The terrace of the Hotel Sonia offers a great view over Ouagadougou airport’s runways. In late May, gone were the Western guests who used to frequent the new establishment in the center of the Burkinabe capital before Captain Ibrahim Traoré took power on September 30, 2022.
Instead, they have been replaced by some 30 white men in fatigues, face masks and sunglasses. These paramilitary soldiers who let themselves be filmed belong to the Bear Brigade, a Russian private military company – a type of company officially forbidden in the country – under the Russian Ministry of Defense’s supervision.
Initially created in March 2023 in Crimea, the Bear Brigade is comprised of volunteer Russian soldiers. Grouped into different units, they serve alongside the regular army in the war in Ukraine and the Donbas. In images geotagged by Le Monde, some of its fighters can be seen training at the Perevalne camp in occupied Crimea, which was visited by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov on April 5, 2023.
In a message accompanied by photographs on its Telegram channel, the Bear Brigade claimed that Yevkurov had promised it “help and assistance.” Less than two months later, on May 30, 2023, it officially became the “81st specialized volunteer brigade.”
The shadow of Russian military intelligence
According to several analysts, it was around that time that the Bear Brigade grew closer to Redut, another private military company headed by Konstantin Mirzayants. Supervised by unit 35555 of the GRU Russian military intelligence, Redut is a semi-institutional framework used to incorporate groups of volunteer fighters like those of the Bear Brigade.
Read more Subscribers only How Russian intelligence services have taken over Wagner’s operations in Africa
“‘Bears’ is not a PMC, not even a quasi-PMC in the sense that Wagner was. It is another instance of a semi-formalized structure that is controlled by [the Ministry of Defense], leveraged for advantage in recruitment, flexibility, and ability to draw resources from non-MoD sources,” explained Jack Margolin, a US specialist in Russian non-state armed groups. Back in 2014, the same unit 35555 supplied the first elements of the Wagner Group in occupied Donbas with arms and ammunition.
Its contacts with Russian military intelligence do not stop there. In a video compilation posted on Telegram on May 31, Bear Brigade commander Viktor Yermolaev could be seen shaking hands with Vladimir Alekseyev, GRU’s deputy director, at a medal ceremony.
Yet, the leaders of the Bear Brigade deny any ties to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Le Monde was able to speak to Yermolaev via encrypted messaging. A former biker with a notorious reputation in Russia, the airborne troop veteran served in Ukraine, Chechnya and Syria before taking command of this volunteer brigade.
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Source link : https://www.lemonde.fr/en/le-monde-africa/article/2024/07/14/the-bear-brigade-the-kremlin-s-new-paramilitary-outfit-in-africa_6684180_124.html
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Publish date : 2024-07-14 15:00:16
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