Russia offering African governments 'regime survival package' in exchange for resources, research says

Russia's military intelligence service is offering African governments a "regime survival package" that provides military and diplomatic support in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources, according to a new report.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world's oldest defense and security think tank, detailed how the rebranded Wagner Group in Africa is working to consolidate and expand Moscow's strategic relationships across the continent, through guarantees of regime security and geopolitical protection in exchange for lucrative mining concessions.

Russia's Defense Ministry was not available to comment on the report's findings when contacted by CNBC.

Wagner has for many years been a key component of the Kremlin's efforts to grow its influence in politically unstable countries across central Africa and the Sahel, including the Central African Republic, Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan.

However, since the death last summer of its former leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group's operations have been subsumed by Russia's overseas military intelligence unit, known as the GRU.

The report's authors Jack Watling, Oleksandr V Danylyuk and Nick Reynolds explained that the GRU chose to divide Wagner's activities in two.

The first, known as the Volunteer Corps, covered Wagner's former operations in Ukraine, with other private military contractors such as Redut providing the legal mechanism for Wagner fighters to sign up, before the companies signed contracts with the Russian Military of Defense, effectively bringing them under GRU control.

The second, the Expeditionary Corps, picks up the dismantled paramilitary group's activities overseas and uses a range of companies as fronts for fighters to sign up, but also