P2 - The Wagner Group in Sudan

<p>Part 2: “It’s the worst kept secret in Sudan”.</p><p>In 2019, the Dossier Centre in London, shared some leaked internal documents from the private military company, the Wagner Group. The documents showed that Wagner had identified several countries they wanted to target for future operations. What was clear is that they often targeted countries with weakened autocratic government, seeking support against an internal threat.</p><p>In this episode, we navigate the illicit gold trade in Sudan and beyond by studying a complex corporate web. How these structures are used to bypass sanctions and whether the US designation of the Wagner Group as a "Transnational Criminal Organization" adds anything to the fight.</p><p><strong>Speaker(s):</strong></p><p>Julia Stanyard, senior analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and author of the paper ‘The Grey Zone: Russia’s military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa’.</p><p>Thierry Vircoulon, Research associate at the French Institute for International Affairs in Paris, member of the GI Network of Experts and a lead author of ‘The Grey Zone: Russia’s military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa’.</p><p>Kholood Khair - the Founder and Director of Confluence Advisory, Khartoum.</p><p>Ken Opala, the Field Network Coordinator for East and Southern Africa, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.</p><p>Mohanad&nbsp;Hashim, freelance Sudanese journalist, currently working at the BBC.</p><p>Jason Blazakis, Professor and Director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.</p><p>Justin Lynch, researcher, and author of <em>Sudan’s Unfinished Democracy</em>.</p><p><strong>Additional Reading:</strong></p><p><a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/russia-in-africa/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">(GI Paper)The grey zone: Russia's military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa</a></p><p><a href="https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/