If he requests ammunition and weapons in Moscow, he buys a protective helmet in Beijing. This will be the strategy implemented by Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner group operating on the ground in Ukraine and in various African countries. According to the Financial Times, a company affiliated with mercenaries purchased tens of thousands of hard hats from China last year.
Gold and weapons: Beijing and Moscow share Africa
The British newspaper reported that several groups that Yevgeny Prigozhin used to support his operations in Africa continued to freely export and import in international markets despite Western sanctions. Broker Expert, a Wagner-based company based in Russia that purchased 20,000 helmets from a small Chinese company called Hangzhou Shinerain last November and December, was the focus of the journalistic investigation. Purchase completed at affordable prices. Just as the mercenary leader was recruiting tens of thousands of men to be sent to the front lines in Ukraine, Prigozhin received more than $2 million worth of helmets.
Hangzhou Shinerain, the Chinese supplier of Broker Expert, is located in eastern Zhejiang province and has between five and 15 employees, according to the e-commerce portal on Alibaba. The company normally sells women’s clothing, which means that the transportation of hard hats to Russia does not fit into the normal model of industrial activity. The Chinese group said it was unaware of Prigozhin or Wagner Group or any links between Broker Expert and the mercenary group.
The Financial Times also found that Russian Broker Expert continues to ship goods to Wagner Group in Africa via the port of Douala in Cameroon. The African country, which has been in fierce conflict since 2016, signed a secret agreement last year to entrust the defense of its territory to Moscow. In fact, it is not the first agreement Cameroon has signed with Russia. The first dates back to 2015 and involved the supply of weapons and equipment to the Cameroonian armed forces to support the fight against Boko Haram. Behind both deals lurks the ghost of the Wagner company, made up of Russian mercenaries.
The shipment of helmets from China demonstrates how successfully trade triangulations have evaded Western sanctions to stifle the mercenary group’s ability to finance itself with missions in Africa, where it has taken control of natural resources.
Wagner mercenaries allegedly killed nine Chinese in a gold mine
According to Russian customs declarations, Broker Expert shipped power generators, welding electrodes and flame retardant insulation materials to a Prigozhin-controlled logging company in the Central African Republic last August. The United States said in January that Wagner fighters in the Central African Republic had committed crimes such as “mass extrajudicial killings, rape, arbitrary detention, torture and displacement of civilians.”
Wagner reportedly sought arms supplies from China earlier this year. But that request would have resulted in deaf ears, according to a US intelligence report. US broadcaster CNN reported in January that Western intelligence officials were concerned that Chinese companies were supplying Russia with non-lethal military equipment such as body armor and helmets. However, it was unclear then, as now, whether the Chinese government was aware of the companies’ sales. Indeed, private Chinese companies do not have to comply with Western sanctions, and imports from China have increased over the past year as Russian companies seek alternatives to Western suppliers.
Source: Today IT

Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.