Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin may be at a summit in St Petersburg – where Vladimir Putin is also in attendance, images posted online and in Russian media suggest.
The whereabouts of Prigozhin have been subject to much speculation since his failed mutiny and apparent exile to Belarus in June.
There were claims last week he has had tea with Mr Putin and a video was shared appearing to show him with his forces in Belarus.
Now pictures have emerged that appear to show Prigozhin at a hotel being used for the Russia-Africa Summit event in the Russian city.
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One image was posted to a Facebook page that appears to be for Dimitri Sytyi, a reported associate of the Wagner Group that has been based in the Central African Republic.
Sky News has verified that the image was taken in the Trezzini Palace Hotel in St Petersburg.
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Another image has been posted within Wagner-supporting channels. These posts also claim that he is in St Petersburg and meeting African leaders.
Sky News is working to identify the men pictured with Prigozhin.
Prigozhin – whose Wagner forces have been a key asset to Russia’s successes on the frontline in Ukraine, including in the battle for Bakhmut – has repeatedly accused General Valery Gerasimov and Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu of botching the war.
During the aborted mutiny that saw his mercenary troops march on Moscow last month, Prigozhin described it not as a military coup but a “march for justice”.
The fact he continues to be at liberty has raised questions about the strength of Mr Putin’s position and whether a shadowy struggle for power has been playing out behind the walls of the Kremlin.
Also on Thursday, reports have emerged that Ukrainian forces have broken through Russian defences in southern Ukraine in what could be a significant moment in the war.
Moscow correspondent
You would have thought Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin would be persona non grata in Russia, having set his men on Moscow last month but, it appears, he is still most definitely not.
A photo apparently published to the Facebook account of one of Wagner’s top men in the Central African Republic, Dimitri Sytyi, appears to show Prigozhin shaking hands with a smiling CAR official at the Trezzini Palace hotel in St Petersburg, one of the hotels being used for the Russia-Africa summit.
It is possible the photo was taken some other time, but it would also make sense for Prigozhin, out of his army fatigues, to be meeting African officials when they’re in Russia seeing as Wagner’s African activities are still very much on track.
A case in point – Wagner is providing the security around this weekend’s referendum in the CAR which will see President Faustin-Archange Touadera rewrite the constitution so he can extend his time in power.
He’ll zero the number of terms he can run for president, just like Vladimir Putin did in 2020.
The CAR is heavily reliant on Wagner’s support, an example of “state capture”, MPs from the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee said this week.
And as Vladimir Putin promises free grain to countries which need it most, it is Prigozhin who does the Kremlin’s dirty work on the African continent, steadily extending Russia’s influence and exerting just the kind of pseudo-colonial control Mr Putin professes to be saving Africa from.
