Gold mined in African countries and laundered on international markets in African countries and laundered on international markets has brought the Russian state billions of dollars state billions of dollars to wage war. This is stated in the report of the independent expert group The Blood Gold, which was published in December 2023, reports UNN.
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Although Russia is under severe sanctions from Western powers for its invasion of Ukraine, but "gold mined in African countries and laundered on international markets" continues to bring billions of dollars to the Russian state, which has critical needs for warfare.
According to the to the findings of The Blood Gold think tank led by Jessica Berlin it was found that the method of financing the Kremlin's military mercenaries depends on the the African country where the mercenaries operate.
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Here's how the researchers describe this method of financing:
In Mali there are about 1000 Russian mercenaries, who are in the country to fight jihadist groups and protecting the ruling military junta, receive 10.8 million dollars a month in cash from the 10.8 million dollars a month in cash from the local military. This is the data is cited by RFI with reference to US intelligence agencies. The junta's income depends on a small number of international mining companies. Among them are the Canadian company Barrick Gold, the country's main taxpayer, paid 206 million dollars in the first half of of 2023, paid the Bamako authorities $206 million.
In the Central African Republic Republic (CAR), the Wagner Group has been granted exclusive rights to develop the country's the country's largest mine, the Ndima mine. The annual gold production at this mine is estimated at $290 million.
In Sudan, the Wagner Group controls a large gold refinery, buying and exporting unprocessed gold. Despite numerous evidence of large-scale trade conducted by Kremlin-linked entities for more than a decade, the Kremlin-linked entities, Sudan's foreign trade statistics show that official gold exports to Russia are zero. However, data from the Central Bank of Sudan of Sudan, obtained by CNN, shows that the country lost at least 32.7 tons of gold in 2021. of gold in 2021. The main source of this deficit is gold smuggling, which carried out by the Wagner PMC.
Profitable business of Russian mercenaries in Africa "fuels Russia's military machine", as well as destabilizing the region and undermining Western influence in these countries, according to researchers at The Blood Gold think tank.
This process directly and indirectly contributes to the increase in the number of refugees seeking asylum in Europe
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