Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies lay before them. Hidden just below were wooden crates of Sudan’s most precious resource. Gold. About a ton of it.
That February incident — reported by multiple Sudanese official sources to CNN — is one of at least 16 known Russian gold smuggling flights from Sudan, Africa’s third-largest producer of the precious metal, over the past year and a half.
Multiple interviews with high-level Sudanese and American officials and a trove of documents reviewed by CNN paint a picture of an elaborate Russian plan to loot Sudan’s wealth in an effort to embolden Russia against increasingly tough Western sanctions and prop up its war effort. Moscow in Ukraine.
Evidence also shows that Russia has colluded with Sudan’s beleaguered military leadership, allowing billions of dollars in gold to bypass the Sudanese state and deprive the poverty-stricken country of hundreds of millions in government revenue.
In return, Russia has provided strong political and military support to Sudan’s increasingly unpopular military leadership as it violently destroys the country’s pro-democracy movement.
Former and current US officials told CNN that Russia actively supported Sudan’s 2021 military coup that overthrew a transitional civilian government, dealing a devastating blow to Sudan’s pro-democracy movement that ousted President Omar al-Bashir two years ago. earlier.
“We’ve known for a long time that Russia is exploiting Sudan’s natural resources,” a former US official familiar with the matter told CNN. “To maintain access to these resources Russia encouraged the military coup.”
“As the rest of the world shut down [Russia]they have a lot to gain from this relationship with the Sudanese generals and from helping the generals stay in power,” the former official added. “This ‘assistance’ ranges from training and intelligence support to sharing in Sudan’s stolen gold.”
At the center of this rivalry between Moscow and Sudan’s military junta is Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and a key ally of President Vladimir Putin.
The heavily sanctioned 61-year-old controls a shadowy network of companies that includes Wagner, a paramilitary group linked to alleged torture, mass killings and looting in several war-torn countries, including Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR). Prigozhin denies connections with Wagner.
In Sudan, Prigozhin’s main vehicle is a US-sanctioned company called Meroe Gold — a subsidiary of Prigozhin’s M-invest — which mines gold while providing arms and training to its military and paramilitaries country, according to invoices seen by CNN.
“Through Meroe Gold, or other companies linked to Prigozhin employees, he has developed a strategy to plunder the financial resources of the African countries where he intervenes, in return for his support to the governments,” said Denis Korotkov, researcher at the Dossier Center based in London, which monitors the criminal activity of various people connected to the Kremlin. The center was started by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, who now lives in exile in London.
CNN, in conjunction with the Dossier Center, can also reveal that at least one high-level Wagner operative — Alexander Sergeyevich Kuznetsov — has overseen operations at key Sudanese gold mining, processing and transit sites in recent years.
Kuznetsov — also known by his nicknames “Ratibor” and “Radimir” — is a convicted kidnapper who fought in neighboring Libya and commanded Wagner’s first assault and reconnaissance company in 2014. He is a four-time recipient of the Order of Courage Russia prize and was photographed alongside Putin and Dmitry Utkin — Wagner’s founder — in 2017. The European Union imposed sanctions on Kuznetsov in 2021.
The growing bond between Sudan’s military rulers and Moscow has created a complex gold smuggling network. According to Sudanese official sources, as well as flight data reviewed by CNN in collaboration with the Gerjon flight tracker Twitter account, at least 16 of the flights intercepted by Sudanese officials last year were by military aircraft coming to and from the port of Syria Latakia. where Russia has a large airbase.
Gold shipments also follow an overland route to KAR, where Wagner has supported a repressive regime and is said to have applied some of his harshest tactics to the country’s population, according to multiple Sudanese official sources and the Dossier Center.
CNN reached out to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Defense Ministry and the parent organization of the conglomerate run by Prigozhin for comment. No one has responded.
Responding to the findings of the CNN investigation, a US State Department spokesperson said: “We are closely monitoring this matter, including the reported activities of Meroe Gold, the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group and other sanctioned actors in Sudan, region and throughout the region. the gold trade.
“We support the Sudanese people in their pursuit of a democratic and prosperous Sudan that respects human rights,” the spokesman added. “We will continue to make our concerns clear to Sudanese military officials about the malign impact of Wagner, Meroe Gold and other actors.”
Retreating into the shadows
Russia’s meddling in Sudanese gold began in earnest in 2014 after its invasion of Crimea triggered a series of Western sanctions. Gold shipments proved an effective way to accumulate and transfer wealth, bolstering Russia’s coffers while bypassing international financial monitoring systems.
Timeline of Russian involvement in Sudan
2014
Crimea
Russia invades Ukraine’s Crimea, triggering a series of Western sanctions. Moscow is beginning to look to gold as it looks for ways to transfer wealth without financial tracking.
2017
Meroe Gold
Sudan’s long-time president, Omar al-Bashir, and Russian president Vladimir Putin meet. Bashir proposes Sudan as “Moscow’s key to Africa”. The Russian-Sudanese company Meroe Gold was founded.
2019
Bashir is overthrown by the Sudanese pro-democracy movement. Russia is shifting gears and supporting new warlords with training and weapons.
2020
US Treasury Sanctions Meroe Gold. He begins the process of establishing a Sudanese company, al-Solag.
2021
Anti-Corruption Commission
An anti-corruption commission, set up after Sudan’s 2019 revolution, is exposing Russia’s smuggling operation in collusion with members of the Sudanese military. The investigation closes shortly before the military coup in October 2021, after which the junta immediately disbands the commission.
2022
Al Solag
The CNN report finds that smuggling operations continue under Meroe Gold’s Al-Solag company.
Source: CNN report, BBC, Hansard, British Parliament
“The downside of gold is that it is physical and much more onerous to use than international wire transfers, but the flip side is that it is much more difficult if not impossible to freeze or seize,” said Daniel McDowell, a sanctions expert. and Associate Professor of Political Science. at Syracuse University.
The hub of Russia’s gold mining operation is deep in the desert of northeastern Sudan, a bleached landscape filled with gaping chasms where miners toil in scorching heat, with only tents made of tarpaulin scraps and sandbags providing respite.
Men in an artisanal mine in the gold country of Sudan. Realization: Alex Platt, CNN
A worker toils in a mine about 60 miles south of Atbara, in northeastern Sudan. Realization: Alex Platt, CNN
An artisanal mine just off the highway between Atbara and Port Sudan. Miners work in scorching heat, with little protection from the elements. Realization: Alex Platt, CNN
Miners from these remote artisanal mines converge on al-Ibaidiya — known as the “golden city” — every morning, carrying sacks of gold on donkey-drawn carts along the city’s unpaved streets. The bidders for their goods, many of them say, are almost always traders dispatched from a nearby processing plant, known locally as “the Russian company.”
It’s a process of selling off freeholds that sources tell CNN are the nerve center of Russian gold mining. About 85 percent of Sudan’s gold is sold this way, according to official statistics seen by CNN. Trading is mostly off-the-book, and Russia dominates this market, according to multiple sources, including mining whistleblowers and security sources.
For at least a decade, Russia has hidden its Sudanese gold transactions from official records. Sudan’s official Foreign Trade statistics since 2011 have consistently recorded Russia’s total gold exports from the country at zero, despite ample evidence of Moscow’s extensive dealings in this sector.
Because Russia has benefited from significant government blind spots, it is difficult to ascertain the exact amount of gold it has removed from Sudan. But at least seven sources with knowledge of the facts accuse Russia of driving the lion’s share of gold smuggling operations in Sudan — where most of Sudan’s gold has ended up in recent years, according to official statistics.
A whistleblower inside Sudan’s Central Bank showed CNN a photo of a spreadsheet showing 32.7 tons were missing in 2021. At current prices, that’s $1.9 billion in lost gold, at $60 million the tone.
However, many former and current officials say the amount of missing gold is even greater, arguing that the Sudanese government is greatly undervaluing gold…
