for control of the town of Bakhmut, with the US recently estimating that more than 20,000 Russian fighters had been killed in Ukraine since December.

The FT also found that the broker specialist continued to ship goods to Wagner operations in Africa through the port of Douala in Cameroon during the invasion. It underscores the apparent inability of Western sanctions – including measures such as asset freezes and blocking access to funds – to undermine the mercenary group’s ability to finance itself from Prigozhin’s overseas natural resources operations.

According to Russian customs declarations, the broker specialist shipped power generators, welding electrodes and fireproof insulation materials to a Prigozhin-controlled logging company in the Central African Republic last August. The US said in January that Wagner fighters in CAR were involved in crimes including “mass summary executions, rape, arbitrary detention, torture and displacement of civilians”.

Marcel Plichta, a research fellow at the Center for Global Law, said, “Prigozin is still able to deploy armed contractors in Ukraine and at least three African countries, buy equipment from China, and smuggle resources.” and Governance at the University of St Andrews.

The US estimated in December that Wagner had recruited 40,000 defectors to fight in Ukraine. According to leaked US intelligence reports, Wagner unsuccessfully asked China for arms supplies earlier this year. Prigozhin said in February that Wagner had stopped recruiting prisoners.

BrokerXpert’s Chinese supplier, Hangzhou Xinren, is based in the eastern province of Zhejiang and has five to 15 employees, according to its Alibaba page. It typically sells women’s clothing, meaning shipments of protective headgear to Russia don’t appear to be in its regular business pattern.

“We are a private company and do not get involved in national affairs or military issues, and abide by the law. We produced the helmet for gaming use,” the company said, adding that the helmet’s battlefield would have little protective use in. The Russian import declaration for the helmets states that they are “not for military use”.

The Chinese conglomerate said it had no information about Prigozhin or Wagner Group, or about the broker expert’s ties to Wagner. “We only fulfill the orders we get, and we abide by the law, we won’t ship anything illegal.” It declined to explain what “gaming use” meant or send pictures of the helmets to the FT.

CNN reported in January that Western intelligence officials are concerned about Chinese companies non-lethal equipment supplies such as flak jackets and helmets to Russia, but it was unclear whether China’s central government was aware of the sale. Private Chinese companies are under no obligation to comply with Western sanctions, and imports from China have soared over the past year as Russian companies seek alternatives to Western suppliers.

The broker specialist’s large purchase from China during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was its first declared import into the country since 2017, according to commercially available customs data.

The company, which did not respond to a request for comment, says on its website that it supplies equipment for geological surveying, industrial extraction and construction. It is not directly controlled by Prigozhin, but shares an obscure auditor with Wagner Front companies under US sanctions in Syria, Sudan and the Central African Republic, as well as his mother’s art gallery in St. Petersburg.

Over the past four years, the broker specialist, which has not been placed under sanctions by any Western government, has regularly shipped equipment from Russia to companies in Sudan and the CAR, on the fronts of which the US has raided for Wagner mercenary activity. Restrictions have been imposed.

The FT reported earlier this year that Prigozhin had made more than a billion dollars in revenue from his offshore natural resources empire in the four years before Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, despite Western sanctions.

“The news to the UK, US, France and others that Prigozhin’s enterprises are still going strong comes after more and more African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries took measures to restrict his access to global markets.” highlights the need to cooperate with Plichta.