Former Wagner Group Employee Exposes Russian Propaganda Work in CAR

In February 2024, 29-year-old journalist Ephrem Yalike was detained at the airport of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). He tried to leave the country with his family, but at the gate he was taken off the flight and brought in for interrogation. 

“You think it’s us you’ll be dealing with, but it’s the Russians who will handle you,” the police commissioner told him. After that, Yalike realized: to save his life, he had to leave the country at all costs. 

“I understood where the order came from,” Yalike says. He had been working for Russian propaganda in CAR for several years, spreading disinformation to the media. Eventually he decided to stop cooperating with the Russians and publicize what he was doing. But it was dangerous to make it happen while in the CAR. In July 2018, Russian journalists Orkhan Dzhemal, Alexander Rastorguev and Kirill Radchenko were killed in CAR just for trying to find out details about the activities of Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group. 

Yalike then decided to flee the country. After failing at the airport, he still managed to escape from the CAR a few days later by canoeing to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eventually, he ended up in France, where he shared with journalists secrets about the work of the once Prigozhin structures in the CAR. 

Led by the French consortium of journalists Forbidden Stories*, IStories and the world’s leading publications Le Monde, Paper Trail Media, Der Spiegel, Der Standard, Radio France, Dossier Center, The Continent and Actualité.cd verified Yalike’s story about the Russians working on large-scale disinformation campaigns in Africa. Here are the main points from the international investigation The Propaganda Machine. 

Who is “Misha”

In November 2019, Ephrem Yalike met a young man who was known to him on Facebook as “Misha” at Grand Café, a Bangui patisserie popular with expatriates. Misha knew only a few words of French and, with the help of a translating app, made a very tempting offer to Yalike: to publish articles praising the CAR army and Russian partners for 30,000 African francs (45 euros) each. Even for three articles a month, Yalike could earn more than the monthly salary of a journalist in the CAR. He accepted the job. 

Journalists of the project The Propaganda Machine managed to verify the identity of “Misha” thanks to the fact that Yalike took his photos with him. 

The photo shows 38-year-old Mikhail Prudnikov from the Tambov Oblast. Prudnikov is a former member of the pro-Putin youth movement Nashi, and in 2010 he ran in the Tambov City Duma elections, but failed. He was a member of the Russian Public Chamber’s commission on supporting youth initiatives — information about a seminar he organized in 2016 on how to communicate Russia’s position abroad using “soft power” is available online. 

A few years later, Prudnikov was already doing this in practice — he got into Yevgeny Prirozhin’s structures. 

As another member of The Propaganda Machine project, the Dossier Center, discovered, in 2019 Prudnikov’s name appeared in a document of Prigozhin’s structures under the title “staff schedule of the Sudan Political Science Project (main staff)” as one of those responsible for the district. In 2021, Prudnikov held the position of “chief media manager.” At that time, he was already working in the Central African Republic.

How Prudnikov and his team worked in CAR

Prudnikov worked for the Africa Politology organization until at least 2022. The organization is under sanctions in the U.S. for “develops strategies and mechanisms to induce Western countries to withdraw their presence in Africa,” engaging in “undermining Western influence, discrediting the UN, and carrying out lawsuits against Western press outlets.” 

Another former Nashi activist, Sergei Mashkevich, headed Africa Politology. He occupied a rather high place in the hierarchy of Prigozhin’s structures and even used his personal business jet, the Dossier Center notes. Mashkevich, according to sources and documents available to the Dossier Center, headed Prigozhin’s African back office until at least 2022. 

Prudnikov and Mashkevich actively used local media and journalists to spread misinformation. Ephrem Yalike, who was “recruited” by Prudnikov in the patisserie, worked for them from 2019 to 2022. On the hard drive he was able to take with him to France there are dozens of articles he wrote, as well as correspondence with his Russian handlers. 

According to Yalike, his workday began with analyzing “everything that was said about the Russians, about the authorities, both positive and negative.” Then he had to “write an article refuting the truthfulness of everything that opponents or critics said.” 

These articles were then sent to various newspapers in Bangui, which would publish them in exchange for payment After an article was published, each journalist contacted by Yalike received 10,000 francs (15 euros). Yalike also covered organized actions in the country organized by Africa Politology. 

For example, he said that locals received 2,000 African francs (3 euros) each for participating in protests against the UN mission in CAR. Another of Yalike’s tasks was to supply radio stations with experts supporting the regime and its Russian allies. “When the Russians are behind certain decrees, they wanted to let people know by any means necessary that the broader population was for it,” Yalike said. 

At the peak of his collaboration with Africa Politology, Yalike earned 500,000 francs (766 euros) a month. He received the money in cash at Wagner Group’s Camp de Roux base in Bangui; he signed no labor contract, and all communication with Prudnikov and other curators was mostly limited to the Telegram messenger app.

How the cooperation with the Prirozhin’s structures turned out

At the end of February 2022, Yalike was tasked to travel with Mikhail Prudnikov to the town of Bouar in western CAR. 

In Bouar, Yalike was to interview local residents who had allegedly suffered from rebel groups. According to the official version, the rebels tried to steal cattle from local herders, a firefight ensued, and the herders were severely injured. The Wagner members, in turn, assisted them and transported them to the hospital. “I could see in the faces of the two guys on the bed that they were very uncomfortable,” Yalike said. “like they were being forced to do something… their body language…” Yalike trailed off. “Personally, I completely lost confidence in the work I was doing.”

When Yalike returned to Bangui, he was overcome with doubt and decided to meet with Prudnikov and ask him directly about what had happened. “He admitted that the Russians had attacked the herders,” Yalike says. Nevertheless, Yalike wrote an article in which he repeated the version he had been told and noted the kindness of the Wagner Group members who took care of the two injured. 

After a competing newspaper published an article a month later with a real description of the events, Prudnikov and his team began to panic in search of the mole. Given that he had been at the crime scene and met with the victims, Yalike was at the top of their list of suspects. Armed, Prudnikov and his interpreter picked up Yalike from his home and brought him to a forest 26 kilometers from Bangui. 

In the forest, Prudnikov threatened to kill Yalike if he did not tell the truth. Together with an interpreter, they checked the journalist’s cell phone and called all his contacts with questions. As the two Russians found nothing compromising, they drove off, leaving Yalike alone on the side of the road. That is when he finally realized who he was working for and that he needed to escape as soon as possible.

Yalike was able to flee the country with the help of the Platform to Protect Whistleblowers in Africa (PPLAAF). He was soon reunited with his family. Mikhail Prudnikov is still working in CAR. He read the IStories journalist’s message on Telegram, but did not respond to questions. After the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023, the African Initiative news agency became in charge of disinformation projects in Africa instead of Africa Politology. Former employees of Yevgeny Prigozhin were transferred to work there. 

*The French consortium Forbidden Stories is an international network of journalists who continue the work of murdered or threatened colleagues from around the world.