Yevgeny Prigozhin, the former head of Wagner, visited la Maison Russe, or the Russian House. Cultural facility close to the Russian embassy in the city last month. On his last trip to the Central African Republic (CAR) where he took selfies with residents and his lieutenants.

The institute, with its wide range of activities, is a clear illustration of how the mercenary organization has replaced the Russian state in the nation and a representation of the difficulties Vladimir Putin would face in regaining control.

Russia has been involved in a high-stakes race to consolidate Prigozhin’s empire on the African continent since his failed coup attempt in June and subsequent death in a plane crash outside of Moscow two months later. This empire consists of thousands of fighters, a vast array of business holdings, and numerous soft power initiatives like this one.

Wagner

What comes next for the group is unknown as the Kremlin tries to contain Wagner’s extensive business network. However, Bangui is starting to show glimpses of what the future might hold for the CAR, one of the organization’s earliest client states and its laboratory on the continent. Here, it appears that Russia is maintaining its influence while consolidating Wagner’s operations. It appears that Moscow wants to convey the message that everything will continue as normal.

The dominance of Russia is evident everywhere. Locals consume Wa-Na-Wa vodka and Africa Ti L’Or beer in roadside bars owned by a company connected to Wagner. Fighter jets donated by Russia are currently flying missions overhead.

A Russian tricolor flag flutters above the cultural center. A carousel with an onion dome on top swings in the courtyard outside.

“The Maison Russe is the nerve center of all of Wagner’s activities in the Central African Republic,” Nathalia Dukhan, a senior investigator at The Sentry, a US NGO that has tracked Wagner around the nation, stated.

Read More: The days of wearing Shrek Crocs are over

Woman According to authorities, six persons have been detained in connection with the death of a South Korean woman. Who was malnourished and beaten in Georgia. The suspects identified themselves as members of a religious organization known as the “Soldiers of Christ.”

According to a news release from the Gwinnett County Police Department. The victim was a woman in her 20s or 30s who weighed about 70 pounds. When she was found Tuesday night in the trunk of a car parked outside of the well-known South Korean. Spa Jeju Sauna in Duluth, about 25 miles north of Atlanta.

South Korean Woman

Asians make up about a quarter of the population of Duluth, according to the US Census Bureau.

The woman may have suffered from malnourishment, according to the medical examiner’s office, but the precise cause of death is yet unknown, according to the police.
According to the department, the woman is suspected of having endured weeks of malnutrition and beatings. According to the agency, detectives think the woman relocated from South Korea to the United States during the summer of this year “in order to join a religious organization.”

After one of the suspects, 26-year-old Eric Hyun, parked his car in a parking lot and was picked up by a family member, police said they discovered the woman in the trunk of a vehicle.

Later, Hyun instructed a member of his family to get something from the woman’s holding area in his car. According to the agency, the family member discovered her dead in the trunk and phoned 911.

Authorities allegedly discovered the woman’s body during a search of a house connected to the car. Police did not disclose exactly when the woman most likely passed away, only that the “Soldiers of Christ” beat and confined the victim inside the house until she passed away.

The suspects, in addition to Hyun, were named by the police as Gawom Lee (age 26), Joonho Lee (age 26), Hyunji Lee (age 25), and Juoonhyum Lee (age 22). Police reported that one of the people detained is a 15-year-old.

Read More: Google settles the location tracking complaint for $93 million

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s close relationship is seen as a warning to their rivals, analysts say. Calling each other “comrade”, they toasted after Putin took Kim on a tour of Russia’s most modern space launch facility and held talks with the defense minister, Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
Both countries have an interest in showing that, despite their geopolitical isolation, they have partners they can talk to. And both are seeking to weaken US-led sanctions and pressure campaigns, against Russia over the war in Ukraine and against North Korea for its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Putin and Kim would both benefit from transactional bargaining

but they would also gain geopolitically by giving the impression that the two nuclear-armed states are working together militarily and sending a warning about the potential consequences for America and its partners who support Ukraine ,” said Duyeon Kim, of the Center for a New American Security.
“Kim also signaled to Washington, Seoul and Tokyo that Russia supports him.”
Both Russia and North Korea have denied US accusations that they plan to provide each other with weapons, but both leaders have pledged to deepen defense cooperation, and Putin has If they just wanted a secret arms deal, the two leaders wouldn’t need to meet in person, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.Korea,” he said.

The fact that North Korea openly defies UN Security Council resolutions shows key international institutions have been paralyze, said Andrei Lankov, a Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul.
The summit is an indicator that Security Council resolutions on North Korea have failed, as have all efforts to stop North Korea or punish the country for having a nuclear program, he said ignore it,” Lankov said.

Lankov also said that Russia would likely not provide North Korea with advanced technology that could eventually spiral out of control.

But the “excessive” gesture in defense cooperation allowed them to send a strong message to South Korea not to directly provide military aid to Ukraine, he said.

Despite pressure from Kyiv and Washington, South Korea provided only non-lethal aid to Ukraine, sold large quantities of arms to neighboring Poland, and provided artillery shells to the United States to replenish dwindling arms reserves, while insisting that it had no plans provide lethal assistance. .

If Russia, North Korea, and China feel threatened, it makes sense that they would seek to support each other through partnerships or even alliances against the United States. But each country has a limited history of making such ties successful, said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin can trust each other enough to form an alliance together in the long term,” he said.

Read More : United States Army Soldiers and TNI School Restoration in Situbondo