Wagner fractures in Syria, Libya amid conflict with Russia's Defense Ministry
A month after Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin's death in a plane crash, Russian authorities are attempting to assert control over the parallel military structure.
"Prigozhin is alive." The phrase remains among the most popular queries in Russia's Yandex search engine a month after the crash of the Embraer Legacy jet on Aug. 23 that killed Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Russian media outlets are also speculating about why nothing much is happening with Prigozhin's foreign and Russian assets so far. Moreover, thousands of Wagner’s mercenaries, despite the legislative and unofficial demands of the Russian Ministry of Defense to move under the control of the agency, continue to conduct combat operations abroad.
Trouble in Mali and the Central African Republic
Some doubt his demise because Wagner continues to survive. Its mercenaries are most active in Mali, the place where Prigozhin recorded his last address on the eve of the plane crash. Wagner's affiliated Telegram channels are quite full of new photos of Wagner fighters "on a raid," "in convoys" or "landing from a helicopter."
